I Just Saw a Preview for a New Show This Fall...

Has anyone seen the preview for or heard about a new show this fall on CBS called "Kid Nation"? It takes 40 kids, ages 8 to 15, and drops them off in an abandoned town somewhere in the desert. They have to form their own government, divide labor, and decide who to gang up on. It's being billed as a space with "no parents" and "no teachers," although somehow I doubt they will provide a truly adult-free zone. The camera operators, at least, have to be adults, right? (It's a union thing, I think.)

I have no plans to watch this show. However, it'll be hard to avoid the temptation, because I am 99 percent certain someone is going to die. Comparisons to "Lord of Flies" are hard to miss. It will take about three weeks, I predict, before one of the kids comes up with the idea that Jenny Mitchell's "witchcraft" caused the crop to fail ... or something equally crazy. Then Jenny will mysteriously disappear, and next thing you know, the kids will be eating Osh Kosh B'Gosh flavored mystery steaks.

The saddest part of the upcoming show is that, as a voter, I am so desperate for a new kind of politics that putting kids in charge of a society doesn't seem like a bad idea. If we give them enough time, maybe the kids will figure out a plan for Iraq. The youngest kids on the show will be eight, so they'll probably have a slightly better understanding of geopolitics than the president. Maybe we should skip the show altogether and put the kids in charge of the U.S.

Click here for a preview of CBS' "Kid Nation."