MENSA International, the V.I.I.Q. club who claims amongst its brainy members such luminaries as Steve Martin, Geena Davis, Jodie Foster, Sharon Stone and Jimmy "180" Woods, has issued a list of what they deem to be the Top Ten Smartest TV Shows of all Time. It's a highly subjective topic sure to provoke debate, as…
We're not at all surprised that pint-sized Kid Nation genius Jared (or someone he's contracted to front his e-commerce operation) is indulging a precocious entrepreneurial streak; not only is he auctioning off one of the limited edition, hand-crafted Bonanza City necklaces he can be seen making in a late October…
We still haven't fully recovered from the emotional devastation of watching helplessly as the kids' primetime community failed, but this video, alleging to show scenes of a Nation reunion, does makes us feel a bit better; even though we're well aware that there were no survivors after the network detonated a small…
It is with a heavy heart that we note Kid Nation, the bold experiment in utopia-building bravely undertaken by the finest societal engineers the world of network television has ever seen, ended in tragedy, heartache and utter failure. On last night's season finale, host Jonathan Karsh—whom, we feel obligated to point…
We were too psyched about the premiere of Project Runway (wrongly it turns out) to really notice this week's episode of CBS' morally weird show Kid Nation. But we've been flooded by emails asking what in the world Sophia
said to Guylan that CBS not only had to bleep it but also blur her sweet mouth? A little context…
Last night on the morally vexed television show "Kid Nation," viewers were introduced to members of the upper class: Natasha from Miami and Mingle from Illinois. According to Alex, a nine-year-old from Reno who is never seen without sunglasses, they're like the "Paris and Nicole." Later in the conversation, Alex…
Having survived last week's bloody putsch that stripped her of a position on the Town Council but left five of her most loyal Yellow District adherents dead, deposed Kid Nation pageantator Taylor struggled to make the difficult adjustment to her lowered status within the CBS Bonanza City community during Wednesday…
Perhaps realizing that airing the footage of Kid Nation's controversial field-trip reward we previewed yesterday might again open up the show to the child-endangerment accusations it has largely left behind since its premiere, the network ultimately decided to edit all Michael Jackson-related moments from last…
In a sneak preview of tonight's installment of Kid Nation just leaked online, we learn that the citizens of CBS Bonanza City will finally abandon the preternatural maturity that has previously allowed them to choose sensible waste-elimination facilities over a television and soul-nurturing Bibles over a …
While we've already paid one visit today to Kid Nation—by way of some exclusive Junior Miss cheesecake glamour shots of Taylor, or "Queen of the Yellow Hankies" as she insists her disciples refer to her— we thought we'd return once again to the outhouse-deficient Shangri-La, this time with clip in tow. In last…
It was a Tuesday morning and as I sat down to the computer, a mug of kombucha tea steaming at my elbow. I had made a breakfast ragout of autumnal vegetables (squash, pumpkin). The wife had taken our incredibly self-satisfied dog Leslie out for a walk and my four-year-old son Mordecai was in the other room, reading…
While we never expected Kid Nation's pioneers to succumb to the siren song of virgin sasparilla this quickly, it was inevitable that residents of CBS Bonanza City would eventually turn to drink to blunt the pain of their workaday lives; after all, there are only so many filthy, overflowing outhouses a ten-year-old…
Understandably unhappy professional father Neal Pollack is understandably unhappy that yesterday we called his four-year old son Elijah the worst and predicted that in a few years he'll be a full-grown horror show. Why did we launch this "disgusting sneak attack," he asks, in an email blast to his "Friends,…
On last night's episode of Kid Nation, the pint-sized utopia-builders of CBS Bonanza City learned the sobering lesson that among the dozens of off-camera adults retained by the network so that their bold social experiment didn't quickly devolve into a prepubescent Jonestown (watch out for that Michael kid—the way…
· Rob Reiner officially endorses Hillary Clinton, immediately embracing her campaign's talking points on Barack Obama: "Based on the experience I have had in politics, and I have been on the front lines in a lot of these fights, I came around to realizing that we do need the most experienced and most qualified…
Despite how easy our earlier video of last night's eagerly anticipated Kid Nation premiere might have made life in CBS Bonanza City, NM seem, the children's new frontier existence is not all fun and choosing-whether-to-be-passively-entertained- or-poop-before-your-bowels-rupture games. Being separated from one's…
You catch the new CBS reality show "Kid Nation" last night? Its detractors have likened it to child labor and suggested that the children in the show might have been exploited and left vulnerable and unprotected in an abandoned New Mexico town. We don't really know all the facts, because we haven't really cared…
Even though the pre-release controversy surrounding Kid Nation, CBS's attempt to bring Lord of the Flies-style improvisational community-building to primetime television, seemed to indicate each episode would bring viewers harrowing footage of exhausted 10-year-olds mistakenly chugging bleach or sacrificing their…
· What showbiz name evokes Rat Pack-era Hollywood cool more than any other? That's right: Brett Ratner. The singularly hacky Rush Hour 3 director, continuing his ongoing mission to diminish the legacies of legends whose lifestyles he desperately wishes to emulate, will reteam with screechy muse Chris Tucker for an…
· CBS has quietly set up preview screenings of Kid Nation at elementary schools in major markets for students, parents, and teachers, where families can come together and discuss the exciting child-labor-law issues raised by the controversial new series, as well as receive assurances from the network that no…
