‘What Friends Are For’ Gets New Meaning With ‘Busted’ : Television: Show, which features two Villa Park teens in debut, offers bucks and prizes for embarrassing buddies.

The value of mastering higher math, flossing regularly or putting the milk back into the fridge may escape them, but if teen-agers understand one thing deeply, it’s embarrassment. And at that age, you have dozens of flavors to choose from, ranging from the harmless wipeout in the junior-high hallway to the three-alarm meltdown of a friend who spills your deepest secrets.

Hollywood, in its wisdom, has latched onto the latter with “Busted,” a new game show that parlays two pals’ willingness to snitch on each other into a chance to win big bucks. Targeted to audiences ages 13 and up, “Busted” is the creation of FTS Productions, the folks who brought you “Studs” and “America’s Most Wanted,” and premieres tonight at 5:30 on Fox/KTTV 11.

A thousand bucks will buy a lot of tennis shoes, but it was something far sweeter that drew Villa Park’s Ryan Flohra, 15, to audition for the show.

“Definitely, it was the chance to embarrass my friend,” said Flohra, who appeared with 15-year-old buddy Shane Norquist, also from Villa Park. “I got him good.”

“Busted,” however, is definitely tamer than “Studs.” On Flohra and Norquist’s episode, the boys traded barbs about complexions, braces and first crushes, while their opponents--a pair of bubbly Glendora girls who made the Bobbsey Twins look like strangers on an elevator--giggled about their hip sizes and kitty cats.

To win points, “Busted” contestants answer questions and fill in the blank statements based on facts about their friend and the opposing team. In the final round, both teams respond to a string of rapid-fire questions until one of them is “busted” down to zero.

Flohra and Norquist, to put it delicately, got creamed.

“Ryan and I were more roasting each other than trying to win, and the girls definitely knew more about each other,” Norquist said. Significant pause. “I mean, one of them was a cheerleader!”

Having your best buddy blab about you in front of thousands of viewers may not be an adult’s idea of fun, but Norquist and Flohra say it didn’t even put a scratch in their 10-year friendship. And based on a few weeks of taping, the same holds true for other contestants, said executive producer Kathy Cotter.

“They have a lot of fun,” Cotter said. “When their friends say something they get embarrassed about, if they win $100, the kids jump up and hug each other.” (Norquist and Flohra were more restrained, limiting themselves to a couple of high-fives and friendly kicks to the shin.)

The humor comes not from the teens’ answers, added Cotter, but from the stories they tell to explain them and from the banter between contestants and the host of “Busted,” comedian Tim Conlon.

The teen-agers “don’t try to be funny . . .,” began Cotter.

Producer Tom Johnson finished the sentence. “. . . but they’re kids so they are funny.

“I don’t want to sound like Art Linkletter,” Johnson said, “but kids are just inherently funny.”

* ‘ ‘Busted” airs today and every weekday at 5:30 p.m. on Fox/KTTV 11.

Contestants Sought

On Saturday, “Busted” staff members will be recruiting contestants at two Orange County locations: the Mall of Orange (noon to 5 p.m.) and Club Illusions in Costa Mesa (8:30 p.m. to midnight).

According to executive producer Kathy Cotter, they are seeking 15- and 16-year-olds with outgoing personalities “who are willing to reveal things about themselves.”

“We’re looking for best friends who have a good relationship and who know a lot about each other,” Cotter said.