‘Reality’ TV finds its niche: high school

With “reality” TV casting its net over ever-wider areas of human interaction in quest of the next big ratings score, it was only a matter of time before producers hit on revisiting the high school experience.

Unlike other shows in the genre that have to pump up the reality by forcing people to compete in manufactured scenarios for the big-money payoffs, the drama in the high school environment is a natural by-product of raging adolescent hormones. Romance, betrayal, excitement, envy: It’s all there. The only question is how to harness it for mass consumption by TV audiences.

Well, leave it to the creators of “The Bachelor” to come up with a guilty pleasure of a series that does the job quite nicely: “High School Reunion,” premiering Sunday at 9 p.m. on the WB. The network will repeat the hourlong episodes on Thursdays at 9 p.m.

The setup couldn’t be simpler: Seventeen members from a Chicago-area high school’s class of ’92 are flown to Hawaii for a reunion they are told will last two weeks. They don’t know who will be attending until they arrive at the beachfront mansion that will serve as their dorm, and the air is thick with anticipation and dread as the ex-classmates arrive one by one, conveniently labeled with on-screen graphics. There’s Natasha, the popular girl; Dave, the bully; Chris, the misfit; Maurice, the loner.

Most arrive with agendas. Nicole, the tall girl, wants to hook up with the guy who never knew she was alive in high school, Dan B., the player. Ben wants to prove to people that he’s no longer a nerd. Summer, the flirt, wants to get to the bottom of why Tim, the artist, ducked her for the prom.

Just when you think you’re out of high school, they pull you back in.