Taiwan to get a taste of true temptation

Get ready for some illicit pleasures tonight.

Fox Television Network's controversial reality TV series Temptation Island, in which couples are separated and forced to spend two weeks with attractive specimens of the opposite sex on a Caribbean Island, will be aired on Star TV Chinese Channel (衛視中文台) tonight at 9pm.

The show's concept of documenting contestants' flirting and their eventual indiscretions with people other than their partners drew heavy flak in the US when it aired and has attracted concern from Taiwan's Government Information Office (GIO, 新聞局), which oversees local broadcasting.

The GIO called the channel to express its concern about any obscene shots on the show and almost forced a change in the show's time slot. "In the first episode, there are only a few kissing scenes," said a staff member at Star TV.

Meanwhile, the channel is also preparing a Taiwanese Temptation Island, which will take couples and a cohort of beautiful single men and women to a Southeast Asian island. The show, whose name and broadcasting date are yet to be determined, will be Taiwan's first reality TV show to explore or exhibit relationships and romances.

Fox's Temptation Island is designed to take four unmarried couples and put their relationships to what many would call the ultimate test -- giving each partner the temptation of 12 potential lovers for 14 sexually charged days. With a battery of cameras, some hidden, the two-week holiday ends up an exotic trip for some, a painful test and humiliation for others.

Michael C.S. Hsiang (香基韶), regional program director of Star TV Chinese Channel, is already looking to the creation of the Taiwanese version of the show.

"Nowadays Taiwanese society is very open and so are the minds of the younger generation. Temptation is everywhere," Hsiang said.

He said there was no dearth of people in Taiwan who would be willing to flaunt their bodies and test their faithfulness on TV and said the show's crew would scour places like Taipei's California Fitness Center for participants. Hsiang conceded, however, that there would be slightly adjusted rules in the Star TV Chinese Channel version of the show, but declined to elaborate on exactly which changes would be made.

The Temptation Island phenomenon has caught on elsewhere as well. In April, British Sky One and Channel 4 announced the two channels would co-produce a British version of the show and are considering locations like Belize, the Seychelles or the British Virgin Islands.

The Taiwanese show will be set on islands in either Malaysia or Indonesia and shooting will start in September.