Monty Brinton/ CBS
Yesterday was Tuned In Jr.’s first day of school. He came home with a nasty skinned knee and a bandage on his finger from an accident with scissors. Foolishly, perhaps, we are not getting the lawyers involved. Because, you know, kids get hurt, right? Not exactly shocking.
It might have seemed different, though, if he had not been at school but on set for a CBS reality show. Then I could tell you all how horrifying and irresponsible it was that this mere child came home bleeding and had been stabbed in his hand, all in the space of one day!
I’m referring, of course, to CBS’s Kid Nation, the reality show about kids age 8 to 15 running a society in a ghost town, which has gotten a ton of bad (and possibly, in a ratings sense, good) publicity. I don’t want to minimize the charges against it–reportedly, kids accidentally drank bleach during filming (though they reportedly ended up fine) and one was splattered by hot grease in a kitchen. But I also don’t want to join the rush to maximize them.
The controversy seems to be much more about the context than the actual hazards. Kids getting injured, having accidents, trying things and getting hurt–sounds kinda like summer camp. The kids’ parents also had to sign a long contract, reproduced at The Smoking Gun, releasing CBS from responsibility for injuries, illness or death–again, not unlike the boilerplate liability waiver for adult reality shows or amusement parks. But once a reality show is involved, the moral outrage is ratcheted up, because we all know that reality TV is the Official Most Evil Example of Whatever You Personally Believe Is Wrong With the World.
And OK, maybe the issue is simply the idea of exposing kids to reality cameras. God knows I wouldn’t sign my kids up–but then again, I wouldn’t want my kids to be child actors or models or pageant contestants. But although the media seem to have forgotten it, casting kids in reality shows is hardly unprecedented. Kids competed in American Juniors–a much more competitive show than Kid Nation appears to be–and America’s Got Talent, and Discovery Kids’ Endurance has sent children on a Survivor-style competition (again, in contrast to Kid Nation’s communitarian, work-together premise) for several seasons, without public outcry. Kid Nation doesn’t even have a voting-off competition. Children get eliminated more painfully on national TV at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
There’s a long history of people attacking reality shows sight unseen, on the basis of their premises. It usually turns out to be an overreaction. Critics were sure that UPN’s Amish in the City would exploit and humiliate its countrified participants; it turned out to be a good-hearted show where the Amish kids came off extremely well. Ditto the feel-good Beauty and the Geek. Public protest kept ABC from airing Welcome to the Neighborhood, because the premise involved people from various minority groups applying for a house in a homogenous gated community. But the show turned out to be good-spirited, the closed-minded neighborhood residents took a close look at their biases, and the house ended up going to a gay couple. The gay media advocacy group GLAAD ended up endorsing its ultimate message.
Of course, CBS has brought this media storm on itself, by refusing to show the press and critics a full episode of the show–no doubt quite cannily, to let the hype and ratings build. The strategy, I’ll bet, is that they’ll get a big tune-in, and people who were worked up over the controversy will decide that (as the trailer CBS screened at upfronts seemed to indicate, at least) the show is not Lord of the Flies but is actually feel-good, even wholesome.
Maybe it is, maybe it’s not–I haven’t seen an episode, so I’m waiting for the evidence. Fair informed judgment, after all, is what they try to teach kids about in school. You know, when they’re not exposing them to murderous cutting implements in art class.