Broadcasters will next week start the battle to create the most talked-about reality TV show of 2001, as Channel 5 prepares to pour unprecedented funds into the launch of The Mole.

The

Broadcasters will next week start the battle to create the most talked-about reality TV show of 2001, as Channel 5 prepares to pour unprecedented funds into the launch of The Mole.

The nine-week Action Time show launches next Friday (12 January), backed by an advertising budget exceeding£500,000 - the largest sum the broadcaster has ever spent on one programme.

In the same week, ITV's big reality TV hope, 13-part Popstars, launches on Wednesday (10 January), backed by a£350,000 media spend. Breakfast broadcaster GMTV is also entering the fray with its own reality strand, Inchloss Island.

The ITV network is also pushing Anglia's 12-week Public Property in a daily daytime slot in the next fortnight. In the show, six participants give up their free will as every detail of their lives - including life-changing decisions - is determined by a website and phone audience poll.

In Belgian format The Mole, which won the Golden Rose of Montreux last year, contestants try to work out who among them is trying to sabotage their efforts to complete a series of challenges.

It will air in a 20.00 slot, bolstered by an advertising budget which includes a£200,000 campaign on Sky One, plus a series of London Underground posters and an advertorial tie-in with The Sun.

Meanwhile, GMTV will air its survival show Inchloss Island between 7.00 and 8.30 for five days from 15 January. In the show, five strangers are cast away on an island off the south coast of England in an attempt to lose weight.

As in Big Brother, the movements of the 'calorie castaways' will be restricted by guards as they battle to lose 29.5 stones between them under the guidance of health and fitness experts. A 'confession camera' will record each individual's experience and a 'temptation cupboard' will also feature in a public area to test their resolve.

After leaving the island, participants will attempt to stick to their diets, reporting their progress back to GMTV viewers each week for five weeks. The segment is produced by Jeremy King and presented by Kate Garraway.

At the same time, ITV has started a robust marketing push to make LWT-produced Popstars the cornerstone of its winter schedule, launching at 20.00 on Wednesday and continuing on Saturday (13 January) at 18.00.

The fly-on-the-wall show traces the quest to create a UK pop band from thousands of 18 to 24 year-old wannabes. Besides the Saturday show, the event will be supported by occasional weekday special episodes, a nightly 15-minute ITV2 show and a website featuring exclusive clips.

In the summer broadcasters will lock horns again as Castaway, Big Brother 2 and Survivor compete for the media attention which can make or break the genre.

Pre-production for Big Brother 2 begins next week. The series will air on Channel 4 and its digital entertainment channel, E4, although it's not known whether the run will kick off in the spring or air in the summer when contestants are more likely to attract audiences by revelling in the sun.

Lion TV has been commissioned to produce a second series of Castaway to air in primetime on BBC 1 in early summer. The new experimental series will feature eight people and will last four or five weeks.

Survivor will debut on ITV this summer under the stewardship of Popstars producer executive Nigel Lythgoe.