Utopia or dystopia, that is the question.

Highly hyped and highly suspicious, Fox TV's so-called "social experiment" reality TV show titled "Utopia" has opened to bad, and worsening, ratings and widespread speculation it might not be long for this Earth.

Fox has been touting the show for months as a yearlong must-see TV social engineering experiment. It has a rotating cast about 15 people attempting to build a new world in an isolated, pastoral settingaround Santa Clarita, California, north of Los Angeles.

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Created by John de Mol of "Big Brother" fame, the show has been scheduled to air two, or three, times a week for an entire year. Fox sank US$50 million in the effort that show promoters said would re-energize and change the way reality TV was made. A version of the show premiered earlier this year in de Mol's native Netherlands.

How's it going? So far, not so much.

"Utopia" opened last week to dismal ratings and the ratings only have gone south since then. The show debuted following ultra-popular NFL Sunday Football on Fox to a 2.0 demo rating and around four million viewers. That, in itself, should have been a warning sign that things might not be going well.

Ratings went from bad to worse during last week. The regular Tuesday showing dropped to a 0.9 rating. It dropped again on Friday to 0.7 and two million viewers. For some perspective, a re-run of a mid-level sitcom, "Last Man Standing" on ABC opposite "Utopia," drew 4.5 million viewers.

Fox executives already appeared worried by the trend, but reports said they wanted to wait until after its MLB playoffs coverage began in late October to make a definitive decision about whether to pull the plug on the sinking show.

Those baseball games get top ratings, which may help the show recover some equilibrium. However, with networks premiering new shows in the next month, the going may be even tougher for "Utopia" as well.

TagsUtopia, TV, FOX, reality TV, Big Brother, Jean de Mol, enedemol, Dan Piraro, utopia on fox, utopia tv show, Big Brother