In the end, the "Kid Nation" pre-premiere hoopla amounted to much ado about nothing.
The children of Bonanza City never came close to building a new town; the grown-ups who publicly stated they were investigating the production for possibly skirting child welfare and labor laws never got a probe off the ground; and CBS did not get the big hit it was hoping for.
The CBS reality show came under fire this summer after New Mexico officials charged that CBS and Good TV Inc., the production company, did not apply for proper work permits or waivers for the children and denied the officials access to the set on a ranch near Santa Fe. The firestorm intensified when a letter from the mother of a participant claiming that children were abused and endangered during the production became public.
"Kid Nation" took reality television into another realm by placing 40 children, ages 8 to 15, in a movie ranch near Santa Fe without any contact with their parents for 40 days. Since it premiered Sept. 19, critics have noted that "Kid Nation" doesn't live up to its hype because the children never built their own society. Instead, they followed instructions and suggestions by producers -- in the form of a mysterious journal -- at every turn.
Still, the notion that a reality show is not real is hardly the stuff of government probes. Three months after announcing that New Mexico Atty. Gen. Gary King was investigating the permit process, the 22-page contract between producers and parents, and whether the production company illegally refused to allow inspectors onto the property, officials now say they have dropped the matter.
"It has been determined that absent any formal complaints to this office or request for investigation by any state agency, the Attorney General's Office will not pursue any further inquiry into the 'Kid Nation' production in New Mexico," according to a statement issued to The Times.
The New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions, which previously claimed that producers denied inspectors access to the set three times, said in a statement that it also "does not have any plans to investigate the Good TV production/Kid Nation."
CBS and creator Tom Forman, who owns Good TV, have maintained all along that they did not break or skirt laws during the production, which took place in April and May.
