'Kid Nation' parents speak out - Though bound by a confidentiality pact, they tell advocacy groups of concerns that children were fed lines.
Amid the media firestorm and scrutiny by public officials, a group of "Kid Nation" parents has expressed concerns to two Los Angeles-based advocacy groups that monitor child labor in the entertainment industry about the way producers handled aspects of the production in New Mexico this past spring.
The 40 children and their parents are bound by a confidentiality agreement with CBS' subsidiary Magic Molehill Productions, and Good TV Inc. that prevents them from speaking to the press without the "consent of an authorized representative of CBS." According to the participation agreement, violators must pay $5 million to CBS.
But about a quarter of the parents involved have spoken confidentially to the BizParentz Foundation and A Minor Consideration about the fact that during the course of the show, producers gave their children lines to say or asked them to re-cast dialogue or repeat scenes.
The parents watched the last day of filming in May, which included the show's final town council meeting, interviews with the children, and some retakes. According to Anne Henry, co-founder of BizParentz, the parents saw the children being prompted to utter lines such as "Oh, wow!" and "No, don't do that" and to review on camera things that had happened earlier during the the production.
Henry said she has also spoken to crew members who confirmed that the children were sometimes directed and told what to say.
"That may be surprising to the public, but it's actually not unusual for reality TV," Henry said. "It's not unusual for shows to make sure they have all the footage they might ever need to cut and paste the story line they want to create because they're creating entertainment. But that is significant in this situation because CBS and the producers are trying to claim that this was not work and was not scripted and the children were not actors."
Tom Forman, the creator of "Kid Nation," said Thursday that the parents observed routine "pickups" for scenes in the show that were perhaps missed because of technical difficulties or cameras not positioned to capture the face of the child speaking. The children also gave final interviews on the last day and were asked to recall moments from earlier in the production and restate lines, he said.
