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The Big Flop

Kid Nation: 'Survivor' for Children! with Kurt Braunohler, Megan Gailey & Chris Garcia | 4

The Big Flop

Wondery

Society & Culture, Comedy, Business

4.6884 Ratings

🗓️ 18 September 2023

⏱️ 39 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What happens when 40 children are sent out into the New Mexico desert and left to fend for themselves, all in the name of reality TV? Injuries, emotional trauma... and lawsuits. Lots and lots of lawsuits. Misha is joined by Chris Garcia, Kurt Braunohler & Megan Gailey (I Love My Kid, But…) to examine CBS's absolutely bonkers 2007 reality show, Kid Nation.


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Transcript

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0:00.0

Wonderie Plus subscribers can listen to the Big Flop early and ad free.

0:05.3

Join Wonderly Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

0:19.7

Eight-year-old Jimmy Flynn is sitting behind a barn, weeping.

0:23.9

I'm only eight and I'm in a third grader and I don't think I'm, I think I'm too young to be doing this.

0:30.6

He's surrounded by adults, but no one even tries to comfort him. Instead, they just lift up their cameras and keep filming.

0:38.2

Because, you see, Jimmy is one of 40 kids who have been cast on a new 2007 reality TV show called Kid Nation on CBS.

0:50.7

They've been sent to live in an old Western movie set in New Mexico for 40 days with hardly any supervision.

0:58.7

They're responsible for cooking their own food and for building their own functioning society.

1:04.7

Eight-year-old Jimmy, he didn't last a week. The show didn't last more than one season.

1:09.2

But in that one season, children slept on

1:12.6

wooden floors with no pillows, killed animals for food, and some even left the set in an ambulance,

1:19.2

all in the name of reality television.

1:32.5

She said the show producers pitched the show to her family as a kid's summer camp,

1:36.0

but in reality, she says it was more like Lord of the Flies.

1:40.0

I felt sort of weird because I thought that maybe they would be adults.

1:44.8

So this begs the question, is this exploiting minors for the sake of entertaining the American public?

1:50.8

We are on a sinking ship.

1:55.5

From Wondery and at-will media, this is The Big Flop,

2:00.2

where we chronicle the greatest flubs, fails, and blunders of all time.

2:04.0

I'm your host, Misha Brown, social media, superstar,

2:35.0

and forever child at heart at Don't Cross a Game Man. So howdy reality TV flop that is Kid Nation are the hosts of the very funny, Wondery Podcast.

2:39.8

I love my kid, but comedians, Megan Galey.

...

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