Kid Nation: The Most Controversial Reality Show Ever 

🚨 ATTENTION 🚨This video was recorded 4 months ago. It's only JUST NOW been approved from the copyright holders. So yeah, this is a one-off and I'm not reacting to the rest of the season because of that BUUUT I will be uploading the first episode of TOOL ACADEMY SEASON 2 next week and do the entire season of that. Ok enjoy and also why is this dude so sweaty?? Disgusting

They ABSOLUTELY advertised this show as a vaction opportunity for the parents.

Fun Fact: This is the same town where Alec Baldwin accidentally killed his cinematographer.

Putting 8 year olds in with 15 year olds is pretty ridiculous. When you're 8 a 15 year old is like a fully grown adult in your eyes. My older sister is 6 years older than me and when I was that age her and her friends were like adults to me. FFS I've seen 15 year olds get served in pubs and get into night clubs.

I feel like if child Gunnar was on this show he would for sure be the one crying and throwing up at the back of the bus.

-Tells kids they’re governing themselves -Immediately gives them pre-selected leaders and forces them into a rigid caste system

Kinda fucked that the modt physically fit kids were all put in the upper and merchant classes and all the small and weak kids were put on the cooks and hard labor teams.

There were adults, the host and camera crew, but they couldn't intervene in any way, except for major emergencies (making sure no kid dies, gets severe burns, etc.) The youngest kid Jimmy said in the JonTron interview that he was hungry and shivered at night each day he was there.

Wish it was the whole season so you can watch it develop into a Lord of The Flies situation.

I was way more into this before they just started arbitrarily adding all of the things to it. I'm wondering what solutions these kids are going to come up with on their own and the show just says naw. Here's some segregation and money and class warfare. This isn't kid nation at all. It's bullshit.

i guarantee if i had seen this show as a kid, i’d have BEGGED my parents to let me go on it

The writer of lord of the flies was a drunk who hated his dad and his kids. In real life there were kids stuck on islands in the South Pacific and they worked out how to work together. They took care of hurt, divided up chores, and figured out how to resolve conflict. These boys were on their island for 9 months, if I’m remembering correctly. Lord of flies is one man’s dystopian view of humanity because he hated himself and everyone else.

They decimated the entire premise of the show by inserting a monetary system and a class system and took it a step further by forcing them to compete for jobs. I don't get how these kids are supposed to create a civilization if it's already been done for them. This is just Survivor with children and it doesn't take a third grader to figure out this is wrong, as is evident by the fact that the child participants of the show very quickly realized how wrong this was but were too young to understand the veracity of that epiphany, while the adults that produce the show either didn't understand or more likely, just didn't gaf.

"NO ADULTS" *camera pans and the entire crew, staff, camera man, boom guy, director, assistant director, and host are all children

The host bullying the kids by saying “hey you wanna go home, you was crying in the back, why would wanna go home”

The episode where the hosts said, FUCK IT! YOU CAN DEAL WITH THE RULES! and let the remaining kids do whatever they want was both chaotic fun and also horrifying

the children yearn for the mines

I loved this show as a kid and I looked to see if any of the kids had talked about it a few years ago and some of them had said the producers would just do messed up stuff in town to give them something to film. Like at one point they dumped a bunch of trash in the square and made the kids clean it up so it seems like the creators of the show didn’t know what they were getting into either just winging it😭

Everyone: "E. coli" Gunner: "Eagle Eye"

Honestly really interesting that they managed to set it up such that the green team got upset with yellow team for not doing enough work, rather than the red team who were sitting around doing nothing and getting payed 2x-10x what the others. Like you commonly see the exact same thing happen IRL, it's just really interesting to me that they incidentally emulated that detail.

Bonanza city is the same filming location where they filmed the movie rust. It's honestly a miracle nothing went horribly wrong with kid Nation.

20:45 "he pushed me to like melanin" is a craaaaazy subtitle.

And all the people asking about the weather and their clothing, IT GETS COLD IN THE WINTER WHEN YOU'RE IN THE HIGH DESERT.

Jimmy is so CUTE LOL I love how he didn’t even hesitate to go home 😂😂

I wish there could be more of this! Also I love how it sounded like a dig when that girl said Jimmy wants to be tucked in by his mom and jimmy yelled “AND MY DAD!” 😂

DAMN so pissed you can't do the whole season of this that sucks. I watched this as it aired as a kid and have loved watching people react to it now. I highly recommend King of the Nerds (competition show for nerds with some wild personalities) if you need a show to add to the list. The season with Zach is wild lol.

i've never heard somebody say E. coli like that

I know JonTron said something like this already, but assigning those who did worst at a task of manual labor to the laborer's class, while the strongest get to call all the shots, that can only lead to disaster

i know it's horribly unethical but i would be interested to see what would happen if they did this with ipad kids

I was sooo excited to see Gunnar is reacting to this. Then I immediately got a punch in the gut when I read that this is a one off. I would literally pay money to see Gunnar watch this show. His reactions to all these weird reality shows have been my comfort watch for a while now.

