40 kids, 40 days, on their own, no parents, no supervision, making their own society in a deserted town. That's the premise of the new CBS reality show "Kid Nation," that premiered Wednesday night.

For the past couple months Kid Nation's been taking some heat, everything from allegations of breaking child labor laws to claims that the set was an unsafe place for children. We sat down with some local kids Wednesday night to see what they thought of the new show.

"I think it's really good, you want to keep watching," said 11-year-old Corissa Kiepke.

As Corissa watched 40 of her own peers, whose average age is 11, move into a deserted New Mexico town, she was impressed by what they were able to accomplish.

"They are doing stuff that would be hard for me to do too and there are no grown-ups," Corissa said.

Her sister Jessie agreed.

"I was wondering if I would be able to be on it, it would take me awhile to decide,” said Jessie.

Some decisions seemed easy like choosing between an outhouse and a TV.

"I'd choose the outhouses," said Corissa.

But others were a bit more difficult, like whether to stay on or go home. At the end of the episode, 9 year-old Jimmy decided to quit life as a pioneer. As 8 year-old Jack Mann watched, he agreed it'd be hard to stay.

"I wouldn't stay that long because I would really miss my parents," Jack said.

But there was also a lot of fun to be had and a little bribery, a gold star worth 20-thousand dollars was awarded to the hardest worker at the end of the show.

"I didn't think they would do as well as they are doing," Corissa said.

Corissa's mom, Mindy Kiepke says she was pleasantly surprised by this new reality show.

"I think it was really educational, the kids are living that time period and I think those types of things are done in the classroom on a smaller scale," Kiepke said.

Kiepke says she also felt the show created a great dialogue between kids and parents.