I finally had the chance last night to watch the premiere of the new CBS reality show Kid Nation. It was somewhat entertaining.

The show follows forty kids as they spend forty days living in a New Mexico ghost town. The kids have to govern and run the town themselves. They also compete in competitions to determine which team performs each of the duties in the town and how much they get paid. The winning team earns the most and doesn’t have to do anything. The losing team clean the latrines and makes almost nothing.

The show was surrounded in controversy before it even aired with many people alleging the children’s rights were being violated. I don’t buy it. The kids are free to leave at any time and in many ways the stuff they do on the show is easier than what I had to do when I was young and in Boy Scouts.

Will I keep watching the show? Who knows. I’ll at least watch one more episode, but I’ve lost interest in reality TV and have better things I could be doing on a Wednesday night. CBS must think it’s going to be a big hit though, they’ve already started casting for Kid Nation 2!