I AUDITIONED FOR THIS SHOW WHEN I WAS 7!!!! i almost got casted but they decided i was too young 😭😭 crazy too watch back now

IMDB says that during this show, 4 kids drank bleach

Genuinely it all seemed to be going *relatively* well before the Capitalism. Give them a few more days to settle into things and what not, and it probably would have been okay

this show would have been so much more interesting if they just didnt include the teams or organized them into teams until after they got more established. like lets immediately make the children participate in capitalism when most US western towns werent even founded immediately like that or even ever?? most pioneer towns were wayyy more communal where everyone pitches in and helps each other. the show wouldve been a great reflection of hey if we all help each other we're stronger than letting ourselves be divided by arbitrary classes

I have a core memory of a kid in a trench coat with a sheriff badge running around. That's the only thing I remember from the show.

One kid accidentally drank bleach. Thankfully, adults intervened and got them medical care.

I recently did an analysis of Lord of the flies for sociology class and this show reminds me a little bit too much of that. Who ever came up with this idea is an absolute menace lol

There's nothing better than looking at old TV shows with Gunnar

The copyright holders didn't mind you showing this because they were afraid of lost revenue, but rather because they would be sent to the Hague for War Crimes after people saw what they did 🤣

Fun fact, I actually saw one of the places where they tried to get kids for this show. It was in an event that Animal Planet was hosting someplace in Houston, and it was advertised as a summer or spring vacation in a forest area. Not a "social experiment" to throw kids into a ghost town and essentially say, "Good luck!" I just wasn't interested in being on TV, so I didn't sign up, even if the set up there was pretty cool.

Saying “I like kids in pain and suffering” is exponentially worse than just I like kids lol. Terrible save attempt

She wished for world peace because shes coached on how to answer questions bro

The way I was SO completely obsessed with this show as a kid and wanted nothing else then to get on it.

YOU BETTER COVER THIS WHOLE SERIES OR I WILL STOP FEEDING MY CAT SECOND BREAKFAST!!

26:13 As a Father of (about to be, in 2 months) 3 kids, the fact that little homie said "and my Dad" made me tear up, for sure. I love the shit out od my Wife and Kids, and some kids don't have the same support from their Father as they do their Mother. This little man surely does, just like my kids do.

andy’s always catching strays in these reality tv reacts 😭😭

mom: "omg i can't believe it" camera man: *gives thumbs up to mom from behind the camera*

im very upset we arent getting the full series but im happy we at least got this one

“They are just kids” yeah in a few episodes he’ll want her to perish too lmao

I feel like Gunnar would instantly be outed as a "Goat Boy" if he was on this show

I remember watching JonTron's video of this show. Kid Nation reminds me of a show I used to watch as a kid called Endurance.

Omg yes! My whole family is obsessed with Kid Nation! My brother went as a contestant for Halloween one year. This show is batshit crazy they let kids drink bleach

Gunnar saying "they're just kids" after smone called Taylor the worst is so funny. Like just watch because u did not think a child could be so evil 💀💀

Is Jared just younger Richard from Beauty and the Geek? It wouldn't surprise me at all.

We watched this show in school when I was ten as part of like our government curriculum (which is a whole different issue lol) and I wanted to go on it SOO BAD I was so mad when there wasn’t a second season

This shit is wild. I wish you could've done the whole season, I'm super invested now and want to see what happens next. Looking forward to tool academy 2 though.

Bruh im french canadian so we watched this in class at like 14 to learn english, i just remember thinking "man id be running that town if i would have been there this seems so fun" of course now im just like wtf how did this even get approved in the first place 😂 im gonna love this new react serie i already know it ✌️😁

Cartman ends up with 5 gold stars hidden up his ass that he stole from everyone

Yes, I’ve seen the movie Holes before

The fact that they're just like "We're letting these kids build a society" and then went "Here's the American societal system, try not to kill each other"

Dude come on please try and cover this fully ill wait another 6 months or whatever

as someone who lives in new mexico im pretty sure this entire place is run by kids who got trapped in the desert

Aw man I was really hoping for more, this was actually hilarious and pretty heartwarming at the same time. Idk why I like watching Tv through a RU-vidr / Twitch streamer more, but it just kinda rules. Thanks for all the work you put in Gunnar + Editors! ♥

About damn time we get another video from you!

I was just watching parts of the ‘Rust’ trial and this is where they filmed the movie/the accident happened. I know this show was filmed waaaay before that but something about that is just giving me the creeps.

"LORD OF THE FLIES" is a 1954 novel by the Nobel laureate British author William Golding. The plot concerns a group of British boys who are stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempts to govern themselves. As you can probably gather it is a story of fascism, totalitarianism and megalomania.

