A title like Dog Eat Dog for an NBC reality game show evokes all sorts of ugly imagery. Fortunately, it is not to be taken literally. Not only are there no canine banquets, but also no one is forced to eat worms or lie down with rats a la Fear Factor.

At current-day NBC, this amounts to high-mindedness.

However, Dog Eat Dog is decidedly lowbrow. It's also low-rent. The grand prize for making an idiot out of yourself in front of millions of people is a paltry $25,000.

NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zucker vowed to bring down the cost of programming, but $25K is cheap even by daytime basic-cable standards. Of course, everyone on network row realizes they could charge $25,000 to get on prime time for an hour, and plenty of glory-seekers would ante up.

Former Baywatch babe Brooke Burns should have been asked to pay for the exposure she gets as the show's host. She certainly didn't win the job with her personality, which is nonexistent. Her currency is her physique, which is flaunted throughout the program, first in a bikini, then in a bustier and tight pants.

The players are challenged to compete in a series of contests, which test their physical and intellectual prowess. The latter isn't too severely challenged. The toughest questions would qualify for the $200 plateau on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. For example, one of the players is stumped by which Ivy League college is located in New Haven, Conn. But another aces how many castaways there were on Gilligan's Island. (You can almost hear him singing the theme song to himself.)

One segment combines mental and physical abilities, as a player must answer questions while running on a treadmill that accelerates with each incorrect answer. Another is pure tease. A male and female in swimsuits (hers is a bikini, of course) hang over a pool as water is showered down upon them. The one who holds on longest wins.

The show's Weakest Link-like hook is that the contestants get to vote to decide which person they feel will be unable to meet each challenge. If the player succeeds, he can exile one of the naysayers to the dog pound. Failure means banishment to the dog pound for the player.

The last one left standing after five elimination rounds gets to assign one of five questions to each of the dog-pound culls. If at least three respond correctly, they share the $25,000. If not, the survivor of the early rounds keeps it all.

Zucker missed an opportunity. He could have gotten this bunch to play for a stuffed panda -- and required them to win twice to take it home.

Dog Eat Dog

When: Tonight at 9

Where: NBC

In brief: $25,000 just doesn't go as far as it used to.