By Lisa de Moraes
Saturday, August 25, 2007; C07

CBS, which said it wanted to make some noise with its swing-for-the-fences-programming choices this fall, has received manifold blessings from its upcoming reality series "Kid Nation."

Forty kids, ages 8 to 15, were cast, taken out of school for 40 days, placed in a faux ghost town in New Mexico and asked to form their own society and government, a la "Lord of the Flies" -- only without the whole Piggy-death thing.

Not since the race wars edition of "Survivor" has a CBS reality series ginned up so much coverage. Granted, most of it has been negative, but CBS actively courts the kind of reality show that churns out bad press -- "Big Brother," "Armed & Famous," "Survivor" -- but tends to attract an audience younger than the typical CBS crowd.

The news reports on "Kid Nation" to date are the stuff PR-nightmare legends are made of: charges of thwarting child-labor laws; parents signing away their rights to sue if their child dies, is severely injured or contracts a sexually transmitted disease during the shooting; the mother of one child complaining her daughter was burned on the face and not properly treated; several more children allegedly drinking bleach by accident. More proof of the downright cravenness of Hollywood, debuting Sept. 19.

" 'Kid Nation' Parents: What Were They Thinking?" screamed one distraught newspaper headline writer.

"A CBS Reality Show Draws a Claim of Possible Child Abuse," wailed another.

"Is Child Exploitation Legal in 'Kid Nation'?" yet another asked rhetorically, like they meant it to sting.

So great was the media pile-on this week, the New Mexico attorney general's office said that "because of all this publicity and concern we will be putting together some sort of an action plan" in the near future.

"There may be some things we want to know more about," Phil Sisneros, a spokesman for Attorney General Gary King told The TV Column.

It all started in mid-July -- about two months after the show had been announced for CBS's fall prime-time schedule -- when the trade publication TV Week published a story on "how CBS navigated legal, PR and logistical shoals to produce" the reality series rivals said couldn't be done from "a legal, labor, public relations and logistical standpoint."

"How'd they do it? By literally declaring the production 'a summer camp' instead of a place of employment, by taking advantage of a loophole in New Mexico labor rules two months before the state legislature tightened the law," the trade paper wrote, noting that New Mexico has long been considered to have "some of the most lenient labor rules governing kids on entertainment productions." The story cited a member of the production crew saying the kids were woken at 7 a.m. and sometimes shot until midnight.

In addition to taping the series in a state "that didn't govern child labor on TV shows," the article said, the show's creator explained the kids weren't actually working anyway. "We were essentially running a summer camp," exec producer Tom Forman told TV Week. "They're participants in a reality show. They're not 'working.' They're living and we're taping what's going on," he explained. It's the same principle under which other reality series are shot -- but it sure sounds icky when you're dealing with children.

TV critics and reporters at the summer press tour, trolling the Internet while half listening to cast and crew of some new show or other blather on about how "it's all about the writing" or whatever, saw the story on the TV Week Web site, sat up and took notice. This was juicy stuff.

From there, the story spread like one of those STDs the parents of the "Kid Nation" kids can't sue CBS over if their child contracted one during the shoot.

One paper asked three of the mothers, "What were you thinking?" and recorded their responses. Other news reports surfaced of children forced to cook their own meals and clean their outhouses, and having to get up when the roosters started crowing -- a.k.a., my mother's childhood in Upstate New York. Far more disturbing reports were of a child allegedly burned by splattered grease and others who drank bleach from an unmarked pop bottle. Reports cited back-and-forthing between attorneys representing the production company, Good TV Inc., and various New Mexico government offices as to whether work permits should have been sought and whether the children were "employees."

Once the newspapers had given the story a good thrashing, TV news and infotainment shows jumped on the bandwagon, some devoting a full 30 seconds to their reports, including experts delivering zippy "No good can come of reality TV" quotes.

By the end of this week, CBS, which had been serving up some select kids, parents, producers and network execs to reporters, had drawn in the troops and issued a statement packed full of indignation. "Kid Nation" was a "voluntary television experience," the network said, "filmed responsibly and within all applicable laws in the state of New Mexico at the time of production." (Those laws have since been changed.)

In addition, CBS -- which may now be suffering from having oversold that "40 children, 40 days, no adults" tagline when it unveiled the show back in May -- insisted in its statement that the show was "extraordinary" in its "behind-the-scenes support structure." That included "on-site paramedics, a pediatrician, an animal safety expert and a child psychologist, not to mention a roster of producers assigned to monitor the kids' behavior," the network said.

"This meant that the few minor injuries that took place were all treated immediately and by professionals," CBS said in its statement. It did not elaborate on what the injuries were. The children were free to leave at any time.

"These kids were in good hands and under good care with procedures and safety structures that arguably rival or surpass any school or camp in the country."

In conclusion, CBS said, "We will therefore not accept irresponsible allegations or any attempts to misrepresent and exaggerate events, or spread false claims about what happened during the filming of KID NATION. The course of action now being undertaken by one parent is distorting the true picture of the KID NATION experience, about which the overwhelming majority of kids are highly enthusiastic and happy; a sentiment shared by their parents, too."

It's difficult to know what the other parents, except those few who were allowed to do interviews, really think about the experience. All of them had to sign a participation agreement that includes a strict confidentiality clause covering disclosure of information about the show and contact with the media for three years after the show. If they violate the pact, the agreement says they may be liable to CBS for a $5 million penalty. This agreement is not unlike those signed by participants on other reality series; it takes on more ominous overtones when signed by the parents of 8-year-olds so their children can be served up to entertain the masses in the fall.