What Were They Thinking?!?!

I am a reality TV junkie. I admit it. I've watched everything from Flavor of Love to Who Wants To Be A Superhero? and without shame. I know what I like in a reality show: people who don't look perfect and who aren't on the bright side. I realize that's probably a disturbing sign of something disturbing. But the more screwed up the people seem to be, the more I seem to like it. That's why I dug Flavor of Love and I Love NY and not the Bachelor shows. One Flavor of Love girl even crapped in the floor! It's not gonna get any realer than that! Show me some washed up has been two hit wonder who's looking for love (and probably to promote his attempt at a comeback album) and the 20 drunken former/current strippers who answer the casting call. You can call it...Rock of Love. Yes, I'm hooked on that, too.

Maybe reality TV is exploitive, maybe it isn't. I'm always surprised that at least one or two people on reality shows have made the rounds of a few OTHER reality shows, usually things like Elimidate or 5th Wheel (you really don't want me to link them). But apparently even I have my limits. And this fall, I'm looking for ways to make my voice heard.

Kidz Nation airing on CBS this September needs to be yanked off the air. 40 kids are supposed to be there alone (although there are obviously adults running the cameras). You can watch the sickly sweet little promotional clip if you click on the Kidz Nation link. The kids are between 8-15, and they have to do everything themselves--cooking, killing animals if they want meat, etc., etc. Watching the promo where some of the kids sat in with the chickens to keep them from being killed was pretty cute. But then, of course, it all goes sour...

...because the next shot is of kids pushing each other and pulling to get what they want. And of course, kids are crying on camera, etc. It's a true Lord of the Flies scenario (where adults are just watching rather than truly being absent). I have so many problems with this, I don't know where to begin. But here are my two biggest ones. FIRST: child exploitation. Because these children are not considered to be actors, child labor laws don't apply to them. New Mexico, where the show is being shot, is the only place to have this sort of loophole. They have since closed that loophole, so if CBS wants to do a second season, they're going to find it hard to stage it anywhere else. Even though the Kidz Nation producer denies looking for a loophole to child labor laws (which restricts, among other things, how much a child can be worked--filmed--in a day), it is a bit odd that the only state whose laws could be twisted into fitting magically ended up as the chosen site. A former child actor turned advocate slams the show as being a "travesty." I have to agree. What happens when the kid who breaks down in tears comes to be known around America as the "crybaby"; or the bossy girl ends up the "bitch" of the show? They're so young it would be hard to live down.

SECONDLY: What in the godhell kind of parent lets their kid go unsupervised for over a month with a bunch of other, probably older kids to see Lord knows what might happen?? Are these people loons? Are they so greedy for television careers for their kids that they would be willing to jeopardize their mental health for it? It's long been a fact that child actors have an extremely difficult time transitioning into adulthood and going about a "normal" life after they've been momentarily famous. We can all just times that by 40 now.

I'm very angry at this. I'm a reality TV junkie, and even this is too much. I'm officially starting my protest of this show right now, and CBS can look forward to (or ignore at their pleasure) the litany of angry emails I'm going to be submitting to whoever has a listed address. I don't know if it will be effective or not, but somebody should say something!

-- Virgil