title: John Kay (musician)

text: In early 1945, his mother fled with him from the advancing Soviet troops during the evacuation of East Prussia in harsh winter conditions. Their train got stuck near Arnstadt, which was first occupied by the Americans, but then became part of the East German Soviet occupation zone. In 1949, they crossed the already-fortified border to resettle in Hanover, West Germany (as recounted in his song "Renegade" on the album "Steppenwolf 7"). Now living in the British occupation zone, the young Joachim, who had eye problems and could not speak or understand English, was first inspired by and learned about rock ‘n’ roll music while listening to Little Richard on U.S. Armed Forces radio. When his family moved to Toronto in 1958, teachers had a hard time pronouncing his birth name, so he was called John K instead. Five years later, they moved to Buffalo, New York.


title: John Kay (musician)

text: In 1965, invited by fellow German-born bass player Nick St. Nicholas (born Klaus Kassbaum), Kay joined a blues rock and folk music group known as The Sparrows, which had moderate success in Canada before moving to California, augmenting its line-up, and changing its name to Steppenwolf in 1967. With music that pioneered hard rock and heavy metal, Kay's Steppenwolf had international success with songs such as "Born to Be Wild", "Magic Carpet Ride", "Monster", "The Pusher", and "Rock Me".


title: John Kay (musician)

text: Kay recorded both as a solo artist and with Steppenwolf during the late 1970s, and wrapped up Steppenwolf's 40th year of touring with what was to be a final gig in October 2007. However, Kay and Steppenwolf appeared on 24 July 2010 at the three-day HullabaLOU music festival in Louisville, Kentucky.


title: John Kay (musician)

text: In 2004, although he never became a Canadian citizen, Kay was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in recognition of the beginning of his musical career in Toronto. Kay was present at the induction ceremony in Toronto and reiterated his strong affection for Canada. He was also nominated as part of Steppenwolf for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016 for the induction year 2017. In 2018, Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild" was one of the first five record singles to be inducted into The Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.


title: John Kay (musician)

text: Kay is married to Jutta Maue, whom he met in 1965 in Canada while she was working in a coffeehouse where Kay's band, The Sparrows, were playing. They have one daughter, Shawn. The couple founded the Maue-Kay Foundation, which supports human rights and the protection of wildlife and the environment.


title: John Kay (musician)

text: In 2016, Kay credited his relationship with Jutta as part of the inspiration for Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride".


title: Letters to Juliet

text: Letters to Juliet is a 2010 American romantic comedy-drama film starring Amanda Seyfried, Christopher Egan, Gael García Bernal, Vanessa Redgrave and Franco Nero. This was the final film of director Gary Winick before his death on February 27, 2011. The film was released theatrically in North America and other countries on May 14, 2010. The idea for the film was inspired by the 2006 non-fiction book "Letters to Juliet", by Lise Friedman and Ceil Friedman, which chronicles the phenomenon of letter-writing to Shakespeare's most famous romantic character.


title: Letters to Juliet

text: Sophie is a young American woman who works for "The New Yorker" as a fact checker. She goes on a pre-honeymoon with her chef fiancé Victor to Verona, Italy. Victor is unmoved by the romance of Italy and uses his time constructively to research his soon-to-open restaurant, often neglecting Sophie. Sophie discovers that thousands of trite "letters to Juliet" left in Juliet's Verona courtyard are typically answered by the "Secretaries of Juliet". Sophie asks to join them and accidentally finds an unanswered letter by a Claire Smith from 1957. She answers it and within a week the now-elderly Claire arrives in Verona with her handsome barrister grandson Charlie Wyman. Claire and Sophie take an instant liking to each other, but Charlie and Sophie do not get along.


title: Letters to Juliet

text: Following the advice in Sophie's reply, Claire decides to look for her long-lost love, Lorenzo Bartolini. Sophie, thinking Claire's story might help her with her writing career and having genuine interest in the story, helps Claire. The two find out that there are seventy-four Lorenzo Bartolinis living in the area. After many days of searching for the right Lorenzo, they find that one is dead. Charlie blames Sophie for his grandmother's sadness. He accuses her of not knowing what real loss is. Claire, witnessing the dispute, tells Charlie that he was wrong and that Sophie's mother had walked away from her when she was a little girl.


title: Letters to Juliet

text: The following day, Claire insists that Charlie apologize to Sophie at breakfast, which he does. After dinner, Sophie talks to Charlie about love, still believing Claire's Lorenzo is still alive, and the two kiss. The following morning is their last day of searching for Lorenzo. On a whim, Claire points out a vineyard to Charlie and asks if he could stop so they can have a farewell drink for Sophie. As Charlie drives down the road, Claire sees a young man who looks exactly like her Lorenzo. They discover the young man is Lorenzo Bartolini's grandson, and Claire and the elder Lorenzo reunite. When Sophie heads back to Verona, Claire pushes Charlie to pursue her, but he backs off when he sees Sophie with Victor.


title: Letters to Juliet

text: Back in New York, exhausted by the differences and lack of passion in their relationship, Sophie breaks up with Victor before returning to Verona to crash Claire and Lorenzo's wedding. She finds Charlie with another woman, and impulsively runs out crying. Charlie comes out to find her, and she admits she loves him but tells him to go back to his girlfriend. Charlie reveals that the woman is his cousin and tells Sophie he loves her. He climbs up the vine to the balcony, recreating the famous scene from "Romeo and Juliet", but accidentally falls down, and they kiss as he lies on the ground.


title: Letters to Juliet

text: In addition, Oliver Platt briefly appears as Sophie's boss in New York, while Stefano Guerrini makes a brief appearance as Lorenzo's grandson, who catches Claire's attention as he looks like Lorenzo once did.


title: Letters to Juliet

text: "Letters to Juliet" received mixed reviews from critics. Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reported that the film has an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads: ""Letters to Juliet" has a refreshingly earnest romantic charm, but it suffers from limp dialogue and an utter lack of surprises." Metacritic gives it an average score of 50 out of 100 based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Letters to Juliet

text: "The Guardian"s Peter Bradshaw called the film "cheerfully ridiculous", pointing out the differing accents from both Amanda Seyfried and Christopher Egan, but gave praise to Vanessa Redgrave for a "likably, if not quite intentionally mad performance." Amy Biancolli of the "San Francisco Chronicle" was also positive towards Redgrave, describing her performance as being "elegant, clear-eyed and nurturing" and noting that she "commands the corniest dialogue to stand up and sound like poetry." Elizabeth Weitzman of the "New York Daily News" praised both Redgrave and Seyfried, saying the former brings "a lovely gravity to the lightweight proceedings" and the latter displays "an unusually levelheaded presence." Roger Ebert was aware of the film's genre and how it operates but that he didn't care about that: "I know the ending is preordained from the setup. I know the characters are broad and comforting stereotypes. In this case, I simply don't care. Sometimes we have personal reasons for responding to a film."


title: Letters to Juliet

text: Bill Gibron from "PopMatters" criticized the film for having two conflicting stories where only one is interesting, characters that make idiotic decisions for the plot to progress and have little romantic chemistry together that results in a lack of emotional resonance for the viewers, saying that ""Letters to Juliet" loses on all counts. It's not a comedy. It's barely romantic, and even the scenery looks filtered through a couple dozen attempts at post-production color timing (no nation is this…golden)." Nick Schager of "Slant Magazine" was negative towards its "cornball fairy-tale romanticism", criticizing the performances of Seyfried and Egan for having "a prototypically bland rom-com heroine" and being "laughably phony" in the material both given respectively, and found the plot to be of "dime store novel-quality." Kyle Smith of the "New York Post" also saw the generic plot "as straight and obvious as raw spaghetti", and gave half-hearted praise to the line delivery of Seyfried and Egan, saying they "may be the perfect actors to carry out this assignment: Neither is embarrassable."


title: Letters to Juliet

text: "Letters to Juliet" opened at #3 to $13,540,486 behind "Iron Man 2"s second weekend and "Robin Hood". In its second weekend, the film dropped 33.5% with $9,006,266 and with the arrival of Shrek Forever After the film slipped to #4. The film eventually grossed $53,032,453 domestically and $79,181,750 worldwide.


title: The New Addams Family

text: The New Addams Family is a sitcom that aired from October 1998 to August 1999 on YTV in Canada and Fox Family in the United States and CITV in the United Kingdom on weekends. It was produced by Shavick Entertainment and Saban Entertainment as a revival of the 1960s series "The Addams Family." The series was shot in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.


title: The New Addams Family

text: The Addams Family consists of husband and wife, Gomez and Morticia Addams, their children, Wednesday and Pugsley, as well as Grandmama, Uncle Fester, and their butler, Lurch. The Addams' are a close-knit extended family with decidedly macabre interests and supernatural abilities. No explanation for their powers is explicitly given in the series. Some of the episodes in this series are remakes of the original TV series' episodes with some episodes being exclusive to this show.


title: The New Addams Family

text: Later episodes introduce a relative named Grandpapa Addams who had similar traits to Gomez. Grandpapa Addams was played by John Astin, who had played Gomez in the original series.


title: The New Addams Family

text: The series – shot in Vancouver – featured a new cast and was well received by viewers. Gomez Addams was played by Glenn Taranto, and Morticia by Ellie Harvie. The show reworked several storylines from the original series while incorporating modern elements, jokes, and references to episodes from the original series. John Astin, who played Gomez in the original series, appeared in a recurring role as Grandpapa Addams; Taranto patterned his performance after Astin's original version of Gomez.


title: The New Addams Family

text: One of the notable differences between the original show and the new series was that Wednesday and Pugsley (Nicole Fugere and Brody Smith respectively – the former reprising her role from "Addams Family Reunion") were given expanded roles that highlighted their violent and sadistic personalities, made popular by "The Addams Family" film. Another element carried over from the films was Fester being Gomez's brother, whereas in the original show he had been Morticia's uncle.


title: The New Addams Family

text: The new theme music, performed by the cast, was a departure from the familiar tune that had served most previous adaptations of the series. The familiar finger-snapping was present, albeit at a faster pace, accompanied by two different characters (first Lurch, then Gomez) saying the word "snap" twice in rapid succession to match the beat. It was written by Barron Abramovitch, Jeremy Sweet, and Michael Whittaker.


title: The New Addams Family

text: 7th Sense developed a Game Boy Color game based on the series, which was released in 2001 by Microids exclusively in Europe. Titus Interactive was going to release the game in America with the title "The New Addams Family", but the American version was cancelled. Nova Productions released an electric shock machine based on the series in 1999, which was distributed by H. Betti Industries in America.


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: Hassan Nasrallah ( ; born 31 August 1960) is a Lebanese cleric and political leader who has served as the 3rd secretary-general of Hezbollah since his predecessor, Abbas al-Musawi, was assassinated by the Israel Defense Forces in February 1992.


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: Hasan Nasrallah was born the ninth of ten children into a Shia family in Bourj Hammoud, Matn District (an eastern suburb of Beirut) on 31 August 1960. His father, Abdul Karim Nasrallah, was born in Bazourieh, a village in Jabal Amel (South Republic of Lebanon) located near Tyre and worked as a fruit and vegetables seller. Although his family was not particularly religious, Hassan was interested in theological studies. He attended the al-Najah school and later a public school in the predominantly Christian neighborhood of Sin el Fil Beirut.


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: In 1975, the Lebanese Civil War forced the family, including Nasrallah who was 15 at the time, to move to their ancestral home in Bazourieh, where Nasrallah completed his secondary education at the public school of Sour (Tyre). There he attended secondary school, and briefly joined the Amal Movement, a Lebanese Shi'a political group.


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: Nasrallah studied at the Shi'a seminary in the Beqaa Valley town of Baalbek. The school followed the teachings of Iraqi-born Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr, who founded the Dawa movement in Najaf, Iraq during the early 1960s.


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: In 1976, aged sixteen, Nasrallah travelled to Iraq where he was admitted into Ayatollah al-Sadr’s seminary in Najaf. Al-Sadr is said to have recognised Nasrallah’s qualities and is quoted as saying “I scent in you the aroma of leadership; you are one of the "Ansar" [followers] of the Mahdi ...”. Nasrallah was expelled from Iraq, along with dozens of other Lebanese students, in 1978. Al-Sadr was imprisoned, tortured and brutally murdered. Nasrallah was forced to return to Lebanon in 1979, by that time having completed the first part of his study, as Saddam Hussein was expelling many Shia's, including Ruhollah Khomeini (Ayatollah Khomeini) and Abbas Musawi.


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: Back in Lebanon, he studied and taught at the school of Amal's leader Abbas al-Musawi, later being selected as Amal's political delegate in Beqaa, and making him a member of the central political office. Around the same time, in 1980, Saddam Hussein had Sadr executed.


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: Nasrallah joined Hezbollah after the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. In 1989, Hassan Nasrallah traveled to Qom, Iran, where he furthered his religious studies.


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: Nasrallah believes that Islam holds the solution to the problems of any society, once saying, "With respect to us, briefly, Islam is not a simple religion including only prayers and praises, rather it is a divine message that was designed for humanity, and it can answer any question man might ask concerning his general and personal life. Islam is a religion designed for a society that can revolt and build a community."


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: In 1991, Nasrallah returned to Lebanon and replaced Musawi as Hezbollah's leader after the latter was killed by an Israeli airstrike the following year.


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: Nasrallah became the leader of Hezbollah after the Israelis assassinated the previous leader, Musawi, in 1992. During Nasrallah's leadership, Hezbollah acquired rockets with a longer range, which allowed them to strike at northern Israel despite the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. In 1993 Israel carried out Operation Accountability. Much Lebanese infrastructure was destroyed during the operation, which Israel claimed was successful. An agreement was eventually reached whereby, Israel ended its attacks in Lebanon and Hezbollah agreed to stop attacks on northern Israel.


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: However, after a short pause, hostilities resumed. In 1996 Israel launched Operation Grapes of Wrath, blocking important Lebanese harbour cities and bombing a Syrian military base. After 16 days of Israeli attacks in Lebanon, the Israeli–Lebanese Ceasefire Understanding was agreed upon. Again, Hezbollah agreed to stop rocket attacks in exchange for Israel halting its attacks. However, as in 1993, the peace did not last for long.


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: In Israel, it was increasingly debated whether the presence of Israeli forces in southern Lebanon was working, since it was clear that the 'security zone' could not stop Hezbollah rockets reaching into Israel. After heavy Israeli casualties in south lebanon, some Israeli politicians argued that the conflict would only end if Israel withdrew from Lebanon. In 2000 Ehud Barak finally withdrew Israeli forces from Lebanon. Following the Israeli withdrawal, the South Lebanon Army, which was supported by Israel, was quickly overrun by Hezbollah. Some SLA members escaped to Israel, but many were captured by Hezbollah. This success against Israel greatly increased Hezbollah's popularity within Lebanon and the Islamic world.


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: Consequently, Nasrallah is credited in Lebanon and the Arab world for ending the Israeli occupation of the South of Lebanon, something which has greatly bolstered the party's political standing within Lebanon.


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: Nasrallah played a major role in a complex prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hezbollah in 2004, resulting in hundreds of Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners being freed and many human remains, including that of his son, being returned to Lebanon. The agreement was described across the Arab world as a magnificent victory for Hezbollah, and Nasrallah was personally praised for achieving these gains.


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: A December article in the London-based "Asharq Al-Awsat" stated that command of the organization's military wing was transferred from Nasrallah to his deputy, Na'im Qasim in August 2007. Hezbollah denied this suggestion, declaring it an attempt to "weaken the popularity" of the movement.


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: In October 2008, Hashim Safi Al Din, his cousin, was assigned to succeed Nasrallah as secretary general of Hezbollah.


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: Widespread protests in Lebanon in October 2019 due to a deepening financial and economic crisis put pressure on the government leaders to resign, including the subject.


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: Under his tenure, Hezbollah has been designated a terrorist organization, either wholly or in part, by the United States and other nations, as well as by the European Union. Russia rejects the claims that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization, and considers Hezbollah a legitimate sociopolitical organization. China remains neutral, and maintains contacts with Hezbollah.


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: Nasrallah negotiated a Memorandum of Understanding with the Free Patriotic Movement headed by Michel Aoun, the former premier and a Maronite Christian. Aoun described the ten-point MoU in an op-ed in "The Wall Street Journal" published on 31 July 2006. Hezbollah agreed to disarm upon the return of its prisoners and the occupied Shebaa Farms. It also agreed to the pardon and return of fugitive South Lebanon Army (SLA) members. The Free Patriotic Movement in turn agreed to work for reform of the confessional electoral system of the Parliament of Lebanon and move it in the direction of one man, one vote. Aoun made the point that the political process was in effect disarming Hezbollah without any loss in lives from unnecessary wars. Critics of this agreement say that is not very clear concerning the disarmament, and that it served to strengthen Hezbollah internally, giving it a non-Shiite cover inside .


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: Following an ambush by Hezbollah in Israeli territory that left three soldiers dead and two abducted, the 2006 Lebanon War started. During the war Israeli bombardments seeking Hezbollah targets caused damage in many parts of Beirut, especially the poorer and largely Shiite South Beirut, which is controlled by Hezbollah. On 3 August 2006, Hasan Nasrallah vowed to strike Tel Aviv in retaliation for Israel's bombardment of Lebanon's capital. "If you hit Beirut, the Islamic resistance will hit Tel Aviv and is able to do that with God's help," Nasrallah said in a televised address. He added that Hezbollah forces were inflicting heavy casualties on Israeli ground troops.


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: During the conflict, Nasrallah came under intense criticism from Arab countries, including Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. Jordan's King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak warned on 14 July of the risk of "the region being dragged into adventurism that does not serve Arab interests," while the Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal called the Hezbollah attacks "unexpected, inappropriate and irresponsible acts." He went further, saying, "These acts will pull the whole region back to years ago, and we cannot simply accept them."


