Imagine, if you will, a room full of avaricious, unpleasant people fighting over a will — yelling, screaming, tossing insults, invoking religion and generally being consumed by greed.

If watching unpleasant people acting unpleasantly is your idea of entertainment, then the new Fox "reality" show "Unan1mous" (tonight, 8:30 p.m., Ch. 13) is something you won't want to miss.

Watching this garbage isn't just like coming upon an accident and being unable to resist the urge to take a glance. It's like coming upon an accident full of death and severed limbs, pulling over to park, taking pictures of the mayhem and reveling in the gore.

You'll need to shower after watching this show.

The premise is relatively simple. Nine people who have never met each other are locked in a windowless bunker and told that one of them will win $1.5 million. But only one. And the vote has to be unanimous in that person's favor.

The people weren't cast with peace and harmony in mind. The producers purposely picked difficult people they knew weren't going to get along, setting up all the unpleasantness, which begins immediately.

(We're told they all signed on without knowing anything about the show they were signing on to. Which, if true, is more evidence of just how stupid people are when it comes to the overwhelming desire to be on TV.)

You know what you're in for as soon as one woman starts spouting her translation of the Bible (including telling a guy with cancer he should just pray about it). And her views on homosexuality don't sit well with the gay guy, who is more than a bit confrontational himself.

What the contestants soon find out is that, first, if they don't make a unanimous choice the amount of money to be won starts declining. And, second, they're going to be eliminated from contention one at a time based on a secret from their past.

Before the first half-hour is over, that leads to several of the contestants making truly idiotic, mean-spirited arguments against a fellow contestant who has undergone psychiatric treatment.

Wow. Fox must be so proud.

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E-mail: pierce@desnews.com