Dear Food Network, Stop Junioring Things

Food Network’s “Kids BBQ Championship” contestants.

Kids are “Kinder and Gentler”

(Mostly) Gone are the days of cat fights and backstabbing pulling in giant ratings. Instead, there is this movement for “kinder and gentler” reality TV shows. There are certainly some networks who still leverage the uber-drama (think: Bravo), but for the most part, we’re over it.

Thanks to TV shows like The Great British Baking Show and one of the first juniors, Master Chef: Junior, American audiences have come to enjoy a cleaner, nicer, kinder reality TV program. Kids, then, seem to most easily fit the mold.

Predecessors to the Kind Kid Reality TV show like Honey Boo Boo, Toddlers in Tiaras, and the girls of Dance Moms laid the framework for seemingly justified exploitation of children. Even when Honey Boo Boo’s family was bursting from their seams (literally and figuratively) and her competition days were filled with harsh words behind closed doors, the star of the show was relatively laid back and a fun kid. She even said some hilarious stuff. So, naturally, we were drawn to her. Not just because of the hot mess that surrounded her in life, but because she held her own charm.

Same, too, with kids in cooking competition shows, I guess. Although, I don’t find much justification in letting kids compete with each other on national TV without much (if any) realization of what it can mean for their futures. You’re the kinda weird kid who likes to wear bow ties and speak in a semi-British accent? You’re the kid who messed up the signature dessert and bawled your eyes out? Those things can stick with you forever. And people can be cruel.

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