In a modern romantic relationship there are several phases. It starts out blissful and exciting. Then the couple starts to really get to know one another. Then they feel comfortable and relaxed with each other.

Then it’s time to meet the parents.

This can be a scary step. And now a new reality show for Lifetime would like for couples to voluntarily offer up this rite of passage as entertainment for millions of viewers.

The show, tentatively titled “Almost Family” is seeking couples that are in a serious relationship but haven’t yet met one another’s parents. Couples will be paid $10,000 for a week’s worth of filming. But of course, with reality TV, it’s not as easy as it sounds.

Casting Director Robyn Kass said it’s a typical meeting of the parents, stretched out for a week and filmed for a national audience.

“We will take her, and she will live with his family for a week,” she said. “And we will take him, and he will live with her family for a week.”

These filmings take place simultaneously, during the same week, so the couple has no contact with one another, Kass said.

She said college students are especially suited for the show, but not every couple has what the show is looking for. She said unique couples are more appealing to the show’s casting team.

“We would love a show where it’s the Democratic guy with the Republican girl, or the Buddhist guy with the Jewish girl,” Kass said.

Casting Producer David Lovejoy said these differences add another dimension to the awkward meeting, but that it also takes personality to be chosen.

“This show really doesn’t depend so much on looks like other reality shows,” he said. “But you’ve got to have personality enough to carry a story.”

“We’re looking for people with really different backgrounds,” Kass said. “Whether it be ethnic … upbringing, socially, politically. We are looking for a couple (where) both of them kind of came from different places, and now they’re together for some crazy reason.”

It might sound like a sweet deal for some – freeload on the network’s dollar for a week and get paid ten thousand dollars for something that would probably happen during the course of a relationship anyway – but not every student is ready to sign up.

“I wouldn’t mind it being taped, (but) I don’t think I’d want it on television,” said graduate student Brian Dolber, of meeting his significant other’s parents. “I prefer not to prostitute myself.”

But his friend, graduate student Sarah Rasmusson, had a different take on participation. She said her fianc‚e is Portuguese, and her family is white and “just a little bit racist.” She said she might participate to make a cultural statement.

“Not only do I want the money, but I would love to throw it back in our culture’s face that reality TV shows are corrupting family values,” she said. “And I think (I would) throw my poor Portuguese fianc‚e into my white, racist family, if he’d be up for it …(because) maybe we could do something humanitarian with the money, or put it into our multi-racial kids’ college trust fund.”

Lovejoy said that the show isn’t looking to make anybody’s experience on the show catastrophic or dramatic.

“It’s more for family fun than creating a volatile situation,” he said.

Kass said the show isn’t seeking families who disapprove, just couples with some kind of cultural hurdle to face. They’re looking for a “happy ending” to each story, Kass said.

It may seem pretty straightforward, but graduate student Alex Hedlund, who was working on a reality show with MTV that fell through during production, said that from personal experience, he thinks producers won’t hesitate to ask participants to act out of character.

“What I know from dealing with the producers is that they will try to get you to do things,” he said. “And if you’re not comfortable doing them you probably shouldn’t be on TV.” Hedlund said part of the reason his show was dropped by MTV is that he was not willing to stage fights or conflicts that didn’t really exist for the sake of television.

Kass said a participating couple will spend some time on the phone with producers between now and filming, which will take place sometime in late November or early December. She said after the week of filming is over all a couple has to do is wait for the episode to air, with no other commitments.