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When Reality Attacks

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EW Did you stay with it the whole time?

HERSKOVITZ Yeah, because I just couldn't believe what I was seeing.

BRIAN ROBBINS It couldn't be worse than ''Are You Hot?,'' which is definitely the end of civilization and could be the reason countries are arming themselves.

WILMORE Lions will be eating Christians very soon.

YVETTE LEE BOWSER I'm going to go out on a limb here and say I'm a bit of a reality-show junkie myself. I really kind of enjoy the sociology of it. I watch a lot of the shows.

EW Bruce, what about you?

BRUCE HELFORD For me, if there's anything that's been bad about reality shows, it's how women are portrayed. Wanda [Sykes] had that great joke about how they should rename ''Joe Millionaire'' ''Bitches Love Money.''

EW Do any of you have any grudging respect for reality television?

BOWSER I do think that the reality programs have kind of challenged us as writers to elevate our game. Quality shows like ''Everybody Loves Raymond'' and ''Friends'' [are the ones] that win their time slots against these reality programs.

HELFORD It's entertainment. It's not the newest thing in the world. That's why we all watch TV for 24 hours a day when a president gets assassinated or why ''Queen for a Day'' was a big hit. We're just fascinated by human drama.

BOWSER But I think as a society, we've become really comfortable with being in front of the camera. People want to see themselves on television. The popularity of certain scripted programs is that people can project themselves into the show. [With reality shows], they're actually seeing themselves in the programming.

HERSKOVITZ One of the things that astonished me after the Columbine massacre was how incredibly articulate and self-possessed all those kids were with the interviewers. They all understood the currency of what it meant to be interviewed for television.

CHRISTOPHER KEYSER It is strange they call it reality TV because it really seems to be more about creating celebrities. Even after the first ''Real World'' on MTV, everyone knew what they were doing. They were auditioning for it, and it was about creation of careers as opposed to seeing real life.

EW The networks point out that these reality shows are bringing more viewers to television. Do you see this in any way helping out scripted shows?

ROBBINS We had ''Birds of Prey'' this season. [The WB] spent an enormous amount of money launching that show, to great reviews. ''The Bachelor'' came on and just wiped the floor with us. The network had no choice [but to cancel it]. Reality shows might bring more eyeballs to the screen, but scripted shows get hurt and the networks can't afford to stay with them.

KEYSER The last show that we premiered [''Party of Five'' spin-off ''Time of My Life'' in 1999] had pretty good numbers for Fox, and then ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'' hit. And Fox said, ''We understand. We know what you're up against. You'll be fine.'' But when networks say that, they don't really mean it. Four weeks later we were gone.

BOWSER But there is room in the TV universe for both to coexist.

HERSKOVITZ Yeah. When you read in The New York Times network executives saying that they're thinking that [reality shows] might eliminate dramas entirely, it's scary. But I think [their popularity] will be cyclical, as it has been in the past. There was a time when Westerns took over all the airwaves in 1959. And newsmagazines. Then it will assume a place as part of the palette of television.

HELFORD ABC kind of learned the lesson because they didn't launch [any new hits] with ''Millionaire.'' Right now, Fox is in the same position. If they don't use these shows to launch continuing character-driven shows, everyone will just go back to cable.

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