Kid Nation: A Story Come to Life?

At first glance, Kid Nation—CBS’s newest and most controversial reality show—appears to be a Tall Tale come to life. In the show, dubbed “Survivor-junior” by some, forty kids are left to run an abandoned western town with no adult supervision.

When I first heard Kid Nation’s plot I became immediately curious because my own story, Sheriff Daisy (available on this website), has a remarkably similar premise. In my tale, a group of kids must single handedly save the Old West town of Coyote Gulch from a gang of bandits who have lured the adults away.

The important point is that already I knew the plot idea was terrific and I wanted to see if the show would live up to its potential.

Since its first airing, Kid Nation has been surrounded by controversy over whether leaving kids to fend for themselves is in their best interest. (For a good article on this issue check out Ann Hulbert’s “Call of the Wild” on Slate, the online daily magazine.) But for the purpose of this blog, I am less interested in whether CBS is ethically right or wrong than whether Kid Nation is good or bad drama.

What did I conclude? After watching the first part of the show, it quickly became clear to me that Kid Nation could never have the same magic as a great kid’s adventure story because the producers had gotten it only half right. The half they understood is that the key to creating exciting kids’ drama (whether it’s a story or a show) is to get the adults out of the picture. But the other half (the half wrong part) obviously leaves the adults just barely off camera and calling all the shots. The result kills any kids’ magic the show might have had.

This lie at the heart of the series shines through so clearly and so immediately, Kid Nation feels like just another contrived, reality TV-series. Given the world of high-budget TV, I doubt anything can be done to save this show. But I’m curious to hear what others think.