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Kid Nation bursts onto reality television this week
by Jackie Schnoop, posted Sep 16th 2007 11:22AM
Yes, it's almost here -- the premiere of the highly controversial reality television show Kid Nation. 40 children, 40 days, no adults. Despite the controversy about this show, discussed in this article and in this article too, I am psyched for it!It all starts on Wednesday evening at 8 PM ET/PT on CBS. Not that I pooh-pooh child labor laws, but in my opinion the whole thing doesn't look any more dangerous or child labor filled than summer camp or living with my family when I was a kid myself. Heck, I managed to sprain my neck at summer camp one year. Any of these kids do that on the show?
While I haven't seen a screener of the show, I've been doing a lot of poking around on the CBS website. I can tell you right now that although I'll be talking about the show all this season, no way am I going to memorize the names of forty kids.
The premise behind the show certainly isn't child abuse. I know that if I were 12 again, I'd be begging my parents to let me apply. The premise is that 40 children ranging from 8½ to 15 years old take over a ghost town named Bonanza City, New Mexico. They're in charge of building a new society, a new government, and all the aspects of running a town all on their own for 40 days. It's Lord of the Flies with a bit more civility. On this show there are rules that they have to work jobs, have town votes, and such despite the fact there supposedly aren't any rules. I'm not sure if the kids would do things the way the show wants if they were truly given a free rein.I've read that each child received a $5,000 stipend to be on the show. In addition, every third day -- which means each episode -- a child will be elected by his peers to receive a gold star worth $20,000. What remains a mystery is what goodies come about at the end of the season. But it sounds to me like the bucks involved could go a long way towards funding a college education, especially if invested wisely for the youngest children.
And, it does look like this group of children are indeed college-bound. For some it's ten years away, but almost all (including the 8 year-old) have their own views on politics and world problems, many very intelligently reasoned out. On the website, each kid has designed their own little information pages. I know that at nine, no way was I as deep as some of the kids I see listed. I can think of some of my answers to bio questions at that age:
Q: What is the biggest problem facing the world today?
A: Early bedtimes -- my parents won't let me stay up to watch TV.
Q: Where do you see yourself in ten years?
A: I want to be a professional water skier. Oh, and a writer. And a lion tamer!
Instead, these kids want to be attending Harvard or solving all the world's problems. A few were really cute to read. One of the younger girls thinks that children should have the right to vote but would make a law to make the minimum age to drive older since children aren't mature enough to drive. Heh, now there's priorities in action, eh?
Now, I'm not really into torturing children. Really, I'm not. But I think this is going to be one of the more interesting reality television shows out there. Yeah, it's child exploitation; CBS will make big bucks off of the show. But it sounds like the majority of the kids who participated have really treasured the experience.
A quote from one Kid Nation kid, Laurel, from the CBS website:
"I WOULD GO BACK TO BONANZA CITY, NEW MEXICO AND DO IT ALL AGAIN. I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT THERE, EVEN THOUGH THERE WAS NO TV, NO VIDEO GAMES, NO IPOD, NO PHONE, NO HAIR DRYERS, NO LIP GLOSS, NO MODERN DAY COMFORTS, I HAD MORE FUN THERE THAN I COULD HAVE ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD!"
Those are her caps, not mine. But I bet she expresses the sentiment of many of the kids we're going to be seeing. I know we'll see hard times and tears, but in the end ... these kids had the experience of their young lives.
| Yes, wouldn't miss it | |
|---|---|
| No way! | |
| What's Kid Nation? |
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