10 Horrifying Reality TV Shows You Won’t Believe Exist
1. Kid Nation (CBS, 2007 - 2008)
When the closest point of reference your reality show has is Lord Of The Flies, something has gone seriously wrong. Presumably created by someone who resents children considerably, Kid Nation sees a group of forty children aged between eight and fourteen set the task of setting up and managing a frontier town in New Mexico. The children are divided into four colour-coded groups (because apparently a Harry Potter vibe makes this less disturbing) and, in each episode, every group is given a specific caste and duty out of four options: upper class, cooks, merchants, and labourers, along with one of their members being part of the town's ruling council. As well as this, each episode features the town having to complete a task such as building a water pipeline with the council having a choice of bonuses to add to the town if the task is completed. And finally, to motivate the contestants, one child in each episode (chosen by the ruling council) wins a gold star worth $5,000 with three stars worth $50,000 being the main prize at the end of the season.
Many people's view of this show will differ considerably depending on whether or not you think the premise is inappropriate and will negatively affect the children. For example, in the second episode a consensus is reached for someone to kill two chickens and prepare them for the group's dinner that night. Personally, while I think that children should know where their food comes from, having them adopt an "Eat what you kill" lifestyle is just beyond the pale. Especially since the oldest person with authority there is about fourteen. At least when CBBC did a similar thing with their reality show Evacuation, the chickens were strangled by a responsible adult rather than decapitated by a teenager with an axe that looks like it's been stolen from Fred Flintstone's garden shed. There has also been talk of injuries caused to the children including one 11-year old being mildly burnt by grease while cooking a meal and four children supposedly needing medical attention after drinking a small amount of bleach out of an unmarked bottle.
Although camera crews, medics, and child psychologists were on hand at all times, they endeavoured to restrict their interaction with the children as much as possible. The lack of significant adult supervision is the real bone of contention here as well as the children having to carry out various tasks for the good of the town such as cooking and cleaning, or unfreezing the town's water supply. Again it's all down to personal views on child welfare but a child as young as eight leaving their family for a month and having to do things like cooking and cleaning in an environment where adult intervention is minimal just seems like it's not right. Kid Nation is hugely unfriendly to children on many levels and despite how within the law it is, I think that its ethics are far out of whack.
Which reality shows horrify you? Leave a comment...