Kid Nation Episode 6 primarily centered around Taylor whining and whining some more, followed by DK stepping up, working hard, and getting the gold star thanks to Guylan talking him out of going home.

Divad opens a snack business with cheap prices so that anybody can afford it. Seemed like a good idea, but people complain that she’s selling food that she got from the kitchen that they could have gotten there for free. Jared’s opposed to her monopoly on the snack business and flips over her tables. Divad remains positive and says she’ll just make more snacks. He later apologizes, and they make up.

The journal discusses the lack of money, which some of them, particularly the laborers, are familiar with. They find out there’s gold. Laurel’s opposed to searching for gold because it will lead to greed, but the rest of the town council overrules her and says they need to at least check it out. After entering a cave with bats in it, the town council finds a treasure chest with 375 buffalo nickels, which is equal to every person’s pay. They come up with a plan to go to the store and buy things that will benefit the entire town, rather than distributing the money among the town itself. Despite the fear of problems this may cause, the town is pleased with the decision.

Sophia decides to have some fun with the situation. She fills a pot with a disgusting mess of food and puts 50 cents in the bottom. It’s not long before a bunch of grossed out kids dig through it for money.

Laurel’s concerned about Nathan, who she thinks is growing up too fast because he wants to work more than have fun. Greg decides to be a jerk and pick on him for trying to help them, but Nathan says he’s not going to go home just because of Greg.

Divad got splattered with oil when she was cooking, but she says it’s no big deal and that she’s the richest person in Bonanza because of her snack business. This is apparently the girl whose mom filed the (frivolous) complaint with the sheriff’s office about child endangerment and child labor, which sparked all sorts of controversy before the show even aired.

At the showdown, they must launch eggs across a field to people who must catch them on the other side without breaking them. Council leaders must guide their teams and come up with a strategy. Blue gets off to an early lead. Yellow does a decent job of figuring things out as well. They need 4 dozen total to win reward.

Blue: 38 eggs (upper class)
Yellow: 18 eggs (merchants)
Green: 6 eggs (cooks)
Red: 5 eggs (laborers)

More than enough to win reward, which is a choice between washers/dryers (20 cents a load) or brand new outfits for each of them plus (free) pioneer era washing machines. They decide to go with the free laundry.

Jared comes up with a better idea than destroying Divad’s business. He makes and sells necklaces. This turns out to be a great business idea, and he has no problem selling them in droves. Now he’s the richest kid in Bonanza.

Greg decides to apologize for being mean to Nathan and says he deserves the gold star. Divad comes up with the idea of campaigning for a gold star, and she makes signs and snacks for people. Sophia nominates Pharaoh, whose name’s been mentioned a few times this episode. Most of the town comes up with a name, but Divad just picks herself. They’re concerned that Pharaoh’s working hard specifically for the gold star, which is true, but they also feel he needs the money more.

The whole town approves of the job the council’s doing.

Laurel, speaking largely to Divad, says they don’t want to hear people talking about how much they’re working, since it sends a message they’re just looking for the gold star. Nathan wins the gold star.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Kid Nation episode 8 Starved for Entertainment, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

In Kid Nation Episode 5, elections were finally held. Laurel’s district unanimously agreed to allow her to stay in power unopposed. Anjay also stayed in power. Mike got beat by a 9-1 vote by Guylan, whoever that is. Taylor, meanwhile, finally got a long overdue boot, as she was replaced by the yellow team’s best leader Zach.

When Zach rings the bell to wake people up, Taylor acts like a spoiled brat. So basically nothing’s changed.

The town trash bin is a big mess and has a lot of stuff crawling/flying through it. How timely, though, the pioneers have advice that they need to clean it up. The council selects a few people to carry the garbage a couple hundred yards out and bury it. Sophia, DK, Greg, Blaine, Leila, and Taylor are selected, the last two mostly to spite them. Taylor tries to get out of it, but Laurel tells her “Deal with it.” Both Taylor and Leila run off and refuse to help, but Leila decides she doesn’t want to be punished and returns to help. Guylan’s unable to get much done and walks away, but DK talks to him and cheers him up some.

