A Bermudian teenager has won $20,000 on a US reality TV show after transforming himself from a bully's sidekick to a youngster with leadership potential.

Blaine Wise has been featuring on Kid Nation, which documents how he and 39 others aged eight to 15 fared after being dropped in an abandoned New Mexico town called Bonanza.

The idea is that they attempt to succeed where adults have failed, and create a caring and sharing new society.

The youngsters were split into four teams linked to districts at the start of the prime time CBS series, with Blaine joining the blue team. He ended up as sidekick to 15-year-old Greg from Nevada, also known as the town's bully. Pranks such as vandalising one of the other team's bunkhouses did little for the reputation of 14-year-old Blaine, who grew up in Florida but whose mother Diana Wise is from Warwick Parish.

However, in last week's episode, Blaine escaped from Greg's bad influence when the town council shuttled him from the blue district to the yellow district.

Greg was livid over the loss of his best friend in Bonanza – and attempted to move into the yellow team's boys' bunkhouse with Blaine. However, one of the other teens turned him out, pointing out that one of the reasons that Blaine was traded away from the blue district was so the two boys would stop getting into constant mischief together.

According to the show's website, the move was the making of Blaine who saw it as an opportunity to prove himself on his own, commenting: "Now that I'm kind of out of his shadow, I'm gonna get a lot more credit for the things that I do."

That came to fruition when he scored a coveted Gold Star for being the kid who helped the town out the most in the latest episode of the show.

Whether it's his new-found popularity or the $20,000 cash that came with it, one thing is for certain: Blaine is very popular with young ladies in the States these days.

"He's had girls calling from all over the country for him," revealed his aunt, Patricia Simms. "Since he moved away from the blue district he's blossomed, and he's now on the town council. The spotlight will be on him more than ever now."

She said the money will go towards a college education for the teen, who spends summers in Bermuda with his extended family.