Married By America, Shackled By Fox

BUSTED: "American Idol" finalist charged in deadly assault.

MARCH 3--No phone. No TV. No pager. No computer. No unaccompanied trips outside your room. Sounds like the restrictions placed on someone under house arrest or a juror deliberating during a major criminal trial.

Instead, these are some of the rules imposed on the quintet of contestants competing in "Married by America," the Fox TV reality show debuting tonight. This "hotel sequestering" memo was distributed last month by the show's producer, Rocket Science Laboratories, to program participants.

"Married by America" features contestants who have agreed to sight-unseen engagements engineered via a viewer vote. According to the memo, contestants need to be locked down like Gitmo enemy combatants to maintain "the integrity of this production."

When TSG contacted one of the document's authors, producer Shannon Keenan, she didn't want to answer questions, but did confirm that a sequestering memo had been distributed. So we're not sure why the show--supposedly an unscripted reality program--needed "rehearsals." (3 pages)