Is Reality TV the End of Civilization?

June 14 -- In the quest for ratings, how far will game show contestants, and the major U.S. TV networks, go?

This week, NBC introduced Fear Factor, a show whose premiere had contestants in a pit while 400 live rats were poured on them, dragged down a muddy street behind two horses, and stepping over a wet car suspended high above a watery canyon.

Critics immediately took the show to task. "Fear Factor made me physically ill," wrote Washington Post critic Tom Shales. "It's hard to think of anything as irresponsible and reckless as the rat pit on Fear Factor."

The show is the latest, and perhaps most extreme, U.S. TV network show placing "real people" — that is, non-actors — in stressful, perilous, intrusive and potentially embarrassing situations.

The shows have come a long way since the 1950s, when reality TV meant contestants competing to go on a blind date with a model (accompanied by the host of the TV show and the winner's mother).

In 2001, reality TV is Fox's Temptation Island, where otherwise monogamous couples are tempted to stray.

It's CBS' Big Brother, in which strangers live in a house equipped with scores of cameras monitoring their every move.

It's ABC's The Mole, in which people are assigned tasks to earn cash and must find the traitor among them.

And it's CBS' Survivor, with the challenge and pressure of, for example, either downing a mouthful of chewy larvae or forgoing a potential $1 million grand prize.

Lamenting a Decline in Quality

Reality TV is popular: Some 11 million people tuned in to Fear Factor, making it the highest rated show of its time slot.

But critics say that's no excuse. Fear Factor is a "show that practically begs critics to condemn it for all kinds of cultural ills," wrote Mathew Gilbert of the Boston Globe.

It's "demeaning toward human beings," wrote Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel critic Tom Jicha.

Shales wrote that the trend is motivated by a desperation among the networks to meet the devolving tastes of viewers: