Can reality TV get any more pathetic? Apparently so. Just check out the Kid Nation promo.

Here's the pitch: 40 kids, aged 8-14, are left in an abandoned frontier town, and forced to "create their own functioning economy." They cook, they clean, they vote. CBS is touting the show as a way to prove that kids can be just as miserable as your average 19th century pioneer. Awesome.

But guess what: the show's producers might have gotten a little overzealous and, dare we say, a tad exploitative. In an article that appeared yesterday as the featured story on the New York Times Web site, Kid Nation may have violated child labor labor laws. The article also brought up some disturbing aspects of the contract signed by the kids and their "parents," such as a clause that doesn't hold the network responsible if one the kids contracts HIV during filming. Good times.

Kid Nation premieres on CBS Sept. 19.

When the video for Mika's "Big Girl" went viral, I just thought it was another fun pop track from the Lebanese Londoner. That's because I'm not a viral marketing genius, and I didn't come up with the idea to produce a new video starring the cast of the incredibly popular Ugly Betty, with rewritten lyrics about Betty being the beautiful one.

Showing us the world as seen through Betty's glasses, this is a perfect symbiosis of music and television promotion, the catchy beat meshing flawlessly with the bright pop style of the sophomore primetime hit. Well-played, ABC marketing genius. Well-played indeed.

"Judgment Day" -- that’s what ESPN and ABC are tagging the most anticipated regular season college football game of this season, and possibly all time. The undefeated Michigan Wolverines (ranked #2) take on the also undefeated #1 Ohio State tomorrow .

Michigan vs. Ohio State is arguably the greatest rivalry in not just college football, but in all of sports. Their yearly battle is simply known as “The Game,” and, if you haven’t learned from the ESPN commercial yet, to see a Wolverine and a Buckeye share an affable relationship -- let alone passionately kiss each other -- could make a diehard fan lose his lunch.

I think it would be less awkward to see Rush Limbaugh and Michael J. Fox cuddle at a stem cell rally than watch these two teams butt heads. Well maybe not, but I’m still against “making-out with” your rival and I think that bonds that exist between a Michigan fan and an Ohio State fan will, without question, ultimately crumble after one hostile quarter of “The Game.”

Tomorrow’s big game will be the first time since 1987 that the two top-ranked teams in the nation have battled for their conference title. It is unfortunate that this historical match-up is not the National Championship game, as these two teams are clearly the most dominant in all of college football. The winner will earn the Big Ten Conference title along with a trip to the National Championship game in Arizona on January 8th 2007.