Kid Nation

The CBS reality show Kid Nation was met with a lot of controversy by the viewing public when it first began.

The premise of the show was to take a group of 40 children between the ages of eight and 15 and leave them to their own devices for six weeks. The tasks at hand for these young children were:

• Create and successfully maintain a functioning society in Bonanza City, New Mexico – The city was once a mining town, but not much of one. Bonanza City was founded in 1880 by miners looking for precious metals. The city reached its peak population in 1884 with about 200 residents. A year later, its residents moved on and the city became a "ghost town" in 1885.
• Set up a local government system for the city (dubbed "The Council" on the show) – Even when some may claim that adults don't seem to have the running of the government down pat, CBS expected these children to create a successful one.
• Determine a hierarchy within the governmental system they have created – Leaders of Bonanza City had to be determined by the children.
• Create and pass laws – Asking kids to make rules? Those CBS producers sure are brave.
• Create and run an economy – Every kid ages 8 to 15 knows about the concepts of macro and micro economics, free market economies, capitalism, laissez faire, supply, demand and opportunity cost, right?

While these children are trying to accomplish the above described tasks, they were also expected to cook and clean. The tasks of cooking and cleaning was even more difficult by the fact that the children had no indoor running water and had to get buckets of water from water pumps outside.

Most who followed the show can't help but mention a few of the stand out contestants. Some of these kids were memorable for good reasons while others are remembered for their bad behavior.

• Greg – 15 year old Greg was noted for his bad temper and his skills as a PVC pipe layer and butcher. Over the course of the show, Greg was often shown losing his temper, punching windows and dragging one of the female contestants out of her sleeping bag and into the middle of the street. Regardless of his ill temper and bullying ways, Greg was dubbed a "hard worker" and the residents of Bonanza City developed a love-hate relationship with the teenager. For this hard work, Greg received a $20,000 Gold Star in episode five.

• Taylor – Southern belle Taylor, age 10, irritated not only the residents of Bonanza City, but by some viewers as well. This beauty pageant girl was often accused of being lazy and not pulling her own weight around the city. When asked about her behavior on the show, Taylor claims that she wasn't really like that, the show was edited to make her look bad and that producers fed her lines like her famously annoying "Deal with it!" line. Producers deny that they ever fed the kids lines.

• Sophia – This 14 year old was a viewer favorite throughout the show. She was kind, thoughtful and considerate. Her favorite quote is John Adams' "I cannot contemplate human affairs without laughing to crying; I choose to laugh." Not to mention her favorite book is Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.

• Jared – Fun, cute and quirky 11 year old Jared became a favorite among the kids. Jared was known for quoting and performing various Shakespearean sonnets and plays.

Though it was much talked about - and had plenty of controversy surrounding it - CBS did NOT pick up Kid Nation for a second season, leaving Bonanza City, New Mexico a ghost town once again.

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