The council takes great pride in delivering Taylor her punishment. She has to haul water back and forth until she fills up the now empty tank. She carries the buckets just to put on a show and then dumps them on the ground. Seriously, can we have a tribal council now and vote her out?

The council corners her in a room and refuses to let her leave. She throws a hissy fit, and they eventually do let her leave. She says she’s going home.

Mike, on the other hand, is handling not being on the town council any more maturely. He says he plans to work harder and focus on his job.

DK asks for volunteers to help fill the water tank. Most kids in the town help fill it.

The showdown is about pollution and recycling. There’s a massive pot filled with 1600 gallons of baked beans and 30 pigs. They must search for bean cans and find the right colored cans. If all districts collect a total of at least 75 cans, they’ll win reward. Most people are disgusted. Anjay hangs around in there for quite some time, as does Blue’s next candidate, Nathan. Taylor in this mess… now this is enntertainment. Red district’s crusing right along.

Red: 24 cans (upper class)
Green: 20 cans (merchants)
Yellow: 19 cans (cooks)
Blue: 17 cans (laborers)

A nice improvement for green, which is typically laborers. Reward is a choice as always. The first choice is all different kinds of fruit and vegetables, which follows on the heels of people complaining about the lack of variety of food and nothing but potatoes for veggies. The second choice is dune buggies with as much gas as they need to keep them running.

The council chooses the produce. Most of the town is thrilled. Taylor says she’ll hate Zach for the rest of his life.

Zach assigns Sophie, Leila, and Taylor to dishes. They want to make fruit salad for breakfast instead. He says he won’t pay them unless they do what they’re supposed to. He then says, “You can forget about the gold star… forever!”

Two of the kids were goofing off, and one of them fell into a barrel. DK jumps in and takes charge of the situation. After that, though, he says he doesn’t like the people there any more and doesn’t want to be there with them.

The town council is unanimous in their choice for a gold star, DK.

Even though she’s off the council, the town council meeting once again turns to Taylor not doing anything. She says she’ll try. Again. DK comes to her aid for some reason. We then find out why.

When asked if anyone wants to go home, DK raises his hand. This is really surprising because he’s stood out this episode as a strong leader. He reiterates that he’s sick of the people fighting and being negative. Guylan pulls him aside and tries to convince him that they need him there. When he gets back, DK agrees to stay.

With that, DK is still around to receive the gold star.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Kid Nation episode 7 The Root of All Evil, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

In Kid Nation episode 4, the producers tried to stir up trouble with the introduction of religion, Taylor and most of her yellow district continued to do whatever they wanted (which is nothing), and the town again complained about Taylor’s lack of leadership.

Zach goes into Taylor’s bunkhouse to wake people up and tell them they need to cook breakfast. They refuse.

The pioneer journal suggests district elections. If nothing else, Taylor’s gotta go, but it will be interesting to see whether she’s got enough popularity with enough people to stay in charge. Laurel and Mike have done a good enough job that I’d be okay with them sticking around.

As they’re about to break the news, a food fight breaks out. There’s much happiness from the townsfolk. Sophia asks how many of the town council are confident, and none of them are.

The green district, despite the fact that they always lose the showdowns, is a very good district and discusses things maturely, coming to the conclusion that, although they have people like Michael, Sophia, and Morgan, Laurel should stay in charge.

Mike asks whether anyone from the red district wants to oppose him. Guylan raises his hand. Who?

Anjay asks whether anyone wants to oppose him, and Olivia, who doesn’t like him, decides she does.

Taylor asks for another (another) chance. Zach says he’ll oppose her, and he’s the best pick. He says he’s getting tired of “Deal with it.” He asks people to tell him they agree with him, which they do.

The showdown is about politics. Each district will send out one person at a time to smash pinatas. In some of the pinatas is a picture of a US President. They must bring the pictures back to their council leaders, who will put them in historical order. Mike’s pretty confident, but everybody else doesn’t have an idea. Green gets off to a fast start. Blue team’s smaller members prove problematic. Taylor has no clue, but Zach tells her the right order. Green gets all the pictures first but takes a long time to put them in order. By a split second, Laurel outruns Taylor, but she’s wrong. Yellow district gets theirs right and is the upper class. Going back to their original order, green finally gets out of the laborer class and takes second to become the mechants. Red team takes third place and are the cooks. With 15 seconds left, blue finishes, getting a reward for the town.