The guy who thought of this idea read Lord of the Flies in high school and said "bet".

I WAS SAD WHEN I SAW THIS WHOLE SERIES WASNT ALREADY OUTTT😭 after i ended the video i immediately started looking for the next one…. this gonna be a great video playlist

It would be funny if every kid decided to leave at the town meeting

I remember watching this whole show man. Do another episode in 6 months, its worth it

Thank you so much for making this video my mom who passed away in 2014 and I used to watch this show together when I would come over to her house for visits she would record it on VHS so that I could see it thank you so much for doing this video for making this video it brought back a lot of good memories with my mom

The kids didn't sign up for this, their parents did, and production didn't give them the full picture. The stories from the kids and crew are terrifying.

Scott Cramer also has a great video on this show!

34:26 the older kid who's running and working extremely hard is the type of person who joins the army. Just saying, sucks to suck and feel the holes in your heart with physical performance

The way Greg’s friends dapped him up before talking to Mike LMAO

FINALLY! I’ve been begging for Kid nation forever! Thank you Gunnar!

It's a one-off? Noooooooo I was actually really excited to see the rest with you

See, I feel like you could do something like this, but it almost needs a whole prep season before it. I was camping a lot (with a cult, but that's beside the point) as teen and we had kids of all ages there, too. From like 6-18, everything. And while we had adult people there to instruct, handle the entertainment, oversee shit, organize etc. most of the stuff was just done by the kids. We'd arrive, go to our perimeter and start building all the stuff we need. From kitchen tent to fire station to benches and sleeping tents. You'd have young kids tying the tables together, teens building fires, some would fetch water, bigger kids would lug in building materials. Hell, we were free to build whatever we wanted, as long as building materials were plenty enough (and we'd acquire those ourselves a few weeks prior by woodcutting). I still remember how incredible and unreal it was that I could go out for a week and just build a tower out of wood, completely from scratch, with a platform like 5 meters up and it was just allowed. Then you'd climb down and build a 1m tall fire that almost sets the wooden fixture it was held in ablaze. Shit was awesome. Give the kids like a three-day crash course on fire, knots, cooking and basic structure and this'd not only be more doable, it'd also be more fun, I feel like.

I didnt know i needed this in my life til i saw the notification for it and insta clicked 😂

I never heard of this show but all the other shows you watch are my childhood. I’ve never had so much fun watching my old fav shows. Gunnar, I literally only discovered you like a week or sum ago & you make my day every day :)

"Chickens are friends - not food "

Michael seems to know the path and know what's right and can word it but won't be "harsh" enough or assertive enough to make sure its followed through on, opposed to Mike who will do his best to make sure things are done right. And knows what right is, but can't find words gentle and persuasive enough to convince ppl in a candy coated way.

This is the first video I’ve seen of this channel. I really hope you do the series. Even if it does take 6 years. Totally worth it

I hope gunnar becomes a TV show producer one day and makes this show again❤ I can tell he likes watching them struggle😂

Ahhhhh I'm so sad. I was coming here to thank you because I'm waiting for someone to finish this series but you start with a pinned comment. I won't be finishing this content lol

I've been binging your content -- thank youuuuu

I remember watching this with my parents as a child. It was TRAUMATIZING

The district thing was such a misstep imo It would have been way more Interesting to see how the kids would navigate a society completely free from adult intervention :/ damn reality show producers really missed out on performing a more thoughtful social experiment Maybe one day we'll get "Kid Nation : Done Right This Time We Promise"

One of the best you have done we need more Gunnar!!! I actually watched this when it aired, please do this whole series fast ignore all your other video ideas

Beyond excited for season 2 of Tool Academy. This was pretty fun video. I’ve been wanting to see more footage from it since JT’s video

about to watch, is this lord of the flies

It’s hilarious to watch you rewatch stuff i watched as a kid 😂😂😂😂😂 whew 😂😂 the 90s early 2000s were a wild time!

This is the craziest yet sadly most entertaining thing I’ve seen. I am SO shook

Fuck yes, watched this with my mother back in the day! We knew there was no way it should have been made so loved every moment of it

Gunnar this is incredible 😂 please keep doing more episodes! I wanna see the whole season now...I need to know what happens...I need tooooo 😵‍💫

someone read Lord of the Flies in 9th grade and just ran with it

if i ever had any show requests from Gunnar, this was it. i grew up wanting to be ON this show and now that i’m grown & revisiting… i’m upset that i ever wanted to do it!!! 😭🤣 the horror would have been too great

I JUST brought this show up at work the other day as it felt like a fever dream and we were all trying to remember the name and if it existed 😂

I remember this series and was glued to it each episode. I missed one that was playing on or around the day of Halloween for trick or treating. Don't remember if I got to the end of season one. But I really wanted to apply for the second season.

I think the next episode title is “To Kill or Not To Kill”, no joke