What in tarnation is "Kid Nation"?
Easily the most impressive of the four new shows CBS will be adding to its fall lineup is the reality program "Kid Nation." The premise is simple: Forty days, forty kids, NO grownups. Well, almost no grownups — host Jonathan Karsh appears from time to time, and there's a whole crew of adults working behind the scenes. But you get the point: It's an experiment in self-governance on the part of a community made up entirely of children ages eight to 15.
In a contentious Q-and-A with critics this week, Tom Forman, a former news producer, explained that he dreamed up "Kid Nation" after deciding most reality TV was too predictable. "I was just getting bored by the genre, bored by the Hollywood reality types that auditioned for every show I did," Forman said. "Well, maybe we needed to look for participants who weren't even born when ('Survivor') premiered."
Critics were mostly wowed by the slick, five-minute preview reel for "Kid Nation," which seemed to show the children succeeding at the task of organizing themselves, debating matters of self-governance and performing ranch chores in the onetime New Mexico ghost town. However, they were also troubled by the close-ups of kids crying on camera — which, several critics noted, could come back to haunt them someday — and by the game of legal dodgeball that CBS and the producers had to play.
Forman admitted that "Kid Nation" could not be shot in California because it violated the state's labor laws (indeed, New Mexico closed a loophole July 1 that allowed the show to film there). Nor did he deny that the kids sometimes endured 17-hour shooting days, but he said no one was compelled to take part in the show and could leave at any time.
"They woke up whenever they felt like it, they set their own bedtime, and they discussed these things and debated them," he said. "We taped whatever happened."
