Reality Bites Back

By Melissa August, Jeff Chu, Rachel Dry, Kathleen Earley, Michael Fitzgerald, Ellin Martens, Julie Rawe, Ursula Sautter, Josh Tyrangiel and Amelia Weiss

Now that Survivor is over, what will we watch? The networks are doing their best to translate other foreign "reality" shows to American tastes: ABC has picked up Britain's Jailbreak (10 "prisoners" under 24-hr. surveillance try to escape for big money), and NBC has locked up Holland's Chains of Love (one person chained to a quartet of the opposite sex). But we found some gems they may have overlooked...

71 DEGREES NORTH (Norway) Contestants race from Norway to the Arctic Circle. In extreme conditions. On foot. One trekker is voted off the glacier every two days

VILLA MEDUSA (Sweden) Eight young people in a gorgeous villa--well, where's the sadistic fun in that? As they arrive, they're relieved of money and credit cards

DENPA SHONEN (Japan) Contestants humiliated--left, say, naked in a room until they earn [yen]1 million in magazine sweepstakes, unaware they're on TV

LOVE TEST (Holland) Dutch spouses watch on hidden cameras to see if their partners park their clogs under someone's bed and explore the netherlands

BIG DIET (Germany) Ten chubsters locked in "a golden cage of temptations" try to lose as much weight as possible in 100 days. The winner receives the equivalent of loss in gold

HOTEL GETAWAY (Britain) Contestants think they've won a luxury-resort getaway, only to be confronted at hotel hell by actors posing as staff. The last unwitting couple to check out wins