Children not exploited or endangered in making of reality show, says CBS

KID Nation, the CBS reality show that fanned concerns about child endangerment and exploitation, subjected its young stars to nothing more dramatic than homesickness and a pulled muscle in its debut episode.

Whether viewers were entertained by Wednesday’s hour — in which the most thrilling line was “We got the Port-A-Potties. Yeah!” — remains to be seen.

Filmed over 40 days during April and May in a movie-set ghost town in the high desert just south of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Kid Nation gathered 40 children aged 8 to 15 and gave them the task of organising and running their own lives.