Prior to its broadcast, "Kid Nation" faced allegations that it had violated child protection laws and endangered the safety of its young cast members. But the biggest crime I saw committed on the show's premiere was felony creepiness.
Here's the premise: The kids have to rebuild the ghosttown and subsist for 40 days on a cache of supplies given to them at the show's start. They are told that four other children have been picked as their town council, and are eventually split into groups, each overseen by a different council member.
In the premiere, the groups competed for status in the town using the kind of physical challenge one might see on the old kids' game show "Double Dare." The winners are the town's upper class; second place runs stores; third place are the cooks and fourth place are the laborers. Every week, the council picks the hardest working kid and gives him or her a gold star worth $20,000.
Here's the thing about "Kid Nation" -- despite all the hoopla, it's pretty much your typical reality show. There are feuds, backstabbing and snooty young women who say things like "Beauty queens don't do dishes!" Still, there's something creepy about all these reality show conventions being acted out by little children and adolescents (the oldest is 15).
They seem like little parrots, mimicking all the terrible things they see adults do on shows like "Survivor." For that reason alone, "Kid Nation" is tough to watch. Sure, the show's first episode was ratings hit, but I find it hard to believe this is something people will come back to week after week.
More likely, they'll be like little Jimmy who, at the premiere's concluding town council meeting, announced that he was leaving "Kid Nation." Good for him.