By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

The story going around was that two people from Hawai'i were going to be on the next installment of the TV show "Survivor," to be filmed on an island off Thailand. The smart-aleck discussion heated up right away. So what? No big deal. Two local guys living on a beach, drinking water from a makeshift catchment system and eating raw animals they had to catch by themselves. That's not "the ultimate survival challenge." That's a weekend in Hilo.

You want a real survival challenge? How about a show that makes contestants go through five years of college and then try to make a life in Hawai'i, buy a house, raise kids and keep all insurance coverage up to date on a teachers' salary? How about testing contestants' survival skills on the streets of downtown Honolulu? Have them experience disabling mental illness, a host of physical ailments and addictions, no room at the shelters, and being kicked out of 'A'ala Park and Fort Street Mall. How about seeing who has the skill and the drive to go through public housing, public school, public assistance and private traumas and come out the other end with some measure of success in life? That's a real survivor. That's Survivor Hawai'i.

But nobody wants to see that, on television or otherwise.

We want our "reality" nicely packaged and controlled. We want our "reality" television as far away from real reality as possible. We can't bear to take action toward, much less take a look at, the desperate struggles for survival in our state, but we love to watch a show about people eating bugs for money.

As it turned out, both "Survivor: Thailand" cast members have only second- or third-degree ties to Hawai'i. One was born here but grew up elsewhere and the other worked a couple of summers on Maui, but neither lists Hawai'i as their hometown.

But that's OK. We'll still watch like we're hypnotized.

On Tuesday night, Hawai'i television viewers were invited to call in to vote for their favorite contestant on the Fox show "American Idol." According to KHON news 68,096 Hawai'i viewers called during a two-hour window to cast their votes. That's more than the number of registered voters for Maui County in the 1998 general election. That's almost five times the number of votes that put Kaua'i Mayor Maryanne Kusaka into office.

Hawai'i has the lowest voter turnout in the nation. We don't care enough to get off the couch and drive to the nearest elementary school cafeteria or county park two days out of every two years and have a say as to who will represent us in government, but we'll pick up the phone like giddy fools to have our say as to whether the girl with the tongue ring or the boy with the big hair gets a record contract.

That's reality.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.