The defender: MTV's the Real World. Entering its ninth season, MTV has sent a new group of seven strangers to New Orleans. This new group of attractive, young exhibitionists will include, according to a recent Rolling Stone article, the predictable mix of multicultural types, sexually adventurous types, at least one complete screw-up (the Puck character) and an innocent--the one who learns to work and play well with the diverse cast. 

The challenger: CBS introduces Survivor--a game show of sorts where the 16 players must survive a deserted island-type atmosphere while trying to kick each other off. Sort of a Lord of the Flies meets king of the mountain meets Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (the last surviving Survivor gets a cool million). Split into two teams, the group has so far kicked two people off the island.

The Real World really peaked with its San Francisco cast--about six seasons ago. For the first three seasons, the casts were still relatively unsure of what the Real World was and how their story would play out. The SF cast contained the best mix of characters--both in temperament and in background. The season really hinged on three characters: Pedro whose struggles with AIDS were educational and dramatically engaging; Puck, who was insane; and Judd, the thinking girl's stud muffin.

Despite a steady decline in quality since SF, Real World is still one of the better shows to come out of MTV. (This is not saying much, I know. After all, these are the people who brought us the Blame Game and Total Request Live.) For one thing, the Real World is one of the few times you can still hear music on MTV. The characters fight to Offspring, brood to Sarah McLauchlan and party to Beck. There is more music on a half hour of Real World than in a whole afternoon normal programming. While the Real World has become more contrived over the years, the seven strangers still live somewhat normal lives. And if college taught us all anything, it's that trying to live a normal life in bizarre circumstances can cause all kinds of discord.

CBS's Survivor is all bizarre and not normal. Like the station it runs on, CBS's first foray into reality programming skews older than its MTV competition. The island dwellers include both middle-aged and senior competitors. The choice to include a broader range of ages may not be going as well as the network had hoped. So far, the two characters kicked off have sported gray hair. (On the other hand, despite the complaints of those outside the 18 to 34 marketing demographic that the youngsters are pushing their elders to the edge of the herd, maybe CBS was hoping the long-lasting 20-somethings would help keep younger viewers.)

Survivor also lacks the MTV soundtrack--the show's score is something between a "Sounds of the Rainforest" background noises CD and the "Is that your final answer?" music. The show is edited slower than the Real World. Each episode is divided into three segments. The contestants spend roughly 15 minutes bitching about each other. The two groups then meet in some absurd competition for another 15 minutes. The weekly kicking-a-teammate-off-the-island segment is also 15 minutes long, which is about 10 minutes longer than it needs to be. What CBS must learn is the secret to MTV's success: the interaction between people is the most interesting part of the show, the part an audience tunes in to see.

Who will win this reality showdown? Probably no one or, more accurately, everyone. Having beat Millionaire on its first time out, Survivor will likely keep a stable audience which it may be able to transfer to its next reality show "Big Brother." Meanwhile, the Big Easy should prove fertile ground for the newest citizens of the Real World, an established name brand. The bigger question is: when summer is over, will reality shows still be able to compete with their imaginary counterparts?

(Survivor is on CBS, Wednesdays, at 8 p.m. EST. The Real World is on MTV, Tuesdays, at 10 p.m. EST. Big Brother will begin on CBS in July.)

-Amy Diaz