Please, CBS, Don’t Cancel ‘Kid Nation’

It’s 9:30 a.m. on August 29, and you know what that means: only 21 days, 10 hours, and 30 more minutes until the premiere of what has the potential to be the greatest and most hilarious reality show in television history, CBS’s Kid Nation! In case you’ve been living under a rock, KN will star 40 kids, ages 8 to 15, who are left to survive for 40 days in a New Mexican ghost town with no parents — a premise that was surely conceived by the smartest angels in the most beautiful part of heaven.

But there are some killjoys out there who’d like nothing more than to spoil our fun. Haters like the Hollywood Reporter’s Barry Garron, citing things like “safety” and “laws,” are even calling for Kid Nation to be canceled! “This has all gone far enough,” he wrote in an editorial, possibly while strangling a puppy. “It’s time for CBS to cut its losses, apologize for an idea that was well-intentioned but ill-considered and pull Kid Nation from the schedule.”

For some reason, Garron and other critics are upset about the fourteen-hour days the children were reportedly forced to work or the insufficient medical attention received by the four rascals who accidentally drank bleach on set. First of all, kids are growing up so fast these days — why shouldn’t they be cleaning outhouses and preparing their own meals (provided they wash their hands in between)? To anyone complaining about the alleged 100-hour workweeks, remember this: Those are hours that these kids probably would have spent pimping their rides or getting each other pregnant anyway.

And — no matter how you feel about Kid Nation — to cancel it now would be the worst possible thing for all parties involved; the season has already been taped and the damage/magic has been done. Pulling it from CBS’s schedule would just be a slap in the already-scorched face of 11-year-old Divad Miles, a contestant on the show who burned herself while operating a stove without adult supervision.

CBS should pull plug on “Kid” reality show [HR]