Docu Drama

JUST KIDDING Ytossie and Taheed were asked to leave when news of their child surfaced

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While Ytossie and Taheed are quick to cite the show's confidentiality agreement, a source close to the couple insists that someone working on the show must have known about the boy. ''I know that she told them she had a child,'' recalls a good friend who claims to have been at Ytossie's apartment when a camera crew filmed her packing for Belize. ''They decided it might be cute to include her son. So they put him on camera.''

When contacted by EW, Cowan denied he had any knowledge of the child, insisting the pair lied on their applications -- which a source close to the duo denies. ''It's possible that someone was in Ytossie's apartment filming her and the child was there,'' says Cowan. Later in the interview, Cowan insists, ''I have not seen that material, if it exists, and I do not know if it exists...[but nothing was] seen by us prior to our leaving for the island.'' (The producers say they learned of the child from one of the island's singles after Ytossie allegedly mentioned the boy to him.)

Of course, tinkering with reality is nothing new to the genre. In the first season of MTV's ''The Real World,'' producers Mary-Ellis Bunim and Jon Murray agreed to ''throw a pebble into the pond'' if the cast's real life antics proved lifeless. Bunim recalls that they arranged for a runner up from cast auditions ''to ask one of the girls out on a date. The cast was very uncomfortable with it and we never did it again.'' Still, ''Survivor'''s success has upped the ante. Murray says the next edition of his other MTV show, ''Road Rules,'' introduces a new rule: ''If the cast fails more than one mission, they have to vote someone out.'' (Replacements will be waiting in the wings.)

Tossing pebbles becomes trickier for shows like ''Survivor'' and ''The Mole'' that offer cash prizes, since they may be subject to federal regulations enacted after the late '50s quiz show scandals. In an introduction to ''Survivor'' 1's video compilation taped last fall, Burnett states: ''There are FCC rules...since [the] quiz show problems of the '50s. As a prize giving show, technically we fall under game show rules. Nothing was allowed to be staged.'' The producer and CBS now deny that the rules apply to ''Survivor,'' and one former FCC official says that unlike traditional game shows à la ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,'' ''Survivor'' and its ilk ''are more entertainment than contests.'' An FCC spokesman says the agency has received no complaints, thus plans no inquiry.

The FCC aside, ''Survivor'' has become a favorite target of critics. Last month, PETA charged that producers planted the wild boar that appeared near the Kucha camp to prompt Skupin's ''Lord of the Flies'' moment. (''There was a giant forest fire and it flushed the animals their way,'' responds Burnett. ''There were tons of pigs.'' Skupin adds that it took him three unaired days of chasing the piglet to bring home the bacon.)

And litigious larvae eater Stacey Stillman filed a lawsuit last month alleging that Burnett persuaded tribemates Sean Kenniff and Dirk Been to oust her instead of crotchety ex- Navy SEAL Rudy Boesch from the first series. CBS and Burnett's SEG Inc. later filed a countersuit, charging Stillman with breach of contract, defamation, and extortion. (On her answering machine, Stillman says, ''This is not about money, because Mark should have to answer for his actions.'')

For his part, Burnett denies ''Survivor'' is rotten to the Ogakor. But he does cop to orchestrating some of the drama. ''Whether it's not giving them enough food or causing a moral dilemma by giving them chickens, it's contrived,'' he says. ''But the outcome is very, very real. They can keep the chickens for eggs, make pets out of them, or eat them. It just so happens we had one vegetarian, which was great. We don't tell them what to do.''