With everything that's gone on in the TV biz during the past two months, the uproar over CBS' reality skein "Kid Nation" shortly before the show's September premiere seems like such a tempest in a teapot.

All the overheated talk about "investigations" by the New Mexico state attorney general's office petered out barely a week after the show premiered. A complaint from one parent about the show's treatment of her daughter stirred up a media tsunami about the propriety of the show and whether it violated child labor laws with its premise (40 kids ages 8-15 are sent to a ghost town to live the rugged pioneer life with, ostensibly, no adult supervision) and filming sked.

Interestingly, the advance hubbub never did goose "Kid Nation" ratings. It opened modestly on Sept. 19 and has maintained an average of about 6 million-7 million viewers per week -- not great but not a total bomb, either.

The "Kid Nation" finale is set to air tonight at 8 p.m. The denouement is about one contender claiming a cash prize but about a hands-on civics lesson to see if the their community will actually be able to function under the rules and systems that they've established through the weekly Town Council governing process.

Most important to "Kid Nation" creator/exec producer Tom Forman is the fact that none of the other families came forward with horror stories, and all the scrutiny of the show's operations yielded nothing in the way of tangible evidence that he or the show did anything terribly wrong by its young stars.

"It’s a bizarre experience to open the New York Times and read that the newspaper of record is calling you a child abuser. It was head-spinning," says Forman, who is a former journalist himself, and a father. "We knew what we had shot. We knew once people saw it they’d realize that it was much ado about nothing....We're all really proud of the show. It's what we said it would be all along -- a show that will get kids thinking and talking about social issues."

POSTED BY JOSEF ADALIAN

Yes, that was Mark Itkin walking around the corridors of CAA Thursday night. But no, the William Morris Agency’s dean of unscripted programming isn’t defecting.

Itkin made a trip to what he called “enemy territory” in order to appear on a CAA/BAFTA-sponsored panel dubbed “Another British Invasion.” Powwow brought together six of the biggest names in the reality biz, ostensibly to discuss the past and future of Blighty-produced TV in the States.

Night actually turned into a broader discussion encompassing the history of the biz and the challenges it faces, with “American Idol” showrunner Nigel Lythgoe (pictured left) moderating a lively hourlong-plus conversation.

Panel also included CAA reality chief Michael Camacho, unscripted superlawyer Jeanne Newman, Fox alternative prexy Mike Darnell, CBS reality guru Ghen Maynard and Lifetime supremo Andrea Wong (who until recently headed up unscripted programming for ABC).

Group of Six repped a sort of Mt. Rushmore of the modern reality age, collectively repping some sort of involvement in just about every major unscripted skein since “The Real World” kicked off the alternative boom.

Itkin talked about putting together the deal for “Real World” (MTV wanted a soap but didn’t have the coin to pay for actors), while Newman (pictured right)outlined how she got all the major nets to bid on “Big Brother.”

“We had a true bidding war, not like the ones we make up,” Newman quipped.

What kind of parent would let their child participate in "Kid Nation"?

This is the $64,000 question swirling around the CBS reality show that has gotten so much attention during the past few weeks from the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the New Mexico attorney general's office. (Variety also has weighed in.) More than the intricacies of the state's child labor laws, more than the question of how and when CBS lawyers responded to inquiries from state officials, the big-picture issue hanging over "Kid Nation" has been the incredulous response provoked in many people by the show's underlying premise: "40 Kids. 40 Days. No Parents."

Show sent 40 kids, ages 8-15, to a ranch in a New Mexico ghost town to live in rustic conditions while establishing their own social order and "government" to set bed times, work skeds, chores and rules, etc.

My personal view of "Kid Nation" has been pretty dim (not being a fan of much reality-competish TV in general), fueled by the sense of over-my-dead-body righteousness that swells when I consider it not as a journo but as the mother of a rambunctious 6 1/2 year old girl.