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: Nasrallah also came under intense criticism from some in Lebanon. Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Progressive Socialist Party of the Republic of Lebanon and the most prominent leader of the Druze community, spoke out quite forcefully: "Great, so he's a hero. But I'd like to challenge this heroism of his. I have the right to challenge it, because my country is in flames. Besides, we did not agree". Jumblatt is also quoted as saying: "He is willing to let the Lebanese capital burn while he haggles over terms of surrender".


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: Following the war, came what is known as the "Green Flood" ("Al-sayl al-akhdhar"), according to Iranian-born journalist Amir Taheri. "This refers to the massive amounts of U.S. dollar notes that Hezbollah is distributing among all the citizens that were effected from the war in Beirut and the south. The dollars from Iran are ferried to Beirut via Syria and distributed through networks of militants. Anyone who can prove that his home was damaged in the war receives $12,000, a tidy sum in wartorn Lebanon".


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: In a TV interview aired on Lebanon's New TV station on 27 August 2006, Nasrallah said that he would not have ordered the capture of two Israeli soldiers if he had known it would lead to such a war: "We do not think, even one percent, that the capture led to a war at this time and of this magnitude. I'm convinced and sure that this war was planned and that the capture of these hostages was just their excuse to start their pre-planned war, but if I had known on July 11 ... that the operation would lead to such a war, would I do it? I say no, absolutely not".


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: On 25 May 2013, Nasrallah announced that Hezbollah is fighting in the Syrian civil war against "Islamist extremists" and "pledged that his group will not allow Syrian militants to control areas that border Lebanon". He confirmed that Hezbollah was fighting in the strategic Syrian town of Qusair on the same side as the Syrian army. In the televised address, he said, "If Syria falls in the hands of America, Israel and the takfiris, the people of our region will go into a dark period."


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: Nasrallah lives in South Beirut with his wife Fatimah Yasin (who comes from the Lebanese village of Al-Abbasiyah) and four of his children: Muhammad Javed, Zainab, Muhammad Ali and Muhammad Mahdi.


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: On the night of 12/13 September 1997 four Hizbullah fighters were killed in an Israeli ambush near Mlikh. One of the dead was 18-year-old Muhammad Hadi, Nasrallah’s eldest son. Five Lebanese soldiers and a woman were killed in a simultaneous airstrike north of the ’security zone’. The attacks were seen as a response to the operation a week earlier in which twelve Israeli commandos were killed. Nasrallah is quoted as saying on receiving the news of his son’s death “I am proud to be the father of one of the martyrs”. When the IDF released photos of his son’s body and offered to exchange it for body parts of those killed in the earlier ambush his response was “Keep it. We have many more men like Hadi ready to offer themselves to the struggle”. There was a seven day mourning period held in south Beirut which was attended by an estimated 200,000 people daily.


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: On 2 September, a day after rocket strikes toward Israeli's border, Hassan Nasrallah said Hezbollah would begin targeting Israeli drones flying in Lebanese airspace, and announced there were "no more red lines" in the fight against Israel. If attacked again, he said, Hezbollah would strike "deep inside" Israel.


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: Almalaf, an Iraqi news source on 15 October 2008, quoted sources in Lebanon saying Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah had been poisoned the previous week and that he was saved by Iranian doctors who went to Lebanon to treat him. The sources told the paper that a particularly poisonous chemical substance was used against the Shi'a militia leader. His medical condition was apparently critical for several days until Iranian doctors came and managed to save his life. Almalaf claimed that the sources believed it was highly likely that the poisoning was an Israeli assassination attempt.


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: Hezbollah denied that Nasrallah had been poisoned. Lebanese parliament member Al-Hajj Hassan, a member of Hezbollah, said: "This is a lie and a fabrication. It's true that I haven't seen Nasrallah this past week, but he's okay." The Iranian doctors arrived on Sunday at approximately 11:00 P.M., apparently on a special military flight. According to Almalaf officials considered flying Nasrallah to Iran for further treatment.


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: In September 1997, an Israeli Mossad team tried to assassinate Hamas political chief Khaled Mashal by drizzling poison in his ear. The attempt failed, and two of the agents were captured while others took refuge in the Israeli embassy in Amman. Nasrallah's second-in-command Imad Mughniyah was assassinated in February 2008 in a Damascus bomb blast. Hezbollah accused Israel of responsibility for the explosion, although Israel denied responsibility for the act. Nasrallah's predecessor Abbas al-Musawi was killed in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon in 1992.


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: On 25 October 2008 in an interview with the Hezbollah owned Al-Manar channel, Nasrallah denied the assassination attempt, accusing the Israelis and Americans of fabricating the story and considering it as part of the ongoing psychological war against Hezbollah that aimed to imply that the party was suffering from internal disputes and assassination plots.


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: He also explained that "if research was done on the internet websites posting such unfounded information, it would reveal that they are all being run from that same dark room, and that their aim is to serve American-Israeli interests."


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: He added that at first the organization had considered denying the false information with a written message, "but when the news agencies began to publish it we decided to hold a televised interview, and here I am before you telling you I was not poisoned."


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: By playing a key part in ending the Israeli occupation, Nasrallah became a "national hero". "The" "New York Times" article reported that an Arab politician called him as the "most powerful man in the Middle East" and the "only Arab leader who actually does what he says he’s going to do". Al Jazeera compared him to other Arab leaders such as Yasser Arafat and Gamal Abdel Nasser, and leftist revolutionaries like Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, while journalist Annia Ciezadlo described him as an "emblem of Islam and Arab pride". Professor Amal Saad-Ghorayeb said that he is "passionate" but also "plainspoken and practical".


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: Nasrallah is often referred to as ""al-Sayyid" Hassan" (), the honorific "Sayyid" denoting a claim of descent from the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandson Husain ibn Ali.


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: Two popular songs were written about Nasrallah during the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah War, with vastly different views of the Hezbollah leader: The Hawk of Lebanon in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and Yalla Ya Nasrallah, against Nasrallah, in Israel.


title: Hassan Nasrallah

text: In 2007, Lebanese singer Alaa Zalzali composed a tribute song entitled "Ya Nasrallah". Another popular song composed in tribute to him was by Lebanese Christian singer Julia Boutros, called "Ahebba'i" meaning "my loved ones", which was inspired by Nasrallah's words in a televised message he sent to Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon during the 2006 War.


title: Junaid Jamshed

text: Junaid Jamshed Khan (; 3 September 1964 – 7 December 2016) was a Pakistani singer-songwriter, television personality, fashion designer, actor, and preacher. After graduating with a degree in engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology in Lahore, Jamshed briefly worked as a civilian contractor and engineer for the Pakistan Air Force before focusing on a musical career.


title: Junaid Jamshed

text: Jamshed first gained nationwide and international recognition as the vocalist of Vital Signs. Their 1987 album, "Vital Signs 1" included the hit singles "Dil Dil Pakistan", and "Tum Mil Gaye". The commercial success of the album helped develop Pakistan's rock music industry.


title: Junaid Jamshed

text: In 1994, he released his debut solo album, "Junaid of Vital Signs" followed by "Us Rah Par" in 1999 and "Dil Ki Baat" in 2002. In 2004, Jamshed left both his engineering and music careers and, afterwards, focused on his religious activities for Islam and reciting nasheeds on TV and releasing them on CDs. Jamshed also owned a clothing boutique with the name "J." (read as "Jay Dot"), which has several outlets throughout Pakistan and some abroad.


title: Junaid Jamshed

text: In November 2014, Jamshed was accused of blasphemy and in December 2014, in a video message, he apologized for offending people and making mistakes.


title: Junaid Jamshed

text: Junaid Jamshed and his wife died on 7 December 2016 when PIA Flight 661 crashed in Havelian. The flight was en route to Islamabad from Chitral. He was in Chitral for a Tablighi Jamaat mission and was returning to Islamabad.


title: Junaid Jamshed

text: Junaid Jamshed was born in Karachi to Jamshed Akbar Khan (d. 2016), a group captain in the Pakistan Air Force from Nowshera, and Nafeesa Akbar Khan, the granddaughter of the nawab of Loharu State. His maternal uncle Sahibzada Jahangir, nicknamed "Chico", is a businessman based in London who has been one of the founding members of Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, and whose son Sherry Jahangir was an actor better known for his role as M.A. Jinnah in PTV classic drama "Jinnah Se Quaid", while another son, Kafeel Jahangir, was an England-based domestic cricketer who has played as an all-rounder for Hertfordshire. Other relatives include politician Fauzia Kasuri, who was his aunt, and actor Alyy Khan, his cousin.


title: Junaid Jamshed

text: After graduating from an international boarding high school in Yanbu' al Bahr in Saudi Arabia, Jamshed wanted to join the Pakistan Air Force to become a fighter pilot. However his weak eyesight prevented this. He then entered the University of Engineering and Technology in Lahore, where he took mathematics and physics before declaring his major in mechanical engineering. In 1990, Jamshed gained a Bachelor of Science degree, graduating in mechanical engineering.


