Fall TV Alert: CBS' Kid Nation Takes Exploitation to a New Level

For your enjoyment CBS has created a reality TV series called Kid Nation, which tests the parenting skills of children ages 8-15 and forces them into pioneer life, albeit with cameras, makeup, producers and the like--so they probably aren't roughing it, now are they?

That depends on your version of roughing it--the set looks more like summer camp than anything too forbidding, but the manner in which it took 40 kids to boil up some macaroni and cheese in episode 1 calls for a few laughs and some gurgling stomachs if you're waiting for these children to cook you up some grub--and possibly starvation if you expect it to taste good.

For most it will be their 15 minutes of fame, as some may actually move on to a life as child stars, a la Lohan and Spears, replete with all the trappings, drugs, booze, unprotected sex and, of course paparazzi and stints in rehab.

Until that time the tots will be forced to live on their own in this show with 39 other children, in an old mining town called Bonanza, without mommy and daddy and all the amenities of home. In that time they'll get water from a well, milk goats, do chores and cook their own food.

But the reality is bigger than just that: after being dropped off by a big yellow school bus in the middle of nowhere, the kids will have to rebuild the town in which the home will be standing, a sagging, decrepit old mining shanty last popular in the 1880s.

And they'll have just 40 days to complete the task. A town council of four children has been appointed and they will do their best to keep the town in one piece. They include a spelling bee champ, a pageant queen, a Boy Scout and a student leader. Any of the 40 kids who can't make it in Bonanza--or, just want to go home to mommy or daddy or their life as they once knew it--get the opportunity when the Town Council meets once every several days. The Town Council also meets at that time to elect the winner of the Gold Star Award, a $20,000 prize given to "the most deserving pioneer."

In the first episode the prize was given, naturally, to Sophia, the macaroni chef. Without her the group would have likely starved.

The 40 kids range from ultraconservative Randi, an 11-year-old from Nevada who would like nothing more than not to allow immigrants into the United States but not allow them any freedoms (Yes, to stay but not no more, she says) to staunch liberal Maggie, an opinionated 14-year-old from Minnesota who says the Bushes are the two worst presidents in the history of the U.S.

With things like the Job Board, the series should make for some interesting plot twists. I wonder if they'll have unemployment? Also noteworthy will be a not-so-unrealistic race to get to the Upper Class between the kids, who are separated into four districts by the colors Red, Green, Blue and Yellow. Kids working in the Upper Class will get to choose their line of work, while the kids in the Lower Class are assigned positions, not unlike real life.

Whatever way you look at it, the series should provide America with an honest look into itself and its future as tomorrow's leaders provide a mirror through which the parents watching the show may be able to learn something about themselves.

Watch Kid Nation Wednesdays on CBS at 8 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT.