"Kid Nation" or "Child Island"?

One of the more controversial new shows airing this fall is CBS’ reality show Kid Nation. This is a description of the program, one that a great deal of people find very exploitative and problematic. Me, I just think it could end up being really boring.

“The show, which recalls William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies, will feature 40 children, aged 8-15, living in a ghost town named “Bonanza Town” that had been uninhabited since the 19th century. The children will be required to create a functioning society in the town, as well as set up a government system used to solve problems in the town. The children will be attempting to prove that they can create a functioning society.

At the end of each episode an elected council of kids award the “Gold Star”, worth $20,000, to a fellow participant.

The show stresses the pressure of creating a viable society. The official CBS promo depicts children arguing with one another, crying, and falling over with exhaustion in challenges.”

Sounds kind of creepy, doesn’t it? Who could have possibly thought of such a premise?

Apparently, comedian Jamie Kennedy already did years ago. In this clip from the WB hidden camera prank show The Jamie Kennedy Experiment, he plays a Hollywood producer pitching an idea for a new reality show to a focus group made up of children and their worried parents, the show he refers to as “the final chapter in reality television,” known as Child Island. (The slogan--"Who will win? Child or island?") Showing them what he describes as a kids version of Survivor, he manages to expose what really goes into network television promotion and pretty much tell the future.

The clip has been barred from embedding, so below is the link to the video file.

YouTube: Jamie Kennedy's Child Island

Seems that the star of Malibu’s Most Wanted and Kickin It Old Skool has a little bit of Nostradamus in him. Who knows if other bits of his show, which was canceled in 2003, may also come true in the future?

I vote for the prank in which a restaurant worries its patrons with the upsetting news that there may be a rodent infestation in the walls. At the climax of the sketch, a six-foot rat breaks through the walls and chases the staff.

It could happen.