title: Junaid Jamshed

text: Although the band Vital Signs began in early 1986 in Rawalpindi by Keyboardist Rohail Hyatt and bassist Shahzad Hasan (Shahi), it was not until later that Jamshed, then a young engineering student from UET Lahore, joined them as their lead singer. They began performing in different parts of the country after having secured a place in the underground music industry in Islamabad and Lahore. In a live concert in Islamabad, the band got noticed and approached by the music officials of the PTV, and a record deal was awarded by Rana Kanwal, a student of the National Academy of Performing Arts. Kanwal was given an assignment in which she wanted to make a music video and she wanted to make one of a music band. The band moved to Islamabad and began working on the first album for Kanwal, then-known as "Chehra" (lit. Face). According to Hyatt, "the song we created for her was "Chehra". It was the first song we wrote as an entity and it was also a part of our first album." During this time, the band caught the attention of record producer and broadcaster Shoaib Mansoor who also taught at the National Academy of Performing Arts. Mansoor became acquainted with the band and worked on their first album, spearheading the writing of a patriotic song.


title: Junaid Jamshed

text: Finally, their first album, "Vital Signs 1", was released nationwide and aired on PTV. Their debut hit singles, "Dil Dil Pakistan" and ""Tum Mil Gaye"", released on 14 August 1987, gave them national fame and prominence. Both songs were big commercial hits and garnered high critical acclaim. The songs in the first album were an instant Sleeper hit and quickly gained a huge nationwide success, which completely shocked the band. In an interview given to PTV, Jamshed said it was not something that would turn him into a professional musician. Jamshed maintained that his plans were to gain a degree in engineering to work for the Pakistan Air Force, initially he didn't want to have anything to do with music other than just treat it as a hobby. In 1990, Jamshed graduated with an engineering degree, and worked in the air force as a civil contractor for a short time before resigning from the air force.


title: Junaid Jamshed

text: However, Rohail and Shahzad soon managed to convince him otherwise. After a string of chart-topping songs and albums, the band split in 1998 and Jamshed began a solo career, achieving increasing commercial success. Their first album contained many hit songs and the band was approached by several international companies to write songs and advertise their products to the Pakistani public. Their success lifted the underground rock music industry to national level, and they are widely credited for boosting the Pakistani music industry. In 1991, the band released their second album, Vital Signs 2, produced by the EMI Studios in Pakistan. Although, the second album was not as successful as expected, the band made its first international tour in the United States.


title: Junaid Jamshed

text: In 1993, the band got together with Shoaib Mansoor once again and released their third album, "Aitebar". Around the same time, Jamshed signed his first (and only) acting contract for PTV's television miniseries, "Dhundle Raste". In early 1995, the band released its fourth and last album, "Hum Tum". By early 1996, various issues and difficulties between the members of the band began to surface in the media. After the release of their last single, Maula, Shahzad Hasan departed to the US after taking up a computer engineering job with IBM. Hyatt formed a recording company; "Coke Studio" which would later emerge as a successful enterprise.


title: Junaid Jamshed

text: Jamshed released his first solo album, "Junaid of Vital Signs" in 1994. The album's name was later changed to "Tumhara Aur Mera Naam" by the record producers. After departing from Vital Signs in 1998, Jamshed released the second solo album, the "Us Rah Par" (lit. On that way.) in 1999. The second solo album, "Us Rah Par" went on to become one of the best selling albums of 1999. The album included several singles which became popular and were ultimate sleeper hits. All songs were written by Jamshed and the majority of such songs as, "Us Rah Par", "Na Tu Ayegi", "Aankhon Ko Aankhon Ney" and "O Sanama", were ultimate success and commercial hits of all time. In 2000, Jamshed released his third album, "The Best of Junaid Jamshed", which contained remixes of some of the hit singles of the Vital Signs era, though it captured the mix success. His fourth and last solo album, "Dil Ki Baat", was released in 2001, which became highly successful in the country and gained a lot of public and media attention.


title: Junaid Jamshed

text: In 2003, BBC World Service conducted a poll to choose the most popular songs. Around 7,000 songs were selected from all over the world. According to BBC, people from 155 countries/territories voted in the poll. "Dil Dil Pakistan" was ranked third among the top 10 songs.


title: Junaid Jamshed

text: As early as 1999, the media began speculating about Jamshed's drift from music soon after the "Vital Signs" faded away. The speculations soon died after Jamshed released his solo albums and continued world tours. After 2001, Jamshed disappeared from the public eye and avoided media attention. His last two albums did not do well in the market and failed to get any positive response from the country's music critics. His former bandmates, Shahi and Hyatt, saw him struggling to negotiate the transition from one world to another. He became distant from Hyatt, who continued to work on producing music. He also struggled financially after leaving the Vital Signs band, and it was Shoaib Mansoor who came to help him financially after giving him the role in "Gulls & Guys" television show.


title: Junaid Jamshed

text: After the 9/11 attacks in the United States, Hyatt and Jamshed's tours in the West struggled with a lot of questions from Westerners about the country's culture, terrorism, and music. Upon returning, Jamshed filed for bankruptcy in court and made an attempt to resume his career in engineering after applying at various companies. Theories regarding Jamshed began to arise in media, therefore media outlets hired some paparazzi to follow Jamshed. It was frequently reported that Jamshed had distanced himself from music and had been praying five times a day regularly at the nearby mosque. Finally, Jamshed who had been out of practice from his engineering career for 20 years, announced that he would open a fashion-designing company with a close friend of his. In 2004, Jamshed officially renounced music after announcing that he had devoted his life to Islam. Jamshed then left engineering and, to supplement his income, he opened the clothing store "J.", selling "Khaadis" (a form of Kurta-Shalwar).


title: Junaid Jamshed

text: In 2007, in an interview in "Chowk Magazine", Mansoor admitted that he was badly affected when Jamshed turned away from music:


title: Junaid Jamshed

text: Mansoor directed and also wrote the script of the successful film "Khuda Kay Liye" released in 2007. Mansoor said that the film was inspired by Jamshed's life, and offered him a lead role in place of Shaan Shahid. When offered the role, Jamshed maintained that he will "shave his beard" for the film and the role for Jamshed was written by Mansoor. Jamshed later refused to be a part of the film and Mansoor maintained that: "Responses like this one convinced people that Jamshed was not certain about his future, and that the Islamist experience was just a phase."


title: Junaid Jamshed

text: Nonetheless, Jamshed did sing in some circles, privately, that is. Guitarist, Bilal Maqsood of "Strings", held an annual open-mic jam session at his home. At Maqsood's party, one attendee remembered that: "But once he (Junaid) started singing, he just couldn't stop. He was having so much fun singing, he was on a roll." Maqsood maintained that later in the night, he dropped his wife Ayesha home and then came back to sing some more. Jamshed was one of the last people to leave that evening.


title: Junaid Jamshed

text: In 1986, Jamshed earned a lot of publicity with the Vital Signs' hit rock song, "Do Pal Ka". The Vital Signs band became popular with Pakistan's media after the success of the patriotic "Dil Dil Pakistan". He has been listed by "The Muslim 500" as one of the "World's Most Influential Muslims" for his involvement in charity work, especially with the NGO Muslim Charity from 2003 until his death in 2016. It stated that "(the) Muslim Charity has achieved a great deal under his leadership and expanded its operations to 16 countries."


title: Junaid Jamshed

text: Jamshed was in Chitral, along with his second wife, Nayha Junaid, for a Tablighi Jamaat mission. On 7 December 2016, the two were returning to Islamabad aboard PIA Flight 661, which crashed near Havelian, Khyber Paktunkhwa, killing all on board. Jamshed was en route to deliver the Friday sermon at the Parliament mosque. He is survived by his first wife, Ayesha, three sons, and a daughter. On 15 December 2016, his funeral prayer offered in Moin Khan Academy, Karachi where Tariq Jamil led and Junaid's fans attend the prayer. In 2018, Jamshed was posthumously nominated for the nation's third highest civilian honour, the Sitara-i-Imtiaz.


title: Buddy Valastro

text: Bartolo "Buddy" Valastro Jr. (born March 3, 1977) is an American baker and reality television personality of Italian heritage. He is the owner of Carlo's Bakery, as well as the face of Buddy V's Ristorante. Valastro is best known as the star of the reality television series "Cake Boss", which premiered in April 2009. He has also starred in "Next Great Baker" (2010), "Kitchen Boss" (2011), "Buddy's Bakery Rescue" (2013), "Bake You Rich" (2013), "Bakery Boss" (2013), "Buddy vs. Duff" (2019), and "Buddy vs. Christmas" (2020).


title: Buddy Valastro

text: Valastro was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, and grew up there and in Little Ferry, New Jersey. His mother was born in Altamura, Italy, and is the daughter of Italian-American immigrants who moved to New Jersey when she was six years old. His father, Buddy Sr was born in Lipari, Italy. Valastro grew up with four sisters: Grace, Mary, Maddalena and Lisa.