The first choice is a BBQ. The second choice is toothbrushes, toothpaste, mouthwash, and floss. The council takes the dental choice, an unpopular but good decision. Taylor tells the other council members if they want meat, they can kill a chicken, which is a spot on assessment. As with the pizza, Mike again makes it clear he disagrees with the council’s non-food choice.

Taylor’s confident because she has all the girls on her side. Zach realizes this and pitches his case to the girls, telling them it’s their choice between Taylor letting them be lazy or someone doing a good job. Markelle tears down Taylor’s poster and starts shouting for people to vote Taylor out. He then rips it up, and Leila, who made the poster, gets upset and cries. Greg, who from time to time shows he’s mostly just putting on a tough guy act, goes to comfort her.

Greg and Zach are mentioned as the top choices for a gold star.

The current council’s last act of business is to award the gold star. Greg finally gets the gold star he’s been working toward. He says he’s going to use the money for college.

Laurel stays in power because nobody runs against her.

Blue District Votes
Anjay
Olivia
Anjay
Olivia
Anjay
Olivia
Anjay
Anjay
Anjay
Anjay

By a vote of 7-3, Anjay is reelected to the town council. Olivia says she’ll run again if given the chance. Anjay says he’ll respect her opinions in the future. She says she doesn’t believe him. This is exactly why she wasn’t elected. It seemed more about a personal conflict than anything else.

Red District Votes
Guylan
Mike
Guylan
Guylan
Guylan
Guylan
Guylan
Guylan
Guylan
Guylan

Guylan wins in a landslide 9-1. I still don’t know who he is, though, considering it’s episode 5 and we haven’t even seen him before as far as I know.

Yellow District Votes
Taylor
Zach
Taylor
Zach
Taylor
Zach
Zach
Taylor
Zach

Zach wins by a vote of 5-4. It’s about time.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Kid Nation Episode 6 Bonanza Is Disgusting, which airs at 8/7c on CBS.

In Kid Nation episode 3, the yellow district continued to do nothing (still), the kids flipped out because they got a microwave and cocoa that would last the whole time rather than pizzas that would have been gone later that night, Greg didn’t win a gold star, and Taylor practiced being a beauty queen.

As the kids start discussing how religion starts wars, the journal conveniently tells them that they need to address the concept of religion. Great, more pot stirring from the adults who are supposedly leaving the kids to their own devices.

The council comes up with the idea to have all religions in one room and have people from each religion talk, in an attempt to let people learn from each other. Sophia hangs her head dreading it, and then a bunch of people start shouting/arguing about how this idea is going to start arguments. Mike doesn’t care about the input he gets. He tells them to shut up.

Alex decides to do a survey to find out what religion everybody is, receiving responses of Christian, Jewish, Hindu, atheist, and other.

Nobody cares what the council says. Nobody bothers to show up.

Morgan takes a different approach. She invites people and tells them they can come and pray if they want. This gets a good response, unlike yelling at people and trying to force them. People of all different religions come to join together and have a good time.

Taylor and the rest of yellow district are thrilled being upper class because it means they can sleep in and do whatever they want. Just like they did before they were the yellow district. Zach is trying to separate himself from the yellow district because he doesn’t like how they’re behaving.

The showdown is a puzzle. The kids must create a steeple puzzle then raise it with pulleys. Reward is not yet revealed. Yellow starts strong but falls apart. Red manages to take the lead as yellow screams and tries to figure out where a piece is. Blue then overcomes red with a slight lead going into the final stage. Pretty obvious what’s going to happen here. The oldest kid in town, Greg, is able to raise the steeple faster. Blue is the upper class. Red finishes close behind to become the merchants. Yellow takes a slight lead over green, and everybody begins praying yellow finally gets where they belong. But it’s too late. Yellow are the cooks, which allows Taylor to say if people don’t like it, they can just starve themselves. Green finishes in time to win the reward.

