With the number of people divulging personal information online and the hordes lining up to be mocked and exploited on reality television, it shouldn’t be surprising that on Monday morning, the producers of a show called “Virgin Territory” had an open call for male contestants with “no experience necessary” to compete for sex with a female porn star.

The auditions coincide with the release of “American Cannibal,” a documentary that followed the travails of a co-producer of “Virgin Territory,” Dave Roberts, and his writing partner, Gil Ripley, as they began their foray into reality television in 2005 — and the depressing results that followed.

Soon after the pair decided to venture into the “reality” genre, they were pitching bottom-of-the-barrel programming that flirted with pornography. They didn’t sell any of their ideas to a network, but the writers did catch the eye of Kevin Blatt, the man who brought “One Night in Paris,” Paris Hilton’s X-rated home movie, to the world.

With Mr. Blatt paying their way, the writers began to film a pilot for “Ultimate, Ultimate Challenge: Starvation Island,” a show that took the premise of “Survivor” to its grotesque extreme: sending contestants into the jungle who would be convinced that they were eating the remains of other participants. Plagued by injuries and pitfalls brought on by inexperience and ineptitude, abundantly in evidence in “American Cannibal,” the pilot was never completed, and Messrs. Roberts and Ripley parted ways professionally.

Though both profess disdain for “reality” programming, Mr. Roberts continues to work in the genre with Mr. Blatt. Mr. Ripley made a cleaner break. “I think they’re all going to feel a little dirty after the show,” he said when reached by phone. He is still friendly with Mr. Roberts but is working on a book and sitcoms on his own.

For his part, Mr. Blatt initially pursued the cannibal premise because he wanted to distance himself from the porn industry and “go legitimate.” But when “Ultimate, Ultimate Challenge” failed, he went back to what he knows best. And it is hard to draw the line between “Virgin Territory” and pornography.

During the filming of “American Cannibal,” however, Messrs. Roberts and Ripley were upset that they would be taken for pornographers. As Mr. Ripley says of his decision to leave the show: “You don’t want to go home to holiday dinner and say, ‘I’m working in porn now, hopefully I’ll be living in the gutter soon.” But the further “Virgin Territory” moves along, the harder it seems to discern how it will differ from pornography. The show promises such prurient innovations as “The Blue Ball Room,” “MILF and Cookies,” an “STD

Spelling Bee,” and a “Lesbian Lounge” that will be used to taunt contestants. If any of them succumbs to the temptation surrounding them, they will be “prematurely ejected,” with the last man left winning the celebrity prize.

Mr. Roberts doesn’t plan on letting his daughters watch the show. When asked about the tapes of the show’s conclusion that Mr. Blatt intends to film and sell on the Internet, he says he won’t have any part in that.

Despite talk of going “legit,” Mr. Blatt doesn’t seem able to leave his porn past behind. “I live with the scarlet letter,” he said Monday. “And I’m happy about it.” Mr. Blatt made a hefty profit from sales of “One Night in Paris,” though not as much as Ms. Hilton or Rick Solomon, her partner in the video, did, he is quick to add.

And he continues to reap dividends from that connection. When “American Cannibal” had its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, Mr. Blatt filed for a cease-and-desist order that almost halted the screening. He eventually withdrew his lawsuit, saying that he had been a little paranoid about how he was portrayed. But the suit definitely brought more attention to the project. “The next morning we had to have a press conference,” the co-director, Perry Grebin, said, “to find out how much Paris Hilton was in the movie.” Ms. Hilton never appears in the film. Her only mention is when Mr. Blatt discusses how he began selling her sex tape.

The lawsuit brought a good deal of publicity to the premiere of the documentary. And for a show that hasn’t even been produced yet, “Virgin Territory” has also gotten a good deal of media attention. Mr. Blatt made headlines in January with the mere mention that he would like to have Jenna Jameson or Paris Hilton involved in the project, despite the fact that neither has ever acknowledged the show publicly. He has also made repeated mention of billboards the show plans to erect in Times Square for auditions, but they have yet to materialize.

In addition, the show’s producers discuss the show as if it will be mainstream programming. But is that likely?

The president of Bunim-Murray Productions and one of the original creators of MTV’s “The Real World” in 1992, Jonathan Murray, says of “Virgin Territory” that “it all sounds a little farfetched and hard to sell … Most buyers want to buy a show from an established producer. They have that against them from the beginning. Also, most people don’t self-fund pilots.”

Another concern, says Mr. Murray, is advertisers, who are hesitant to attract too much negative attention. So far, “Virgin Territory” is sponsored by Web sites and groups that have ties to the porn industry. Mr. Roberts confirmed that the firm offer they have received for development is from a pay cable station, and that Mr. Blatt intends to show on the Internet, for pay, everything that the show promises.

None of this seems likely to “legitimize” Mr. Blatt, as he hopes, though the publicity surrounding the project and the mere mention of Paris Hilton have created a selfreferential loop of hype.

As the director of Syracuse University’s Center for the Study of Popular Television, Robert Thompson, who appears in “American Cannibal,” said by phone: “It’s a contract that we all participate in, with all of these coconspirators — from viewers to the documentary filmmakers, news outlets, networks, and cable channels who can’t wait for the next big breakthrough hit.”

At the press conference held Monday, there were far more press representatives than potential virgins for the show. There was even a small crisis when the crew learned that the New York Post’s Andrea Peyser was coming and the producers got nervous that they didn’t have enough virgins.

As Mr. Thompson says, “It’s not a surprise that you can get millions of people to watch this; the surprise is that you can get people to line up for it.” One of the shocks about “Virgin Territory” is that men would willingly sign up to compete on the show.

Though there were few volunteers, the handful of men who appeared for the audition were prepared to profess their virginity on network television and had no reservations about the ultimate goal of the show. A 21-year-old man named Tom said his virginity had become a nuisance and thought that winning the contest “might be a fun way to do it,” while a 34-year-old man named Steven was simply excited at the prospect of going to the San Fernando valley.

In the wake of Steve Carell’s 2005 film “The 40 Year Old Virgin,” interest in adults who out of choice or circumstance are abstemious seems to have increased. Salon.comhad an article about involuntary female virgins recently, and Jane magazine even attempted to auction off the virginity of a 29-year old reader.

This is an interest that “Virgin Territory” clearly plans to capitalize on. Shows like “Beauty and the Geek” and “Joe Schmo” have already thrived by putting awkward and inexperienced males in close proximity to attractive women.

It is odd that viewers of reality shows enjoy watching people on television whom they likely would not want to spend time with in real life. But contestants who are willing to embarrass themselves or divulge personal information that most people would keep hidden are rewarded on television, unlike real life.

In a medium that values emotion and action over deliberation, shamelessness has become an asset. It also makes it hard to argue that reality shows are exploiting people when the exploited seem to enjoy the exposure.

mkeane@nysun.com