ere’s the premise. Four couples, reported to be “unmarried but seriously committed.” An island paradise. Twenty-six singles. Two weeks. Temptation, seduction, and sin. Sound like something you’d watch?

The Fox television network in the United States thinks so. Temptation Island is Fox’s latest offering, a six-episode reality series beginning January 10 (and running through mid-February) that focuses on four couples who are considering marriage. They travel by cruise ship to Belize, where they will each be matched up with several eligible singles, obviously putting their “committed” relationships on the line. Through a series of challenges on the island, the participants get the chance to prove that they’ve chosen the right lifemate.

At this point you’re probably wondering why I am yet again writing about reality TV (see “Rudyesque,” September 28). But this time I haven’t come to try to find a nugget of goodness in an indecent show or even give the statistics of how many viewed the show as a way of waking us up to mission. I’ve come to say, simply, don’t watch it.

The mere description of the series is enough to make me steer clear of it. In addition, many in the secular world are deriding the show through commentary and articles. USA Today columnist Whitney Matheson, for example, writes that “when Temptation Island premieres tonight, I don’t know whether to tune in or eat my arm.”¹ Another writer for USA Today declares that it’s a “remarkably tacky show, even for a genre where tackiness is an essential element. . . . No money is involved and no prize will be rewarded. . . . Instead, the satisfaction comes in knowing you’ve trashed your own or someone else’s relationship for a national audience.”² Morning show radio hosts at Mix 107.3, a Top-40 Washington, D.C., station, described the show as ludicrous, disgusting, and disturbing—nationally, corporately sponsored prostitution. And national groups—including some religious coalitions—are vowing to protest by lobbying sponsors of the series. 

The absolute hedonism of this new show got me thinking about it and other entertainments that are prevalent in our society, such as soap operas, horror novels, comic books, amoral sitcoms, sexually-charged popular music, and violent movies. I remembered a quote from Ellen G. White: “The desire for excitement and pleasing entertainment is a temptation and a snare to God’s people. . . . Satan is constantly preparing inducements to attract minds from the solemn work of preparation for scenes just in the future. Through the agency of worldlings he keeps up a continual excitement to induce the unwary to join in worldly pleasures. There are shows, lectures, and an endless variety of entertainments that are calculated to lead to a love of the world; and through this union with the world faith is weakened” (Messages to Young People, p. 373).

Could it be that this new offering is a deadly gift from Satan, wrapped in slick “sex sells” packaging, that will contaminate all who open it? As with most of what is available to us in the world, the answer is a deafening “Yes!”—these diversions that play games with our emotions will taint, and may cause us eternal loss.

We will not better ourselves by watching such presentations. They will draw us away from God and our mission to bring others to the feet of Jesus. What lasting good can come from watching people lie, cheat, seduce, and connive? What will I truly learn from shows such as Survivor and Temptation Island?

As with most temptations, the biggest problem is not actually the show itself but rather the attention it garners. Until we are ensconced in our heavenly Father’s arms, temptations will always be around. But we don’t have to partake. And while demonstrating against destructive, degenerate distractions such as Temptation Island can serve as a warning to our earthly brothers and sisters, the D.C. radio show gave the most adroit advice: “[The] best way to protest is don’t watch it.”

Washington Post staff writer Tom Shales echoes this sentiment: “No one on the premiere . . . even suggests that when the series concludes any individual or couple will be pronounced the winner. From the looks of things, however, there will be millions and millions of winners—all those with enough good sense and self-respect to resist Temptation Island.”³

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¹ Whitney Matheson, “Tempted by the Sleaze of a Network,” USA Today, Jan. 10, 2001.
² Robert Bianco, “This Temptation We Could Do Without,” USA Today, Jan. 10, 2001.
³ Tom Shales, “Temptation: Get Thee Hence, Fox,” Washington Post, Jan. 9, 2001, online edition, TV Previews.

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Kimberly Luste Maran is an assistant editor of the Adventist Review.