TV Daily

Prime Pick

Photo: CBS

Once again, CBS knows exactly what America's oldest citizens want to watch on TV: kids, working hard! But can you blame them? Most of us haven't seen a kid do an honest day's work since sometime during the Nixon administration. The promos for "Kid Nation" (premieres at 8 p.m. EDT on CBS) promise lots of dusty, toiling children and capitalize on the controversy surrounding the show, trumpeting that "anticipation has been building all summer long." While some parents have loudly decried conditions on the New Mexico set, claiming that children were injured and some accidentally drank bleach, at least one kid, from Florida, called it "the most amazing experience of my life." Screeners haven't been made available by CBS, but something tells us that this show is going to be seriously entertaining.

-- H.H.

Also…

Passionate stargazers are the subject of the PBS special "Seeing in the Dark" (premieres at 8 p.m. EDT, check listings). Fans of "The O.C." won't want to miss the premiere of CW's "Gossip Girl" (9 p.m. EDT), which throws a gaggle of clever, brooding teens into the glamour of upper-crust Manhattan. American Masters special "Rivera in America" (premieres at 10 p.m. EDT on PBS, check listings) investigates the experiences of legendary Mexican painter Diego Rivera during his visits to the United States.

On the talk shows

Contributors: Megan Doll, Heather Havrilesky, Eryn Loeb, Amy Reiter

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