PASADENA, Calif. — For years television has made a killing off of murder, but never like this. Fox's new Murder in Small Town X (9 p.m. today, Channels 19, 45) essentially brings the mystery dinner theater format to TV, the latest variation in the reality TV trend.

        Ten contestants play detectives trying to catch a serial killer from 15 suspects (improvisational actors) in the tiny town of Eastport, Maine. It's Real People meets Unsolved Mysteries for a $250,000 prize. Call it Murder Won.

        The eight-week summer series “combines the best of classic mystery, improvisational acting and unscripted reality drama,” Fox Entertainment President Gail Berman told the Television Critics Association here.

        The 10 players, picked from 3,000 applicants, lived in an apartment complex in Eastport, unaware that most of the shop owners and townspeople were paid performers.

        “When these 10 people came to this town, they believed this town really existed,” says George Verschoor, co-creator and executive producer. “They accepted that this was real.”

        They became so absorbed in the murder investigation that they quickly forgot that they were being filmed around-the-clock for a TV show.

        “There was no sense of, "OK, Action! Now we're shooting; Now we're stopping; Now you can go home and relax, it's over.' They (contestants) were within this town . . . and surrounded by the characters of the story all the time,” says Gordon Cassidy, also co-creator and executive producer.

        The show ends each week with two contestants facing off in the “killer's game” in a desolate ranch 20 miles from town, in which one person will be eliminated. In the pilot, contestant Shirley King, 45, of Nevada became so spooked she told the cameras she feared for her life. (Hey, it's just TV!)

        “They were not told how they were going to be eliminated from the game. So there was that fear going into this of: "Well, am I going to be killed?' ” Mr. Verschoor says.

        “We're creating a context where you place people in, and behavior happens,” Mr. Verschoor says. “We don't know what that behavior is going to become, but I do believe when you're in this situation, you do get genuine terror.”

        Murder mystery fans will like the whodunnit, and casual viewers will find the format much more engaging than the gimmicky The Mole. Don't be surprised if this Murder Nobody Wrote becomes a staple of this current reality TV craze.

        Bench on "Millionaire': As if he's not already, Johnny Bench wants to be a millionaire.

        The Reds' Hall of Fame catcher will be a contestant on a “sports superstar” edition of ABC's Who Wants to be a Millionaire on the game show's Sept. 10 fall premiere (8 p.m., Channels 9, 2). To get into Regis Philbin's hot seat, he'll have to win the “fastest finger” trivia round against the likes of quarterback John Elway, basketball star Charles Barkley, boxer Leila Ali, NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon, tennis champion Serena Williams and professional skateboarder Tony Hawk.

        Celebrity Millionaire editions will air each Monday this fall; regular viewers will compete on the Thursday show.

        Half time: Millionaire producer Michael Davies says he's happy that ABC has cut back the show from fourtimes to twice a week this fall. The game show will be syndicated to stations for weekday telecasts a year from now.

        “I imagine it ultimately going to one night a week on the network, and in syndication,” says Mr. Davies, who hopes the ABC version “airs Sunday night at 9 until 2050.”

        Mr. Philbin is a candidate for the syndicated daytime show, he says, though the decision depends on whether ABC adds a third or fourth prime-time broadcast this season.

        Reality games: TV critics felt like they were playing I've Got A Secret trying to squeeze details out of producers for two reality shows, Fox's Temptation Island 2 and ABC's The Runner.

        During a press conference for Temptation Island 2, producers refused to say when and where the show will be taped, or when contestants would be selected. The 10-week series premieres Oct. 31.

        Movie stars Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, and Mr. Davies, the Millionaire producer, were similarly vague about their 13-week live reality show, The Runner, starting Jan. 7. A cash prize will be awarded to viewers who stop a person trying to run from coast to coast.

        They would not reveal the rules of the game; the size of the cash prize; or how a person will win the game. “I'm not going to tell you. It's not that I can't tell you. At this point, I'm not going to tell you. It's proprietary,” Mr. Davies says.

        Viewers who catch the runner will receive a cash prize; those who help the runner elude “agents” pursuing the person won't get a penny — but they could be featured on TV, they say.

        People may apply to be “runners,” or “agents,” via the Internet at www.abc.com, keyword: runner. Applicants must be 21. Deadline is Aug. 15.

        John Kiesewetter is reporting from the Television Critics Association's summer press tour. E-mail jkiesewetter@enquirer.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/kiese

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