Fox is sending millionaires down in the hole, as they say on "The Wire," for its latest reality venture.

"Secret Millionaire," which net announced today with a six-seg pickup, will send a group of rich folk into "some of America's most impoverished" neighborhoods to make new friends and figure out who's most deserving of a six-figure bit of philanthropic largess at the end of the series when they reveal their true identities.

"Secret Millionaire" hails from RDF USA and will be exec produced by Chris Coelen, Greg Goldman and Bruce Toms. It's based on an RDF show that was a hit on U.K.'s Channel 4. No air date has been set, per Fox.

Mundane news about the TV biz is overshadowed by the strike drama these days, but in the late afternoon today I caught up with the fact that Sunday was a pretty good night for business, for all but NBC. I can't believe I missed the rare opportunity to enjoy a primetime oater with part one of CBS' three-part Larry McMurtry mini, "Comanche Moon," a "prequel" to "Lonesome Dove." (That's what screeners are for.)

Fox's pre-strike decision to hold "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" back for midseason paid off, with a big assist from the NFC playoff game between the Giants and Cowboys. Sure, the football overrun with a gazillion viewers and 35 share in adults 18-49 helped it get off the tarmac but "Sarah Connor" didn't fold in its second half-hour, which was a good sign.

(Pictured left, Linda Cardellini and Steve Zahn in "Comanche Moon.")

With everything that's gone on in the TV biz during the past two months, the uproar over CBS' reality skein "Kid Nation" shortly before the show's September premiere seems like such a tempest in a teapot.

All the overheated talk about "investigations" by the New Mexico state attorney general's office petered out barely a week after the show premiered. A complaint from one parent about the show's treatment of her daughter stirred up a media tsunami about the propriety of the show and whether it violated child labor laws with its premise (40 kids ages 8-15 are sent to a ghost town to live the rugged pioneer life with, ostensibly, no adult supervision) and filming sked.

Interestingly, the advance hubbub never did goose "Kid Nation" ratings. It opened modestly on Sept. 19 and has maintained an average of about 6 million-7 million viewers per week -- not great but not a total bomb, either.

The "Kid Nation" finale is set to air tonight at 8 p.m. The denouement is about one contender claiming a cash prize but about a hands-on civics lesson to see if the their community will actually be able to function under the rules and systems that they've established through the weekly Town Council governing process.

Most important to "Kid Nation" creator/exec producer Tom Forman is the fact that none of the other families came forward with horror stories, and all the scrutiny of the show's operations yielded nothing in the way of tangible evidence that he or the show did anything terribly wrong by its young stars.

"It’s a bizarre experience to open the New York Times and read that the newspaper of record is calling you a child abuser. It was head-spinning," says Forman, who is a former journalist himself, and a father. "We knew what we had shot. We knew once people saw it they’d realize that it was much ado about nothing....We're all really proud of the show. It's what we said it would be all along -- a show that will get kids thinking and talking about social issues."

POSTED BY JOSEF ADALIAN

Yes, that was Mark Itkin walking around the corridors of CAA Thursday night. But no, the William Morris Agency’s dean of unscripted programming isn’t defecting.

Itkin made a trip to what he called “enemy territory” in order to appear on a CAA/BAFTA-sponsored panel dubbed “Another British Invasion.” Powwow brought together six of the biggest names in the reality biz, ostensibly to discuss the past and future of Blighty-produced TV in the States.

Night actually turned into a broader discussion encompassing the history of the biz and the challenges it faces, with “American Idol” showrunner Nigel Lythgoe (pictured left) moderating a lively hourlong-plus conversation.

Panel also included CAA reality chief Michael Camacho, unscripted superlawyer Jeanne Newman, Fox alternative prexy Mike Darnell, CBS reality guru Ghen Maynard and Lifetime supremo Andrea Wong (who until recently headed up unscripted programming for ABC).

Group of Six repped a sort of Mt. Rushmore of the modern reality age, collectively repping some sort of involvement in just about every major unscripted skein since “The Real World” kicked off the alternative boom.

Itkin talked about putting together the deal for “Real World” (MTV wanted a soap but didn’t have the coin to pay for actors), while Newman (pictured right)outlined how she got all the major nets to bid on “Big Brother.”

“We had a true bidding war, not like the ones we make up,” Newman quipped.