title: Buddy Valastro

text: He attended Ridgefield Park High School and took baking courses at the Bergen County Technical High School, Teterboro Campus.


title: Buddy Valastro

text: Valastro began working at his family's business, Carlo's Bakery at age 11, alongside his father. When his father died in 1994, Valastro was 17. Valastro took over the family business.


title: Buddy Valastro

text: Valastro is the owner and head baker of Carlo's Bakery, the bakery featured on the TLC show "Cake Boss". Carlo's has since opened 17 more bakeries due to the popularity of the show. In January 2012, as a result of the attention that the shop and the TV series had brought to the city of Hoboken, the "Hudson Reporter" named Valastro as an honorable mention in its list of Hudson County's 50 most influential people.


title: Buddy Valastro

text: Carlo's Bakery has seven locations in New Jersey—Hoboken, Marlton, Morristown, Red Bank, Ridgewood, Wayne, and Westfield. Outside of New Jersey, the bakery operates locations in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Westbury and New York, New York; Orlando, Florida; San Antonio, and The Woodlands, Texas; São Paulo, Brazil; Uncasville, Connecticut; Las Vegas and most recently in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Lackawanna Factory in nearby Jersey City serves as the corporate office for the business and is used as additional space to create wedding and specialty cakes, and to bake specialty baked goods for shipment across the country.


title: Buddy Valastro

text: In 2016 Valastro partnered with Whole Earth Sweetener Co. on the campaign "Rethink Sweet." The company said Valastro would serve as brand ambassador for a "new line of zero- and lower-calorie sweeteners, and will work to help his fans make healthy lifestyle choices", and provide recipes using the product.


title: Buddy Valastro

text: In 2018 Valastro partnered with The Pound Bakery, a pet treat manufacturing company to redesign and launch a new line of pet treats. "We wanted to create palatable treats for dogs that are inspired by classic Italian entrees and desserts," said Lexie Berglund, President of The Pound Bakery. Buddy also worked with several other companies to launch a full line of ready-to-use fondant, buttercream icing, and Italian Biscotti cookies under the new brand name Buddy Valastro Foods in 2018.


title: Buddy Valastro

text: Valastro, a supporter of the Special Olympics, baked a commemorative cake for the 2011 announcement that the 2014 Special Olympics USA National Games would be held in New Jersey.


title: Buddy Valastro

text: Buddy and Lisa Valastro married on October 14, 2001. Until 2014, Valastro resided in East Hanover Township, New Jersey, with their four children: Sofia, Bartolo "Buddy" III, Marco, and Carlo. He has four sisters and a stepfather, Sergio. His brother-in-law is Maurizio Belgiovine. As of 2014, he resided in Montville, New Jersey.


title: Buddy Valastro

text: On November 13, 2014, Valastro was arrested for driving while intoxicated. His driver's license was suspended for 90 days, and he paid a $300 fine.


title: Buddy Valastro

text: In September 2020, Valastro had his right (dominant) hand impaled by a pinsetter at his home bowling alley. His sons and other family members rescued him by cutting him out of the machine. He underwent two emergency surgeries.


title: Buddy Valastro

text: Valastro supported and campaigned for Republican Governor Chris Christie in his 2013 re-election bid, and in 2014 baked his birthday cake. He also endorsed Christie's 2016 presidential campaign.


title: Buddy Valastro

text: Comedian Paul F. Tompkins plays a parody of Buddy Valastro on the "Comedy Bang! Bang!" podcast and the IFC TV show.


title: Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom

text: The British Poet Laureate is an honorary position appointed by the monarch of the United Kingdom, currently on the advice of the prime minister. The role does not entail any specific duties, but there is an expectation that the holder will write verse for significant national occasions. The origins of the laureateship date back to 1616 when a pension was provided to Ben Jonson, but the first official holder of the position was John Dryden, appointed in 1668 by Charles II. On the death of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who held the post between November 1850 and October 1892, there was a break of four years as a mark of respect; Tennyson's laureate poems "Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington" and "The Charge of the Light Brigade" were particularly cherished by the Victorian public. Three poets, Thomas Gray, Samuel Rogers and Walter Scott, turned down the laureateship. The holder of the position as at October 2022 is Simon Armitage who succeeded Carol Ann Duffy in May 2019.


title: Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom

text: The origins of the poet laureateship date back to 1616 when James I of England granted a pension to the writer Ben Jonson. Although there were subsequent court poets it was not until 1668, and the appointment of John Dryden by Charles II, that the post was made an established royal office within the royal household. Dryden, who had been appointed following the success of his 1667 poem "Annus Mirabilis", was dismissed from office in 1689 following the accession of the Protestant William III and Mary II to the throne. Dryden, a Catholic convert, refused to take the Oath of Allegiance to the new monarchs and he was dismissed from the laureateship—the only holder to have been removed from office.


title: Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom

text: Dryden's successor, Thomas Shadwell, was appointed in 1689 for life. He introduced the custom of producing poems for the new year and the monarch's birthday, which became one of the key duties of the position. After the appointment of William Wordsworth in 1843 the duties settled into an expectation, not requirement, for major court and national occasions. Alfred, Lord Tennyson held the post between November 1850 and October 1892. According to Andrew Motion and Hilary Laurie, Tennyson "gave the poet laureateship new status and significance" with works such as "Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington" and "The Charge of the Light Brigade". On his death the post was left vacant as a mark of respect; a new laureate was not appointed until four years later, with the appointment of Alfred Austin in January 1896. As at 2015 the position is an honorary one, and the office holder is left to decide on which occasions they will produce poetry. Following Dryden's dismissal from the post, the laureateship was held for life by all successors until Motion was appointed in 1999 for a fixed term of ten years; his successor, Carol Ann Duffy, was also appointed on the same fixed term. Duffy was the first female poet to hold the role, and the first Scot.


title: Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom

text: After Shadwell's selection the laureate was appointed by the Lord Chamberlain, on the monarch's instructions. Since the appointment of Henry James Pye in 1790, the prime minister has recommended which candidate to appoint. For the appointment of Duffy the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) undertook a consultation of academics and literary organisations to draw up a short list of recommendations which they presented to the prime minister. He, in conjunction with the Cabinet Office, then submitted the name to the Queen for approval.


title: Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom

text: Dryden's salary for the laureateship was £200 per year. In 1630 Charles I added an annual "butt of Canary wine", although this was later discontinued in place of the monetary equivalent. When Ted Hughes was appointed, he rekindled the tradition, and received 720 bottles of sherry; as at 2015 this practice continues. Since Motion's appointment the DCMS provided an annual honorarium of £5,750; Motion also received an additional £19,000 for his work in education. With Duffy's appointment, the salary returned to £5,750 and the barrel of sherry.


title: Nick at Nite

text: Nick at Nite (stylized as nick@nite) is an American nighttime basic cable television channel that broadcasts over the channel space of Nickelodeon. It typically broadcasts Mondays to Thursday nights from 9 p.m. - 6:30 a.m. ET/PT, Friday nights from 9 p.m. - 6 a.m. ET/PT, Saturday nights from 10 p.m. - 6 a.m. ET/PT, and Sunday nights from 8 p.m. - 6:30 a.m. ET/PT. The channel is similar to Adult Swim, the channel that shares channel space with Nick rival Cartoon Network.


title: Nick at Nite

text: Nick at Nite primarily appeals to adult and older youth audiences, mainly carrying syndicated sitcoms and films from as recent as the mid-1990s to the 2010s.


title: Nick at Nite

text: Via Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite is available in 92.0 million households in North America as of January 2016.


title: Nick at Nite

text: After the Hearst Corporation, NBC and ABC announced in the summer of 1984 that they would spin off A&E (which occupied the timeslot formerly occupied by the Alpha Repertory Television Service prior to its merger with The Entertainment Channel earlier that year) into a separate 24-hour cable channel and cease transmitting its programming over Nickelodeon's channel space to take better advantage of valuable satellite time, MTV Networks President Bob Pittman asked Nickelodeon general manager Geraldine Laybourne to develop programming for the time period (once A&E became a separate channel in January 1985, Nickelodeon ran text promos for their daytime shows during the night and started broadcasting 24 hours a day in June, though some cable providers substituted the primetime schedule of a niche-interest network that had no room on a system onto the channel space, with BET being among the most popular choices). After futile attempts at original program development, Laybourne asked programming and branding consultants Alan Goodman and Fred Seibert of Fred/Alan Inc. (successful as the original branders of MTV, and for Nickelodeon's extensive 1984 rebranding) to come up with programming ideas.


title: Nick at Nite

text: After being presented with over 200 episodes of "The Donna Reed Show" (a 1950s sitcom which Laybourne despised), Goodman and Seibert conceived the idea of the "first oldies TV network." They modeled the new evening and overnight programming block on the successful oldies radio format, "The Greatest Hits of All Time," and branded the block with their next evolution of MTV- and Nickelodeon-style imagery and bumpers. Head programmer Debby Beece led the team to the name "Nick at Nite" for the new block; a logo originally conceived for the block was based on Nickelodeon's "pinball" logo introduced in 1981, which was discontinued with that network's rebrand. Fred/Alan developed the original logo with Tom Corey and Scott Nash of Boston advertising agency Corey McPherson Nash, creators of the well-recognized Nickelodeon orange splat logo (Nick at Nite's logo design would maintain a separate visual appearance from its parent network).


title: Nick at Nite

text: Nick at Nite debuted at 8 pm. Eastern Time on July 1, 1985, as a block on Nickelodeon. Its initial programming (running from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., seven nights a week) was a mixture of sitcoms, movies and one drama series, led by "Dennis the Menace", and accompanied by "The Donna Reed Show", the offbeat comedy "Turkey Television" (which, like "Dennis", also aired on Nickelodeon), and "Route 66". A nightly film presentation, branded as the "Nick at Nite Movie", aired at 9 p.m. Eastern Time through the end of the decade, and included such classic films as the 1947 film "The Red House" and the 1937 film "A Star Is Born". The same five-hour block of programs originally repeated from 1 a.m. and ran until Nickelodeon began its broadcast day at 6 a.m. Eastern Time. As Nick at Nite grew, it would add to its library of shows – expanding out to rerun sketch comedy, such as episodes from the early seasons of "SNL" as well as the Canadian series "SCTV". It also briefly reran the 1970s mock local talk show "Fernwood 2 Night". As the years went by, the channel's sitcom library expanded to over a hundred shows. For the channel's 20th birthday celebration in June 2005, TV Land aired an episode from almost every series that had appeared on Nick at Nite.


title: Nick at Nite

text: By the early 1990s, Nick at Nite began running a full schedule of programming, with overnight hours filled with a mixture of secondary runs of shows airing on its evening schedule and series that were no longer shown on the evening lineup. In 1995, Nick at Nite celebrated its tenth anniversary with a week-long event, in which the channel aired "hand picked episodes" of almost every series that had aired on Nick at Nite since its July 1985 debut. Each episode was introduced with its milestone history, episode number, and pop culture references to the individual program's original run on Nick at Nite. A special tenth Anniversary on-screen bug was shown at the bottom left corner of the screen for 10 seconds once per half-hour show, and was used for the entire 1995 year, much in the same vein as the 20th Anniversary logo in 2005 (in contrast, Nick at Nite did not make any acknowledgment of its 25th anniversary in 2010).


title: Nick at Nite

text: In March 2004, Nielsen began splitting up Nick at Nite and Nickelodeon in its primetime and total daytime ratings reports, due to the different programming, advertisers and target audiences between the two services; this caused controversy among executives of some cable channels who believed that this move manipulated the ratings, given that Nick at Nite's broadcast day takes up only a fraction of Nickelodeon's programming schedule. Nickelodeon's and Nick at Nite's respective ratings periods encompass only the hours they each operate under the total day rankings, though Nick at Nite is rated only for the primetime ratings; this is due to a ruling by Nielsen in July 2004 that networks have to program for 51% or more of a particular daypart to qualify for ratings for that daypart.


title: Nick at Nite

text: In 2006, the coloring of Nick at Nite's logo was changed from blue to orange, in order to match the coloring of Nickelodeon's logo. On September 1, 2007, the network introduced a new logo based on Nickelodeon's longtime "splat" logo, with the orange "splat" formed in the shape of a wanning gibbous moon – this effectively integrated the Nickelodeon branding onto Nick at Nite for the first time, as the varied logos that were used from its 1985 launch utilized variants of the Futura Condensed font (the 1984 to 2009 Nickelodeon logo designed by Seibert and Goodman used the Balloon typeface) with various shape backgrounds and a small circle with the word "at" (replaced by an "@" symbol overlaid on a circle background in March 2002 for visual symmetry, owing to the character's building ubiquity from the Internet and eventually into general pop culture) lodged between and staggering the "I"s. The updated logo debuted in promos in March 2002. However, the Up Next bumpers, station idents, and on-screen bug did not begin using the updated logo until September 1, 2002.


title: Nick at Nite

text: On July 5, 2009, Nick at Nite’s programming hours expanded to begin at 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time on Sunday through Thursday nights, while the Friday lineup continued to start at 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time (sometimes on Friday nights, it actually began at 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time, or still at 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time, but outside of that, the Friday lineup still had a 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time start time, until October 2009, when the Friday start time became 9 p.m.) (the Saturday lineup also continues to have a 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time start time due to the presence of the long-running Saturday primetime comedy lineup on Nickelodeon). Nick at Nite's times of operation have changed several times over the years, to at one point (between 1998 and 2000) beginning as late as 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time on Sunday through Thursdays and ending as early as 5:30 a.m. Eastern and Pacific Time.


title: Nick at Nite

text: Nick at Nite overhauled its on-air appearance on September 28, 2009, as part of Nickelodeon's rebranding effort – the new logo, also based on Nickelodeon's logo, stylized the network's name as "nick@nite" (rendered as one word in lower case letters within the new network logo). The network also ceased airing the production closing credits for most of its programs (except for those that have tag scenes during the end credits, and originally some series that aired on the network prior to the rebrand that rejoined the network afterward, such as "Full House") and began employing network-even closing credits – which Nickelodeon had been utilizing since at least 2000 (both Nick at Nite and Nickelodeon often remove end tag scenes or blooper reels of some shows using this format)


title: Nick at Nite

text: Nick at Nite's lineup presently includes reruns of syndicated comedy series from the early 1990s to mid-2010s and movie broadcasts. The block previously had its own exclusively-produced original programs (such as "See Dad Run" and "Instant Mom").


title: Nick at Nite

text: Due to its dependence on sitcom reruns whose cable syndication rights are limited to a daypart (a certain part of the day) owing to contracts with studios and/or distributors (for instance, Paramount holds the exclusive cable "nighttime" rights to run "Friends", airing it on both Nick at Nite and Comedy Central, while TBS holds exclusive cable "daytime" rights to said series), Nick at Nite has no video on demand service or Paramount+ presence (formerly its past original series were usually combined within Nickelodeon's video-on-demand section) and its website features no video content.


title: Nick at Nite

text: Nick at Nite was known as the "first classic TV network," having originally aired older classic television programs from the 1950s through the early 1970s throughout its nighttime schedule. The time range of Nick at Nite's programming has shifted over the years, to the point whereby the early 2000s, its classic series consisted primarily of shows from the late 1970s to the late 1990s, and also included series from the early and mid-2000s by the end of that decade and into the early 2010s. The early success with classic television series, as well as the eventual shift away from series made prior to 1985, eventually led to the creation of digital broadcast networks similar to Nick at Nite's original format such as the Retro Television Network, Antenna TV and MeTV (which have featured many shows formerly seen on Nick at Nite).


title: Nick at Nite

text: Nick at Nite airs approximately all of its programming in hour-long (and sometimes two-hour) blocks, which were branded under the "Double Takes" banner from 2002 to 2007; typically series that air back-to-back are scheduled in two blocks, one in primetime and one in late night. Also typically, series that have been airing on Nick at Nite for at least three years are often moved exclusively to the overnight schedule in order to make room for newly acquired series (though in the past, entire broadcast runs of a few series such as "Perfect Strangers" and "Charles in Charge" have aired in an overnight graveyard slot for a short period of time following their debut on the network). For about a year-and-a-half prior to the September 28, 2009 rebrand, Nick at Nite aired marathons of programming from midnight to 5:00 a.m. Eastern Time.


title: Nick at Nite

text: Nick at Nite was previously one of the few basic cable channels in the United States that continued to sign off for scheduled satellite maintenance, occurring on a Wednesday morning from 5:30 to 6:00 a.m. Eastern Time on a bi-monthly basis, with color bars being displayed during the sign-off period (ViacomCBS-owned sister channels Nick Jr., Nicktoons, MTV and its spin-off channels, VH1, and VH1 Classic also sign off for a half-hour on a bi-monthly basis at the same time as Nick at Nite for the same reason); it is also one of only a handful of cable channels to have discontinued airing infomercials. Nickelodeon (through Nick at Nite) ran infomercials in some overnight timeslots from 1987 to 1998 (making Nickelodeon one of the few currently operating kids-targeted channels to discontinue airing paid programming, others include Universal Kids, and it is also only one of two ViacomCBS-owned networks to have removed paid programming from its schedule; sister channel BET had discontinued infomercials in 1997, replacing them with religious programming in overnight/early morning timeslots).


title: Nick at Nite

text: On May 16, 2011, Nick at Nite began scheduling programs airing from 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Eastern Time in an "off-the-clock" format, in which the network runs extended commercial breaks of as much as seven minutes in length to allow additional advertising spots (a method that has tense viewer criticism due to the length between the start of each commercial break and the start of the next segment of a program), allowing the programs to be broadcast in a longer timeslot each half-hour until 6:00 a.m. Eastern Time, when start times return to a half-hourly format. This format was originated by sister network TV Land beginning in 2010, and has since been taken by other ViacomCBS networks including MTV, BET and Spike around the same time as Nick at Nite. The side effect that results from this scheduling and expanded advertising is that one full half-hour of programming is lost, therefore the overnight schedule features only a single episode of one series whereas most other Nick at Nite programs air in double episode blocks.


