Echoing its tactics with the series premiere of “Survivor” seven years ago, CBS has elected not to send “Kid Nation” screeners to critics.
The new unscripted series is about children, eight to 15 years of age, charged with creating for 40 days a new adult-free community in a New Mexico ghost town. I gather that scholarship money is distributed to at least one of the kids at the end of each episode.
It all sounds alarmingly like summer camp, but apparently because camera crews followed the kids around, the Screen Actors Guild is up in arms about 14-hour “workdays” and whatnot. The New Mexico government has been looking into alleged labor law violations. One kid allegedly burned her face on a stove; other kids allegedly accidentally drank bleach.
For those curious, CBS did screen the show for daytime talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, whose show provided a transcript of her conversation with cast members Sophia Wise (15, Winter Park, Fla.) and Mike Klinge (12, Bellevue, Wash.) and their moms:
Ellen: How’s it going?
Mike: It’s good?
Ellen: Did Greg ever get nicer?
Mike: He did.
Ellen: So your friends with all those people. You keep in touch?
Mike: We’re so close.
Ellen: Really? With all those people?
Mike & Sophia: Yeah.
Ellen: Do you think it was controversial? Do you think it was unfair? Especially when you see that little boy crying. What was his name?
Mike: Jimmy
Ellen: He even said, I’m too young for this.
Sophia: He was very young. It was tougher on the younger kids. But that’s why the older kids were there. You saw, Laurel, she looked after them. We were not neglected or abused if that’s what you’re getting at.
Ellen: When you saw the little kids having a hard time because it must be hard. Were nights, (to Mike) you got emotional, on the first episode I saw.
Mike: We went in to this show thinking it’s not like it was going to be easy. There’s going to be stressful times and hard points. I cried on the first day because it was hard. It wasn’t like they were just going to say, “Oh, okay we’re going to send you off and make sure you have cookies and we’re going to give you mattresses every night.” We knew we were going to have to work.
Ellen: You were tired and hungry and emotional. (To Sophia) You did not cry so far that I have seen. Did you cry ever?
Sophia: I think I did cry.
Ellen: At some point you did?
Sophia: Yes. You know I was one of the older ones.
Ellen: But you were strong. The only one (referring to the episode) I’ve seen is the one that airs tonight. I thought that you were very strong and very innovative to make that money you needed to make to buy the bike.
Ellen: Did you change in any way from this?
Sophia: I think I became much more independent as a person. My parents know this, I’ve developed much confidence and I think it was the same for all of the kids.
Ellen: What does the show prove to you? What’s the point of the show?
Sophia: In a nutshell, “Kid Nation” is for kids in the middle of the New Mexican desert trying to create a functioning society. The point is to show that kids do have good ideas and they are human beings who should be taken seriously.
Ellen: You all are exceptional kids. All the kids that I saw speak and you two, are obviously really smart. It seems like your parents put a lot of responsibility on you. There’s a lot stuff going on. Had you known how to cook before?
Sophia: I had cooked a little bit before. Never as much as I did in Bonanza and never using solely potatoes and rice.
Ellen: Do you think most kids were prepared to do this? Go out on your own? We debated this in the office this morning for about an hour. Some of our producers said they’d never send they’d never send my kids out there, I would never. And some said, wait one more year, you will send your kids. Were all the parents pretty cool? Are you close to your parents?
Mike: The thing was, people say, how could you send your kid out there. What were you thinking? If you don’t think your kid would be okay out there, don’t send your kid. My mom thought, “Mike I know you can handle it, I know that you are capable, and confident that you’re okay and you’ll be able to handle it. She had that confidence and faith in me. She just knew.
There were times when we all wanted to go home, but it happens. It was like, oh I’m going to love this.
Ellen: Were there nights that you cried and you wanted to go home?
Mike: There were times when we all wanted to go home, but it happens.
Ellen: (To Sophia) Did you want to go home?
Sophia: At times, I did want to go home but I was not about to let myself go home, because I know that this was about the experience that rolls around every day and for the sake of the hole, you had to stay. Its sort of like a really good book—you’re into it, you have to keep reading because if you leave now, you have to know what happens at the end.
Ellen: Were there certain relationships, like the guy Greg at first you must have not liked at all. I mean that guy was a bully. Did you end becoming close?
Mike: By the end we were all friends, some people were better friends than others. Greg-I can’t say that he was my best friend after that first couple of days but we were able to put our differences aside.
Mike’s mother, Jill Klinge, an attorney and Sophia’s mother Lori Pearson Wise also chime in on why “Kid Nation” is not controversial. Lori explains the contract she had to sign.
Ellen: Jill, explain, there’s a contract right? There’s a clause in the contract that basically says if something happens like death, you can’t sue us. They go that far to say if your child dies, you can’t sue. How do you feel about that?
Lori: We saw that clause in the contract. We had the contract reviewed by an attorney. My husband and I are both attorneys but we went to an entertainment lawyer and had him review the contract for us and talk about whether it was standard language or not. The bottom line for us was, if we felt that there was any chance that our son was going to get killed or seriously injured, he wouldn’t have been going on the show. So the fact that there was a clause in the contract to that effect really was not the point. We had to assure ourselves through other means that nothing like that was going to happen to our child. Once we were satisfied that he was going to be perfectly safe, then it really became a non-issue.
Ellen: Lori, was it hard? I mean for 40 days you didn’t see them at all. You’re able to talk to them on the phone? No?
Jill: Shakes her head no.
Ellen: Not at all. Are there reports? Do people call you?
Jill: Yes, every three days a producer slash counselor would give us a call. I asked her, you know my child is one of the oldest children on the show, so perhaps I have less concerns because my son has been away many times before. So I asked her to stop calling me every three days. (Audience laughs). Listen I’m Italian and Jewish when I see a long distance phone call coming in and I worry I think that there’s a problem. I said please don’t call me unless there’s a problem, but she kept calling anyway just to tell me that everything’s okay. I really didn’t worry. I was relieved that my kid was away for six weeks. You know quite frankly…I have two other children, two dogs, three cats. I don’t have a safety inspector sitting in my kitchen, a psychologist, a psychiatrist, a medic, a dietician, you know. I don’t have these people in my own household. My daughter was so well cared for there. She just started recently bicycling, a seven mile trip. I said to my husband, I wish she were back at Bonanza so I don’t have to worry about her. Now I have to worry.
8 p.m. Wednesday. CBS.
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