More Reality Than Fox Bargained For

The launch of Fox’s controversial new “reality” series, “Temptation Island,” in which unmarried couples test their relationships by mingling with singles, has been clouded by the revelation that one of the couples have a child.

Executives for Fox acknowledged Wednesday that the couple had misrepresented information about their background and their child, and that the discovery of the child came during filming. The Fox announcement came just three days after network executives failed to reveal that there were problems with the show and its production during a press conference about “Temptation Island” at the annual Television Critics Assn. meeting in Pasadena, in which several reporters questioned the show’s premise and taste.

The couple, who were not identified, were instantly removed from the show, according to Fox executives. The ouster will be handled in one of the future episodes of the six-week series, which was scheduled to premiere Wednesday night.

In “Temptation Island,” four unmarried couples, testing the strength of their relationships, are separated from their partners and sent to different areas of the island to live with singles of the opposite sex.

*

The couple submitted to several background checks by the show’s producers, Rocket Science Laboratories, and investigative consultants hired by Rocket Science and approved by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the risk management firm contracted by Fox.

A statement from Fox read: “It has always been the policy of Fox Broadcasting Co. and the producers . . . that no couples with children together could participate in the show . . . As soon as the producers learned of the existence of the child, they notified the network and the decision was made to immediately remove them from further participation in the program.”

The snafu marks the second reality program-based embarrassment for Fox in less than a year.

The network broadcast a reality special last February, “Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?,” in which “groom” Rick Rockwell married contestant Darva Conger. However, producers performing background checks on the participants for the show failed to uncover that a former girlfriend of Rockwell’s had once obtained a restraining order against him.

Conger disputed the validity of the “marriage,” which was eventually annulled last April.