title: Nick at Nite

text: On June 25, 2012, Nick at Nite began airing Nickelodeon programs for the first time, airing reruns of "All That" and "Kenan & Kel" from 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time weeknights. Two weeks later, the two series were replaced with reruns of "Victorious", before being replaced by the teen drama/telenovela series "Hollywood Heights", which would move to TeenNick halfway through its first (and only) season due to low ratings. Nickelodeon and Nick at Nite currently share the 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time timeslot on weeknights.


title: Nick at Nite

text: In addition to running sitcom reruns, Nick at Nite has also broadcast movies in early primetime; after the 1985 to 1989 run of the "Nick at Nite Movie" showcase, the channel did not air movies on its schedule again until the summer of 2007, when it aired films each week on Tuesday nights. The channel has aired films occasionally since then, and have begun to air them periodically since February 2010 on Sunday nights, beginning that month with telecasts of the Nickelodeon Movies-produced "Good Burger", "Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging", "The Rugrats Movie", and "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie". Additionally, many family-oriented films from other distributors air on the block.


title: Nick at Nite

text: Some movies and special presentations that Nick at Nite aired during 2010 and 2011 had occasionally aired over what is normally Nickelodeon's broadcast time (for example, the February 21, 2010 premiere broadcast of the special "School Gyrls" aired at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time, though Nickelodeon typically does not turn over its channel space to Nick at Nite until 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday nights), which is unusual as some of these special presentations are aimed at Nickelodeon's preteen target audience; however until May 2010, when the network began promoting its film broadcasts as airing on Nick at Nite, promos for these films did not acknowledge whether they were to be broadcast on Nick at Nite or Nickelodeon (an issue as promos for scheduled primetime films were cross-promoted with Nickelodeon), with the only reference as to the film's airing on Nick at Nite coming from the screen bug that is shown during the film.


title: Nick at Nite

text: Some of the movies Nick at Nite has broadcast in recent years have included the "Back to the Future" trilogy, "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", "Baby's Day Out", "Pretty in Pink", "National Lampoon's Vacation", "Ghostbusters" (and its sequel "Ghostbusters II"), "Jurassic Park", "The Nutty Professor", "Legally Blonde", "The Princess Diaries" and "The Parent Trap". Film broadcasts have become more common on Nick at Nite since fall 2012, often airing on a near-weekly basis, typically on Sunday evenings.


title: Nick at Nite

text: Nick at Nite has also occasionally broadcast its own programs, sometimes with bizarre and surrealistic results. On December 5, 1987, the channel ran a contest called the "Do It Yourself Sitcom Special", which was billed as the first time that real people ever had their own television shows. Viewers submitted their own sitcom ideas and the winner would supposedly get their own show. In 1988, the channel aired a half-hour animated Christmas special from Ralph Bakshi, which served as the pilot for a proposed animated series titled "Tattertown". The program was never picked up to series, but the special, later renamed "Christmas in Tattertown", aired on Nick at Nite every Christmas for several years. In 1990, the channel briefly aired a satirical comedy series called "On the Television", a mock critic show hosted by Siskel and Ebert-type characters that featured bizarre, sometimes disturbing clips from spoofed television shows supposedly beginning that week.


title: Nick at Nite

text: In the early 1990s, the channel ran a one-time special featuring old television commercials; this idea would be rehashed by the network on several other shows and eventually become a project of a spin-off channel, TV Land, as part of the "Retromercials" segment that aired during commercial breaks until the mid-2000s. Another special aired by Nick at Nite was promoted as a TV dad quiz, in which the host walked through a "typical TV Home," and quizzed viewers at home with trivia about classic TV dad clichés. At one point, the host told viewers to connect pictures of TV dads with their appropriate TV wives displayed on the screen with a magic marker. At the end of this segment, he mentions that he forgot to tell the viewers to place a piece of plastic over their screen while doing this and made jokes about the viewers


title: Nick at Nite

text: In 1991, Nick at Nite debuted its own sitcom based around the rerun genre it had developed. The short-lived "Hi Honey, I'm Home!" (titled after the catchphrase that male lead characters in some classic sitcoms said to their wives when returning home from work) focused on a 1950s sitcom family called the Nielsens, whose show has been removed from syndication, forcing the family to leave TV Land and move into a real 1990s suburban neighborhood, repeatedly confronting the family with a culture shock. The series aired on Fridays as part of ABC's "TGIF" lineup, with the episode being "rerun" on Nick at Nite in primetime on the following Sunday.


title: Nick at Nite

text: In 2008, the channel announced that it was developing a family-oriented revival of the 1990s game show "GUTS" titled "My Family's Got GUTS", as well as a dog competition show. "My Family's Got GUTS" eventually premiered on Nickelodeon in September 2008. On August 17, 2009, Nick at Nite debuted a new animated stop-motion series called "Glenn Martin DDS", which ran for two seasons. Scripted programming returned to Nick at Nite in 2012, with the June 11 debut of the telenovela-based teen drama "Hollywood Heights", followed on October 6 with the premiere of "See Dad Run", though the former relocated to TeenNick midway through its run due to low ratings and branding confusion.


title: Nick at Nite

text: In 2017, the network also began to carry episodes of "Nashville" on an hour delay from CMT on nights when new episodes aired in order to further augment that series' ratings.


title: Nick at Nite

text: Programming marathons were an innovation that began with Nick at Nite in 1985, eventually leading to the phenomenon of "binge-watching". Working together at college radio station WKCR-FM while attending New York City's prestigious Columbia University, Fred/Alan, Inc. founders Alan Goodman and Fred Seibert saw the ratings success of radio marathons featuring music from Ludwig van Beethoven, John Coltrane and Charles Mingus. As the Nick at Nite "oldies" format was adapted from radio, they suggested the multi-hour (sometimes multi-day) marathon might also work with television programming. The marathon format proved successful and became a ratings boosting in demand with cable television networks for over two decades.


title: Nick at Nite

text: During the week of Halloween in late October 1990, the network held a special contest, hosted by game show host Wink Martindale, during a marathon of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". Viewers at home were supposed to keep a running total of total number of deaths on the show. At the end of the marathon, the persons who had gotten the correct total were entered into a drawing to win a prize. As Martindale said, "it's kind of like guessing the number of jelly beans in a jelly bean jar, but instead of jelly beans, you're using cadavers!"


title: Nick at Nite

text: When new shows are added to the lineup, they are usually accompanied by some kind of marathon that is sometimes hosted by a star from the show. For instance, when "Newhart" joined Nick at Nite in the early 1990s, the channel also acquired Bob Newhart's short-lived third sitcom "Bob", and ran a block branded "Bob's Bob, Bob Newhart, Newhart Marathon", featuring the two shows along with "The Bob Newhart Show" (which it already had the rights to broadcast), in an event hosted by Bob Newhart. Nick at Nite's debut of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" was called the "Marython". When "I Love Lucy" joined Nick at Nite in 1994, a week-long marathon called "Nick at Nite Loves Lucy" aired, showcasing every one of Lucille Ball's sitcoms that aired between 1951 and 1986 ("I Love Lucy", "The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour", "The Lucy Show", "Here's Lucy", and "Life With Lucy"). When some older shows were retired, Nick at Nite would also frequently have a marathon send-off. For instance, when "Mister Ed" was finally retired from the network in January 1993 after a seven-year run, Nick at Nite ran a weekend-long marathon of the show called "Au Revoir Mister Ed!"; a similar send-off for "The Donna Reed Show", which ran on the channel for nine years beginning with Nick at Nite's July 1985 debut, also ran that year. "My Three Sons" was sent off the night Daylight Saving Time ended in October 1991 with a marathon called "Nite of the Setting Sons," permitting two extra episodes in the marathon due to the one-hour time shift.


title: Nick at Nite

text: During the summer months from the mid-to-late 1990s, the channel for a while ran a program block called "Vertivision" (later known as "Block Party Summer"), during which a different series was shown in a three-hour block each night of the week. In its first year, network promos referred to the nights featured in the special lineup as "Mary Mondays" (for "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"), "Lucy Tuesdays" (for "I Love Lucy"), ""Bewitched" Be-Wednesdays" (for "Bewitched"), "Jeannie Thursdays" (for "I Dream of Jeannie"), and "Sgt. Joe Fridays" (for "Dragnet"). With the passing years, the summer blocks shifted to include series recently added to Nick at Nite's program library.


title: Nick at Nite

text: Other seasonal scheduling blocks were also not uncommon such as Christmas-themed blocks during late December, Thanksgiving-themed blocks in November, and Valentine's Day-themed episodes in February. Each New Year's Eve from 1989 to 1998, the channel would host "Nick at Nite's (year) Rerun/Classic TV/TV Hits Countdown" hosted by longtime countdown radio DJ, Casey Kasem. Kasem would spend the period from noon (11:30 a.m. in 1990) until New Year's Day at 12:30 a.m. Eastern Time counting down the 25 "most classic" episodes of the series airing on Nick at Nite at that time as determined by viewers at home, with the #1 episode being aired at midnight.


