By Jennifer Larson

The much talked about and aligned KID NATION debuted tonight, and surprisingly, no child appeared to be severely damaged. I say surprisingly because it got so blasted over the summer that I expected to see little lost souls wondering around Bonanza City looking for somebody to feed them. In actuality, these kids seem to know what they are doing, and even come off looking more mature than many of the adults roaming around Reality TV.

The premise around this new show is to take 40 kids between the ages of 8 and 15, drop them off in a real life ghost town, well at least as real life as Reality TV gets, and see whether they can build their own society. While most of the kids rose to the challenge, one little boy, Jimmy, ended up leaving after becoming unbearably homesick. Hey the kid is only 8-years-old, I’m frankly amazed only one of them left. Jimmy’s abrupt departure was actually a catalyst for some of the maturity and society building I was talking about. After little Jimmy declared, “I think I’m too young to be doing this,” which did more than just tug at my heart strings, it snapped at it like a rubber band, the rest of the kiddie crew rallied around and took care of him. Sadly, chasing jackrabbits and trying to build his self-esteem wasn’t enough to keep the little guy around. However, it wasn’t all smooth sailing at Bonanza City.


One teenager, Greg, felt the need to push an 11-year-old. At the age of 15, Greg should really know better. But he did manage to redeem himself by helping another townie that pulled a muscle. One of the issues many people had with the premise of this show was the fact that these kids were being exploited for the all mighty dollar. While there is probably a lot of truth to that, they do get the opportunity to win some cash along the way. There are also group competitions that reward the kids with prizes to help them build their society. In tonight’s competition the kids actually chose toilets over a TV set as their reward. Perhaps we haven’t given these children as much credit as they deserve. I am embarrassed to admit that the TV would have been a no brainer for me.

On top of winning group prizes, there is a coveted Gold Star awarded every few days to the kids the council leaders feel is most deserving. This reward is no joke, it’s worth 20,000 dollars, hello college fund! The council leaders were chosen ahead of time and consist of 11-year-old Mike, a boy scout, 10-year-old Taylor, a pageant queen, 12-year-old Anjay, a spelling bee champ and 12-year-old Laurel, a student leader. I assume they were all chosen for a reason, and for now they seem to be able to handle the responsibilities. Perhaps the one thing overlooked was the ability of children to cook. While an 8-year-old may be able to handle a mean peanut butter and jelly sandwich, stove top cooking requires a whole different skill set.


Here’s where the kids proved themselves again. Well at least 14-year-old Sophia did. after finding a cookbook, macaroni and cheese was decided upon for dinner. Good choice, it was always one of my favorites. However, they couldn’t manage to follow the recipe, the first time around and it was a disaster. This is where Sophia proved her leadership abilities, by taking over and serving up a dinner every kid could eat. By the end of the episode, the kids settled into a somewhat normal routine and their society got up and running.

I had some pretty big concerns about KID NATION, after hearing a little bit about it. But after watching the first installment, I’ve seen enough to make me want to come back from more. That’s really all any new show can hope for.