The reward is a choice between mini golf or a library of holy books. The council turns the decision over to the town because everybody got pissed off last time. Good way to at least try to stay in power, but considering who’s making the decision, it’s not a good way to ensure that the right decision is made. Oddly enough, the town chooses the books over golf. That’ll upset some people, but the majority of the town will be happy.

Cody, 9, gets homesick because of a letter from his girlfriend, who he’s known ever since third grade. Not touching this one.

Yellow team is still not doing anything. Only two yellow people are in the kitchen. A couple of people go to confront Taylor about her attitude and tell her they’re getting pissed off. She just laughs and keeps doing what she’s doing. Zach gets fed up and goes around gathering everybody from the other districts to help him watch dishes. Overthrow Taylor and put him in her place.

The kids wake up to snow, which receives mixed reactions. It’ll be harder to keep those water pipes unfrozen now.

Zach is the first person mentioned when it comes to a gold star. Morgan is also mentioned again. As usual, Greg’s name comes up. I’d say let him sweat it out for a few more weeks. I am impressed with his improved attitude, though. Instead of thinking he’s the only one who deserves a gold star, he acknowledges that Zach has also worked hard.

When asked if they have a problem with the leadership, Taylor’s name comes up again.

Cody decides he wants to go home because he misses his family. This leads to a tearful goodbye. Campbell is upset his best friend is leaving.

Morgan is awarded the gold star for working hard, being nice to everyone, and not complaining.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live blog of Kid Nation Episode 5, which airs at 8/7c on CBS.

In episode 2, the producers had the kids kill some chickens (through the “advice” in the “old” book), the yellow district continued to do nothing, and Michael won the gold star over a likely to be angry Greg, who found out pretending to be a hard worker for a couple days just to win $20,000 won’t necessarily work.

The show starts off with a party to celebrate making it through the first week. Lots of kids hopped up on sugar probably isn’t the best thing.

Those who weren’t smart enough to know not to stay up all night get a rude awakening early in the morning that they’re not ready for. The council rings the bell and screams, while Greg has fun banging pots and pulling people out into the street in their sleeping bags. Sophia confronts him about this, and he runs off and locks himself in the room. Mallory, 8, isn’t happy with the cursing.

The pioneers suggest some law and order, starting with a curfew, a pretty coincidental suggestion considering the late night partying the night before. The decision is that they must be in their bunks by 9:30. No questions asked and no discussion allowed.

The yellow district gets into a food fight, further adding to people’s wishes they be booted from the kitchen. They keep saying the problem’s their age, but Mallory is willing to step up and clean up after them.

It’s time for the next showdown to determine what the classes will be. The challenge is to work together to round up sheep. Council members will yell the names to their teams below. They get 5 minutes to catch 5 sheep. The whole thing is complete chaos with nobody being able to hear a thing. Blue gets off to an early lead as usual. Yellow catches up to them. Red and green are way behind. Yellow ends up winning, so they are the upper class, thanks to Colton’s animal background and fearlessness. This means the yellow district can do whatever they want, including nothing at all. So basically what they’ve been doing all along. Blue takes second to be the merchants. Green finally doesn’t lose the challenge, allowing them to get into the kitchen, where Sophia will take charge as she has been all along. With seconds to spare, red finishes last and are the laborers, but it’s fast enough to win the reward.

The choice is between 1) a microwave and a barrel of cocoa or 2) 40 pizzas with every topping. Mike wants pizza and is extremely vocal in his opposition, offering no support to his fellow town council members when the decision is announced. The other three go for the microwave and cocoa instead. Few of the kids are happy with this choice, whether it’s a logical choice or not. Some of them, however, realize that the pizza would be gone very quickly, whereas the cocoa and microwave would be useful for the rest of their time there.

Taylor may have dug her own grave by being so vocal. There were only a couple people who were upset with the council to begin with, but after no pizza and a curfew, there’s serious potential for her being overthrown.

Sophia tries to get a bag from Mallory for 5 cents, and Mallory offers a deal but isn’t a pushover. For her age, she’s proving pretty impressive at running the store.