So what kind of parent would respond to a reality TV producer from Hollywood asking them to enlist their kid in a parent-free social experiment in the painted desert -- during the regular school year, no less? I asked that question of "Kid Nation" exec producer Tom Forman, and frankly I was surprised at how his thoughtful response and description of the conditions during the shoot, took a some of the air out of my indignation. (Not enough to change the over-my-dead-body sentiment as a parent but enough to be more open-minded about the show as a journo.)

"People have very different ideas about what kids are capable of. Certainly, there are parents who wouldn't let their kids prepare a snack for themselves. Those parents wouldn't sign their kids up for this show," says Forman. "We assembled a group of incredibly articulate, incredibly intelligent and very independent kids. And they proved they were capable of much more than people could imagine."

The controversy over CBS' fall reality skein "Kid Nation" controversy continues to percolate.

The latest story skedded to run in the New York Times' Thursday edition seems an even-handed look at the situation which seems to boil down to the issue of what did the parents know and when did they know it?

As the Times reports:

The parent of at least one participant has complained to New Mexico authorities that the conditions were abusive and that several children were harmed during the production.

The 22-page agreement leaves little room for parents to argue that they did not know what their children might encounter. As is standard in such agreements, the parents and the children agreed not to hold the producers and CBS responsible if their children died or were injured, if they received inadequate medical care, or if their housing was unsafe and caused injury.

The overriding issue with "Kid Nation" is obviously the question of what would motivate any parent would be willing to let their kid take part in a show built around the premise of kids being without (much) adult supervision to fend for themselves for 40 days in a New Mexico ghost town. Fame? Money? The $20,000 prize at stake at the end of each episode isn't much by reality TV standards. According to the Times' story there was also a $5,000 stipend paid to each family.

Hard as it is, I'm trying to reserve judgment until seeing the show, which bows Sept. 19. CBS has so far only provided a glimpse in this promo clip posted here last week.

CBS' upcoming reality show "Kid Nation" has generated a fair amount of pre-season buzz because of its provocative conceit of sending 40 kids to a remote spot in Bonanza, N.M. to fend for themselves, "Lord of the Flies" style. (Click here for a promo clip.) The show's sesh during last month's Television Critics Assn. press tour caused quite a hubbub among TV scribes, who questioned the propriety of the whole concept, among other things. (Variety's Brian Lowry was among the first to opine on the matter in this column from May. And Variety's Joe Adalian was the first to break the news of the show to the world a few weeks earlier just before CBS unveiled it at its upfront.)

CBS isn't backing away from any of the drama, billing the show as "40 Kids, 40 Days, No Parents." Ostensible goal is for the tykes and teens (aged 8-15) to "form a new society in a ghost town that died in the 19th century." And generate ratings to help kick off CBS' fall slate. According to Eye's press materials, there'll be no eliminations on this show, only a Town Hall meeting at the end of each seg in which kids can say bye-bye and head home if they want to.

CBS is promising that the reality moppets will create their "government" with four kid leaders selected from the group, and the whole bunch of them will tough it out frontier-style (with only camera crews to keep them company), cooking their own meals, scrubbing their own outhouses and running their own establishments including the town saloon. Soft drinks only, natch. The end game is for the kids to decide who gets the $20,000 Gold Star. I guess the lure for adult viewers will be to pick which kids are going to have a major case of homesickness, and how quickly the situation devolves into food fights and temper tantrums.

POSTED BY STUART LEVINE

CBS will launch the majority of its new fall schedule the week of Sept. 24.

Except for "Kid Nation" (pictured), which bows Sept. 19, and "Survivor: China," which unfurls the following night, the new lineup will kick off on Sunday, Sept. 23 with the 40th edition of newsmagazine "60 Minutes." James Woods starrer "Shark," which moves to Sundays from Thursdays, starts its second season that night at 10 p.m.

The network is waiting a while to premiere its new musical drama "Viva Laughlin." The series will launch on 10 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 18 before moving to its regular 8 p.m. Sunday time slot three days later.

-- Stuart Levine