kid nation
08/23/2007
"Kid Nation" Gets Too Real? CBS This Fall
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.
