Kid Nation is an American reality television show hosted by Jonathan Karsh that premiered on the CBS network on September 19, 2007 created by Tom Forman Productions and Endemol USA.

While each child received $5,000 for their involvement, Gold Stars valued at $20,000 and $50,000 were awarded to select outstanding participants as decided by the elected Town Council.

[7] Speaking before an audience of television reviewers, producer Tom Forman acknowledged that Kid Nation would inevitably share some elements with William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies, which depicted planewrecked children without adult supervision.

Adults were present off-camera during production, including cameramen, producers, a medic, and a child psychologist, although all interacted with the children as little as possible.

[23][failed verification] Ahead of its premiere, the show proved to be the most controversial of the upcoming fall 2007 season, even though the only actual footage seen was a four-minute promo running on television and the Web.

"[26] William Coleman, a professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina, argued that the younger children, ages 8 to 12, might not be able to deal with the stress, yet could be enticed to participate by the potential fame or be pressured to do so by a parent.

[27] Los Angeles Times reporter Maria Elena Fernandez interviewed four of the children, who told her they had worked harder than they ever had in their lives but would willingly repeat the experience.

[28] Reviewing the first episode, Washington Post columnist Tom Shales suggested that the show is "not so much an exercise in socialization as the indoctrination of children into a consumer culture".

[30] Reflecting near the end of the season, Los Angeles Times writer Maria Elena Fernandez, who had reported extensively on Kid Nation, wrote that neither the show's pre-premiere promises nor controversies quite congealed: the children were never as autonomous or self-reliant as the publicity indicated and the threatened legal investigations by the state of New Mexico never took off.

Brad Adgate, an analyst with Horizon Media, said the chances were not good unless a writers' strike, ongoing at the time of the season finale, increased demand for more reality shows.

[50] The federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 limits the number of hours that children can work in a day, but has exemptions for film and television production.

[50] However, New Mexico had other general child-labor provisions that limited children under 14 to a maximum number of hours per week or day unless previously cleared with the state, which CBS had not appeared to have obtained.

He also confirmed that on two separate occasions, ambulances were called because one child accidentally consumed bleach from an improperly rinsed container, and the aforementioned Divad Miles burned her face with grease while cooking.