Then a storm blows through town. There’s lots of wind and tipped over outhouses, but it looks to pass pretty quickly. Zach takes charge and gets the situation under control. The storm is enough to upset Cody, 9, and Mallory and make them homesick.

This time, the council is smart enough to get feedback from the others on who they think deserves the gold star. The main suggestions are Greg and Morgan, who has tried to step up and be the mom of the group to some of the younger kids. Olivia, Mallory’s sister, suggests Mallory, which does lead them to start looking at the kids who maybe aren’t old enough to pitch in as much as the older kids but are doing a great job in their own right.

As expected, nobody’s happy with Taylor’s pageant queen attitude. A lot of them are probably still bitter over the pizza party as well. She says she will work harder in the future, which buys her one more chance.

Nobody ends up going home this week. The gold star winner is Mallory, a happy 9th birthday present, which Greg says is the only reason she got it. I’m not sure he realizes if he finds a positive attitude and keeps working hard, he’ll get the star eventually, even if it takes a while.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live blog of Kid Nation episode 4, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

Episode 1 was mostly about discovering the rules and getting to know the kids somewhat as they started building their town. Jimmy, 8, became the first to go home, which left us with 39 kids.

The book suggests that the chickens are good for more than eggs, a rather controversial suggestion to make to a bunch of kids. The other kids are starting to get sick of not having fresh food and having to eat canned stuff. Laurel decides that they have to take a vote to decide what to do.

There’s a lot of concern over lack of protein. Greg says he’s worked with a butcher and knows how to do this. After the vote, the kids decide to kill the chicken. Emilie, 9, who we haven’t seen before tonight, says she’s going home if they kill a chicken. She then locks herself in the chicken coup with some others in protest. Eventually, though, she realizes they need to think about what’s best for the town. Everybody’s grossed out, but they all insist on watching.

Greg’s primary motivation in helping out seems to be that he wants to be nominated for a gold star. This is definitely a big change from last week when he mostly just wanted to goof off.

The next major dilemma is the cold, which freezes their clothes and water. Some of the boys from the green district figure out that if they poor some boiling water on the pumps, it may thaw them out, and it works.

Zach, 10, tries to get Taylor to go to the kitchen because she’s the leader of the yellow district, the cooks. She doesn’t care. Sophia’s a trooper. She’s a laborer and not even supposed to be cooking, but she’s still heading it up while shivering.

It’s time for a showdown to redetermine the job classes. Nobody likes blue team still, and a lot of people are tired of yellow’s laziness. Reward choices: a 45 foot heated water slide or what’s under a barrel (to be revealed after the challenge). They must connect pipes with running water to get water wheels spinning. All teams must finish in under an hour. Blue team gets off to an early lead, with red close behind. Red loses it at the water wall, and blue never looks back. Blue is the upper class. Red are the merchants. Yellow are still the cooks. Green can’t get it together in time, so they’re the laborers, and the group misses out on the prize, including the mystery prize of water pumps designed not to freeze. Everybody is supportive of their effort, though.

Green’s irritated that yellow refuses to do any work.

Emilie wants to work with the animals, but since she’s not upper class or a cook, the kids kick her out. One of them suggests she should go home if she wants to be with the animals.

Greg is pitching in, but Mike gets suspicious that it’s just for the gold star. Michael has been working well all along and has a lot of spirit. It’s a 2-2 tie with the council between them. Mike and Laurel vote for Michael; Anjay and Taylor vote for Greg.

Last time, only Sophia didn’t approve of the council. This time, it’s Sophia again, along with one other girl. Taylor’s response is “I’m sorry. You’re just gonna have to starve.”

Nobody wants to go home. Emilie decides to stay and tough it out.

The decision is to give the gold star to Michael. Well deserved. He says he thinks his parents deserve to get the money and is mostly just happy to be able to talk to them. Greg’s angry he didn’t get the star and believes it was disrespectful. Instead of just containing himself and trying for it next time, it looks like he’s planning to flip out.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live blog of Kid Nation episode 3, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.