Kid Nation was a reality TV show that premiered on CBS and aired every Wednesday at five o’clock. The show featured forty children, aged nine to fifteen, and was filmed in New Mexico in an abandoned city south of Santa Fe called Bonanza. In the show, the children try to create their own functioning society that is ran by kids with minimal adult supervision. At the end of each episode, one participant received a gold star which was worth $20,000.

The town was ran by a group of four pre-selected children that formed the Town Council. The Council’s members could be removed by a majority of disagreement in their leadership by the town’s citizens. In such a case, a vote would be held on who was to replace the previous leader.

The city contained western era buildings such as a chapel, a barn where Town Hall meetings are held, a grocery store, a dry goods store, and a saloon.

During each episode, the council consults a journal said to be written by earlier founders of Bonanza City that describes an issue that the current residents may be facing and suggests ideas to consider. Topics have included killing chickens for meat, dealing with a curfew to establish law and order, and handling the many religions represented by the kids.

In every episode, there is what’s called a Town Showdown. These were mental and physical challenges in which the four districts competed for ranks on the Job Board. The jobs were Upper-class, Merchants, Cooks, and Laborers. Upperclassmen had no work requirement, but were encouraged to help with the town’s jobs. Merchants were assigned to run the stores and the saloon. Cooks were required to make meals for the town and clean the dishes. And finally, Laborers had to make repetitive trips with buckets of water from the well to the tower, do the laundry, clean the outhouses, and various other tasks. Additionally, districts were paid accordingly to their jobs, with salaries ranging from 10 cents to 1 dollar. They were paid in buffalo nickels.

I highly recommend this TV show, but the current season has already ended, and I hope they continue the series.