PARIS (AP) --

Scores of people protesting France's hit reality TV show "Loft Story" led a raid on Saturday to "liberate" the 10 contestants, but were pushed back by a contingent of riot police and security guards lobbing tear gas.

Hours earlier, some 50 protesters dumped garbage in front of the headquarters of M6, the private television station that launched "Loft Story" two weeks ago.

The show, featuring 10 young men and women living on-camera in a loft in La Plaine-Saint-Denis, north of Paris, has broken viewer records but has also stirred heated debate since it began airing in late April.

Detractors denounce the show, which features titillating conversation and intimate moments between contestants, as pure voyeurism with no redeeming value.

On Friday, Communications and Culture Minister Catherine Tasca denounced the "cynicism" of M6 for airing it. The High Audiovisual Council, the industry's watchdog group, is to hold a special meeting Monday.

"We refuse to be mice in a cage," said some of the approximately 50 protesters outside the headquarters of M6.

The protesters threw eggs and tomatoes at the windows of the building west of Paris after depositing garbage, an old refrigerator and pieces of wood at M6's front door.

Hours later, north of the French capital, scores of "loft raiders," defying tear gas and some physical confrontations with security guards, advanced on the loft, intent on "liberating the hostages of M6."

Up to 80 raiders managed to penetrate the industrial site where the loft is located. Facing clouds of tear gas, they turned back several hundred yards before reaching their destination.

The raiders ended their attack with a salvo of fireworks.

"With the show, we're in a system of competition and humiliation between candidates," said Amelie Martenot, one of the protesters in front of M6. "When people agree to take part in such a humiliation, it's a little bit of each of us who feels humiliated."

"With trash TV, cameras are in the bathroom," read one sign at that protest.

Ten young men and women are holed up in the loft, trying to avoid elimination by fellow roommates and TV viewers during a 70-day period. In the first week, one contestant left voluntarily but was replaced.

Aziz was eliminated on Thursday, when M6 notched what is billed as a record audience -- 10 million viewers.

The prize, a $400,000 dream house, goes to the man and woman left after the other contestants have been voted out. The winners will have to spend six months living together in the prize house.

Last week, the chairman of the main private TV station, M6's rival, denounced the show as "trash TV" in an opinion piece published in the newspaper Le Monde.

Patrick Le Lay, who heads TF1, questioned the morality of a show that depicts the flings and breakups of 20-somethings seducing each other for a price. He did not note that TF1 is planning to air "Survivor."