Kid Nation

40 kids are left on their own for 40 days in a New Mexico ghost town to form their own society and live by their own rules. Nobody is voted off, and the kids are free to leave when they want to. But they also have the ability to award one of their members a gold star (with about $20K) every few days, so there's some financial incentive to be a part of the tribe. It's the most controversial show of the fall, but based on the amazing five-minute preview CBS showed this spring, it's also potentially the breakout reality hit of the year.

The Pitch:	We take the cutthroat survival-of-the-fittest ethos of "Survivor" and throw in the overtones of a Dickensian workhouse in the setting of the Old West. What could possibly go wrong?
When It’s On	Wednesdays at 8 PT/ET, CBS
When It Starts	Wed 9/19
What It’s Up Against	Pushing Daisies (ABC), Deal or No Deal (NBC), Back to You/Til Death (Fox), Top Model (CW)
Cliche-o-Meter	Fish out of Water
Fandom Factor	Hot
Do Not Adjust Your Set:	This could be the first network show to ever be raided by Child Protective Services mid-episode.
Why It Will Be First To Go:	Because if I wanted to see kids get exploited, I'd go down to the sweatshop I'm running in my garage to make sure those little buggers finish up that order of knock-off wallets in time for the shipment to Zagreb.
Why It Won't:	Is anything more rejuvenating than the tears of the young?
Odds of Failure:	4-1
Show's official web site

(A TeeVee/TV Barn top 10 notable show.)

Full Review

Easily the most controversial new show of the fall, "Kid Nation," a 13-week reality show about 40 kids left more or less on their own for 40 days and nights to form their own society, is also the fall's most intriguing network offering. Like Olive, the chubby preteen who performs a striptease to Rick James' "Superfreak" in "Little Miss Sunshine," some will find "Kid Nation" appalling, but most will understand that it's just entertainment. CBS sets the bar high for its reality fare, and we'll have to see more than the five-minute cutdown that's been showing all summer at CBS.com to know if this show can aspire to the heights of "Survivor" and "The Amazing Race." But it sure looks a lot classier than, say, "Big Brother," and has the potential to be one of the most DVR-worthy shows of the fall. That's because the producers, which include Tom Forman of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" renown, seem to have done a terrific job conceptualizing and casting their televised social experiment. The kids, ages eight to 15, really get into it. They elect a town council, debate hot-topic issues of the day, and award a gold star (worth $20,000) every few days to the town's citizen-of-the-week. And the host, Jonathan Karsh, insisted to me this summer that adults rarely intevened, once when a kid burned herself with grease (the subject of a subsequent lawsuit), and that while any contestant could leave at anytime, the overall mood in Bonanza City -- the former ghost town turned movie ranch where "Kid Nation" was shot -- is that the kids wanted their nation to never end.--A.B.

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