Resisting 'Temptation'

By Stephen M. Silverman

06/08/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

A Fox television affiliate in North Carolina, Raleigh-based WRAZ-TV, has joined the hue and cry against the reputed salaciousness of the network's new reality series, "Temptation Island" -- and has pulled the plug on the show after executives there learned that one of the couples being enticed to stray on the show has a child, Fox officials admitted to Reuters. (The couple was identified in the initial scenes in which they appeared – before word of their child got out -- by their first names only, Ytossie and Taheed.) "WRAZ will not support a program that could potentially break up the parents of a young child," WRAZ general manager Tommy Schenck said in a statement. Fox officials said they were not aware of any other affiliates who might follow the WRAZ example. The six-episode "Temptation Island," shot in the Caribbean, bowed last Wednesday to highly impressive Nielsen numbers: a reported 16 million viewers. Despite the high turnout, WRAZ-TV's Schenck said he was uncomfortable about airing the program in the first place. "We were assured that these couples would not be married (or have) children," he said. "We reluctantly agreed to air the program with those assurances. We are not going to be a part of making light of the family institution in a 'reality' program."