By category and by premise, the new CBS TV reality series, Kid Nation was destined to be controversial. So controversial there were no screenings for critics, a move itself which fueled the controversy:
Contacted yesterday by The TV Column, CBS said in a statement that opting not to send review episodes to critics was “for both marketing reasons and to protect the outcome of the episode and is not the first time it’s been done by a network.”
The network also noted “Kid Nation” “has received a tremendous amount of criticism from those who have not seen a stitch of film.”
CBS’s indignation over the media uproar is something of a head-scratcher, given that the network said it was courting controversy with this series. In fact, at the Summer TV Press Tour in July, CBS Entertainment chief Nina Tassler told those critics in re “Kid Nation,” “We knew we were going to create some controversy.” She also said, “For a reality show to really get out there and change the landscape of television, you have to stir public debate.”
If you missed Kid Nation last night, you can watch the entire premiere episode online. Or watch the five-minute CBS promo:
Notably, premiere episode advertisers were sparse:
Here are some of the clues offered by the few spots that ran during “Kid Nation” of how strongly advertisers resisted the program (or the first episode, anyway):
* Many of the advertisers could be categorized as bottom-feeders — that is, known for their willingness to buy commercial time cheap when other marketers shy from a controversial show.
Among them were Chattem Inc., for Icy Hot pain reliever; Combe Inc., for Vagisil, a feminine-care product; and two movie studios, the Warner Brothers unit of Time Warner and the 20th Century Fox division of the News Corporation.
Last month, The Smoking Gun obtained and posted the 22-page agreement which parents of Kid Nation participants signed. As The Smoking Gun notes:
Parents of minors starring in “Kid Nation,” the controversial new CBS reality show, signed away their rights to sue the network and the show’s producers if their child died, was severely injured, or contracted a sexually transmitted disease during the program’s taping. The blanket liability waivers are contained in a detailed “participant agreement” prepared by the show’s producers and signed by parents. That document, a copy of which you’ll find below, also gave consent to CBS and its production partners to make medical treatment decisions on the minor’s behalf (including surgery), though the network made no promises about the “qualifications or credentials” of medical professionals that might treat the stars of “Kid Nation,” which was originally titled “The Manhattan Project.”
Yes, legal language and fine print, when we actually read it, can be intimidating. Parents got over that, apparently, and thought of the fame and the fortune, or perhaps did a statistical analysis and determined the probability of their child being injured or killed in the usual car/bike/pedestrian accident was much higher. But still, giving up the right to sue must have been agonizing.
