Will the controversial makeup of Cook Island “tribes” doom “Survivor”? I certainly hope so.

As a nonfan, I don’t know what’s more surprising – that “Survivor: Cook Islands” (7 p.m., CBS) marks the 13th installment of this reality series, or the announcement that this season’s “Survivor” will play the race card and divide the “tribes” along ethnic and racial lines. Both facts are depressing in their own fashion.

Thirteen seasons is a long time for any show – even if reality seasons do come twice in a calendar year. “Seinfeld” didn’t run that long. Neither did “The Andy Griffith Show,” “I Love Lucy” or any of the greats, with the exception “The Simpsons.”

“Survivor” has the longevity gene of other long-running mediocrities: game shows, soap operas and “Entertainment Tonight.” They are all comfort junk food in their own fashion – substance without sustenance and calories without nutrition, the kind that render you sluggish, obese and witless, glued to a recliner and unsure of how you got there.

The decision to divide the teams into groups of Asians, blacks, whites and Hispanics has sparked controversy and an exodus of advertisers. Defenders and spokespeople for “Survivor” argue that they are bringing diversity to a show that in the past has been dominated by white applicants, white players and white winners. You have to expect that after a week or three, the teams will merge into more integrated units and Jeff Probst and the players will have a kumbaya moment around the tiki torches.

¢ One of the first sketches in “The Underground” (9 p.m., Showtime) is a spoof called “Iraqi’s Funniest Home Videos.” Damon Wayans plays the turbaned host who compels a frightened audience to watch skits about suicide bombers and then forces them to laugh at gunpoint. Well not even the presence of a loaded AK-47 could inspire a chuckle from this exceptionally dreadful attempt at “edgy” humor.

The show makes a few stabs at the dark, angry satire of the Dave Chappelle variety but falls woefully short. In one “documentary” sketch, it’s argued that a 1936 Olympics champion was inspired by a racist official’s starting pistol. Another sketch imagines what it would be like if Peter Pan visited starving, drought-stricken Africans. But these forays into ghastly bad taste are nothing compared to a pornographic sketch that defies description in a family newspaper. Wayans and Showtime should be ashamed of themselves – not for obscenity but for abject stupidity.

Tonight’s other highlights

¢ Anthony Hopkins, Nicole Kidman and Ed Harris star in the 2003 adaptation of Philip Roth’s novel “The Human Stain” (7 p.m., WE).

¢ On two episodes of “My Name is Earl” (NBC), a petty thief discovers karma (7 p.m.), a $10 debt proves costly (8 p.m.).

¢ On two episodes of “CSI” (CBS), a suspected killer takes hostages (8 p.m.), a team member’s life hangs on a thread (9 p.m.).

¢ Scarlett Johansson stars as a maid who becomes the muse to 17th-century Dutch painter Vermeer (Colin Firth) in the 2003 drama “The Girl in the Pearl Earring” (8:45 p.m., IFC).