LOS ANGELES — Call it “Lust-See TV.”

Fox's new “reality” show, “Temptation Island,” features four unmarried couples, marooned on an island with 13 tempters and temptresses who try to entice them to stray. The couples “test their commitment”; at the end of the show, each man and woman will announce whether they want to stay with their previous mate.

On the first episode, one boyfriend compared the show to the Pepsi Challenge (in which tasters chose their favorite cola), “only the ladies are the soft drinks.” And another has second thoughts about the show, after he watches a videotape of his girlfriend kissing another man.

Gary Fernando, a sophomore at Yale University, falls in the show's target audience. Fernando, who is Catholic, watched the show with friends, but, he says, “I did not particularly enjoy the show. My friend and I were watching and just kept saying, ‘This is going to get canceled in about three weeks.’”

Fernando said, “The girls were really acting in a sort of ‘Come here and talk to me because of my body’ manner. The guys were doing the same to the women. I think they are exploiting people for their desires, their looks, and their behavior. I do not know if this is necessarily the best course of action to captivate an audience.”

But viewers seem to disagree. The first episode of “Temptation Island” was watched by 16.1 million people, which, according to Fox, is about a million more than watched “Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?”

Fox defended itself from charges that it was glorifying extramarital sex and pandering to viewers' delight in other people's pain. But when Fox executive Sandy Grushow told reporters the show was “not about sex,” many reviewers were unconvinced.

A spokesman for the Sky One satellite channel, which is carrying the show in Britain, told the London Daily Telegraph that the show “sounds a lot tackier than it is. It's actually compelling entertainment with a good story line that unfolds.”

‘Really’ Bad

Fox has previously come under fire for such “reality” shows as “Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire?”, which ended in the dissolution of its quickie marriage, and “I Want a Divorce,” in which separating couples compete for their household property.

There are some limits on Temptation Island. Couples can't be married, must pass a variety of physical and psychological tests (including tests for sexually transmitted diseases), and can't have children together. In fact, one upcoming episode shows a couple being kicked off the island when they reveal that they falsely denied having a child.

Fox spokesman Scott Grogan refused to comment for this article.

And Michael Medved, film critic and frequent commentator on media morality, thought that some of the show's critics were missing a crucial point.

Medved wrote in USA Today, “By definition, the couples who participate in ‘Temptation Island’ already are involved in a sexual relationship outside of marriage. If the show leads them to participate in an additional sexual relationship outside of marriage, or even a substitute relationship, the process may not prove honorable or uplifting, but why is it especially ‘horrible’ or ‘debaucherous?’”

One Fox spokesman told the Register that although he wasn't sure if all the couples had been sexually active before the show, “You would assume so.”

Medved contrasted the romantic breakups featured on Fox to divorces, and claimed that most critics of the show “fail to emphasize the crucial distinction between holy matrimony and nonmarital romantic relationships — and thereby highlight our cultural confusion more clearly than any example of trash TV.”

Although he criticized the show's taste and its appeal to “sadistic instincts,” he warned that “over-reaction” could lead to critics' “inadvertently slighting the significance of marriage.”

But Maggie Gallagher, coauthor of The Case for Marriage: Why Married People Are Happier, Healthier, and Better Off Financially, said the show is “attempting to turn actual betrayal and suffering into a form of entertainment. ‘Temptation Island’ is based on the idea that we are all so jaded that fictional depictions of illicit sex and betrayal no longer titillate us. What we want for our jollies is to see real people actually suffer from jealousy, loss of love, pain and betrayal. How sick is that?”

She wasn't impressed by the show's refusal to “tempt” husbands and wives. “Don't worry, next year they'll use married couples,” she said. “It's the nature of ‘pushing the envelope’ that you always have to go further in order to shock and titillate.”

Gallagher also questioned “what kind of person in love” would ever agree to go on the show. She challenged the show's claim that placing oneself in temptation is a way to build trust: “Part of trusting is trying to put the other person first, to avoid temptations. People who court it for national celebrity are not acting out of love.”

She pointed out that people seeking sexual fulfillment are unlikely to find it outside of marriage, noting that “married people have better sex, more often.” She attributed this to the greater care married couples show for one another, the greater incentives they have to please one another, and the greater trust they share.

Further episodes of “Temptation Island” will show whether the cast members come to agree.