Kid Nation

Channel 5 is much better after midnight on weekdays.

If you ever get a chance to stay up and/or can bother to record it, do try to catch Kid Nation (Channel 5 on weekdays, 2am - 3am).

I thought it was a kid's show, but I was so wrong. This is a reality show with kids, but what the audience sees is far from being childish.

Throw 40 kids, aged 8 to 15, in an abandoned ranch in the middle of nowhere without adult supervision for 40 days, and call them 'Pioneers'. Divide them into 4 colour groups. Make them compete in challenges.

The winning team will get to be the 'Upper Class', i.e. no chores, just get money each for doing nothing. The 1st runner up will be the 'Merchant Class', where their responsibility was to man a shop in the ranch.

The 2nd runner-up will be the 'Cooks', having to cook for the entire camp. The last group gets the sucky title of 'Labourers' and equally sucky menial tasks of cleaning the toilets and fetching water, while making only a couple of cents. YES. It is like real life.

Meanwhile, encourage the kids to make decisions such as whether they should kill the chickens in the barn for food. Watch their reactions. Some kids get really emotional about something like that.

Wait... We are not done with the structure of this little society. Each colour group nominates a leader which represents the group in the Town Council. The Town Council has the power to make decisions on behalf of the Pioneers.

Once all 4 groups complete a challenge within the time limit, the Pioneers are presented with 2 options for a reward. By default, the Town Council gets to make the decision on behalf of the Pioneers. In one instant, after a wet and tiring challenge, the kids were dirty and shivering in the cold, and presented with 2 options. (A) An microwave with cocoa powder to make hot chocolate, or (B) 40 steaming hot pizzas. The kids went nutz and started chanting Pizza! Pizza! One of them was even wondering about the toppings.

But the Town Council chose the microwave, because 'the pizzas will only last 1 day' but the microwave would be very useful for the rest of the stay at the ranch. Surprisingly rational.

Ahhh... But here's the lovely bit of this programme, you witness the ramifications of such decisions... Afterwards, the Town Council, especially the kid who fought for the microwave, became rather unpopular... Just like how politicians become unpopular when they try to do the 'right' thing.

When the Town Council tried to put together a compulsory prayer session to calm the camp's nerves, no one turned up. =))
 ....................................

Because of the participation of children in the series, some thought it's unethical, e.g. child labour issues. The concept of ' forcing adult issues onto children/childhood' became a point of contention too. What a waste!

See details in its wikipedia entry as highlighted at the start of the entry.