title: Nick at Nite

text: Another well-known lineup was "A Whole Lotta Lucy" block which ran on Saturday nights from June 4, 1994, to May 3, 1996, which consisted of "I Love Lucy", "The Lucy Show" and "The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour", which were all airing on the network at that time (a similar block aired on Saturday nights from 1996 to 2001, featuring only "I Love Lucy" and "The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour"). In the mid-1990s, another Saturday night programming block titled "Very, Very Nick at Nite" centered around a different theme each week, such as "Very Very Mary" with four classic "Mary Tyler Moore Show" episodes. In summer of 2008, Nick at Nite aired a marathon called "Battle of the Sexes", which featured episodes of their regular programs that engaged conflict between men and women.


title: Nick at Nite

text: Nick at Nite generally broadcasts a marathon of their programming on holidays (such as the "Luck of the Lopez" marathon of "George Lopez" that aired on Saint Patrick's Day in March 2008). For two years in a row, in October 2007 and 2008, Nick at Nite broadcast the "Shocktober" marathon (branded as "Shocktober 2" for the 2008 event), featuring Halloween-themed episodes of the regularly scheduled program. Other holidays that the network often features themed marathons include Mother's Day, Father's Day, and Christmas.


title: Nick at Nite

text: On June 17, 2019, Nick at Nite aired a simulcast of the 2019 MTV Movie & TV Awards for the first time, along with many of its sister networks. On August 26, it also aired a simulcast of the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards for the first time. In December 2019, Nick at Nite began airing a marathon of "Friends" to celebrate the show's 25th anniversary since its finale throughout half of Nick at Nite's regular programming time.


title: Nick at Nite

text: On April 18, 2020, Nick at Nite aired a simulcast of "One World: Together at Home", which was simulcast on multiple networks and platforms.


title: Nick at Nite

text: Occasionally, episodes of "Rugrats" and "SpongeBob SquarePants" have aired regularly or as marathons during Nick at Nite special events in the 1990s and 2000s. This has also occurred during crossovers with Nickelodeon special programming where the Nickelodeon programming runs into the regular Nick at Nite timeslot. A 30-year reunion special of "Double Dare" aired on November 23, 2016. Regular marathons occur on Nick at Nite. Usually when a show debuts, it receives an all-night or a week-long marathon. Seasonal marathons also occur for holidays such as Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.


title: Nick at Nite

text: On June 17, 2019, Nick at Nite aired a simulcast of the 2019 MTV Movie & TV Awards for the first time, along with many of its sister networks. On August 26, it also aired a simulcast of the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards for the first time. In December 2019, Nick at Nite began airing a marathon of "Friends" to celebrate the show's 25 year anniversary since its finale throughout half of Nick at Nite's regular programming time. Nick at Nite aired a simulcast of the widely distributed, on April 18, 2020.


title: Nick at Nite

text: Nick at Nite has used numerous unusual and offbeat commercials, logos and promotions. Alan Goodman and Fred Seibert assembled a team of highly imaginative writers/producers, modeled on their original 1981 creative team that had launched sister channel MTV. The group – which included Scott Webb, Jim Levi, Dave Potorti, Jay Newell, Will McRobb, and Tom Hill – was guided towards creating a series of internal campaigns to emphasize the seeming paradox of a contemporary network setting that programmed reruns from the 1960s and earlier. A series of five "promises" were organized into four 30-second spots each hour, each emphasizing an attribute of the innovative programming format.


title: Nick at Nite

text: In 1986, the channel began running a few different animated 10-second channel identifications (produced by Noyes and Laybourne and the Fred/Alan agency) that were repetitive in creation, but all had vastly different endings (similar to the "watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat" gag from "The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show"). In one such ID, the first chord of The Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night" would be heard strummed, as a man began to hang up a Nick at Nite logo and common living room objects such as a chair and a television set. Once the man sat down in front of the TV set and clicked the remote control, a bizarre incident would happen, such as a gorilla coming out of the set. Later IDs started with either a woman setting up her backyard behind a "city" background, which was made of cardboard, or a couple setting up their living room. In May 1991, Nick at Nite started running a wide variety of IDs created in association with Pomposello Productions. These were made with almost every imaginable technique from cel animation to stop motion, to original live-action and stock footage. Almost every commercial had a different jingle professing Nick at Nite as being "A TV Viewer's Dream" for "the TV generation" and as coming from a place called "TV Land" ("Hello out there, from TV Land!") and promoting "Better Living Through Television", although these claims were always somewhat tongue in cheek.


title: Nick at Nite

text: There were also sarcastic promotions created for shows airing on the network: an announcer's voiceover would discuss the series, accompanied by clips and music, and sometimes the show's theme song. The commercials would use an actor's line or expression and take it out of context to create a new subversive meaning. The channel still uses this technique today, although often in a more partial way. A popular take-off of the Michelob Light commercial, "The Nite Belongs to Nick" ran for a short period of time before being discontinued due to copyright issues. One series of promos had Dick Van Dyke (whose eponymous 1960s sitcom was a mainstay of the channel in the 1990s) depicted as "Chairman of Nick at Nite" (this idea was later recycled by one of Nick at Nite's sister networks, TeenNick, which depicted actor and television personality Nick Cannon as the "Chairman of TeenNick" in a series of promos that began airing on September 28, 2009). In 1995, in honor of the network's tenth anniversary, Nick at Nite aired a tribute to the commercials throughout the network's existence and hosted by former network president Rich Cronin.


title: Nick at Nite

text: The channel also had a unique way of informing viewers about the show that was about to air next. Beginning as only some of the night's shows and their airtimes being listed as music played over an on-screen graphic, this simple concept would be revised and re-revised many times over. At one point, a television with objects and people from the show scrolling by (for instance, for "Get Smart" a shoe phone, gun, and Max and 99) would appear on the screen while the announcer describes the program title and time; the time that the show was scheduled to air would be popped up in another box. Some shows were preceded by a bumper showing the following episode's number and title. Nick at Nite's original continuity announcer was Nickelodeon announcer Wendell Craig; Bill St. James alternated with Wendell before replacing him as the channel's primary continuity announcer in 1992 and serving in that capacity until 2007 (except for a short period from March 2001 until September 2002, in which he was replaced with a different Soul Train-esque announcer). Bill has also served as an announcer for the premium channels Showtime, The Movie Channel (both former Viacom sister channels to Nick at Nite), and HBO, among other television clients, as well as serving as the host of the radio shows "Flashback" and "Time Warp" (which focus on classic rock and oldies music).


title: Nick at Nite

text: A few of Nick at Nite's promos in the early 1990s involved Dixie the TV Land Pixie promoting Nick at Nite "Brand Reruns". During this time, the network would also play an interstitial series called "Milkman," about a milkman who would distribute good advice to customers on his milk delivery route. By 1995, Nick at Nite introduced a new mascot named "Phil". Phil was seen doing several stunts, such as dressing up as a crab during Block Party Summer bumpers. In an ID usually seen when Nick at Nite signed on, Phil was seen working as technician to "try to get Nick at Nite up and running." In December 1996, Nick at Nite introduced twelve network IDs directed by Mo Willems which introduced the block's CGI mascot "Logobelly". Logobelly was seen doing various activities and appeared on colorful backgrounds on TV sets interacting with past TV stars watching television sets. Curious Pictures created six more IDs for Nick at Nite featuring "Logobelly" in April 1998 with Toonz and 3D Studio Max software.


title: Nick at Nite

text: Nick at Nite received a rebrand in January 1999 (which was used until March 2001) produced by Scott Stowell and Chip Wass (who previously designed a set of CGI IDs for the network in 1996). The rebrand prominently used the color yellow and shades of blue (which became darker overnight). Nick at Nite's IDs at the time typically featured a moving illustration by Chip Wass and either a female voiceover singing a jingle about the network which ended with "Nick at Nite, the place for TV hits" or narration by Bill St. James for overnight IDs.


title: Nick at Nite

text: In March 2001, in an effort to cash-in on the reality-TV boom, Nick at Nite underwent an extensive rebrand with the new theme of "Unreality", with IDs and bumpers featuring clips from actual events then going to clips from TV shows inspiring the events and then ending with the Nick at Nite logo and slogan "100% Sitcoms, 100% Unreality". One bumper used during this era had the slogan "All Sitcoms, All Night Long".


title: Nick at Nite

text: Nick at Nite is ranked number one with Adults 18-49 for 2009 in total day, according to Nielsen Media Research (12/31/07-12/14/08)–averaging a .6/655,000 A18-49 (up +20% in rating over last year), and marking its most-watched year in four years with A18-49.


title: Nick at Nite

text: According to "MarketWatch", Nick at Nite is the top cable network with Adults 18–49. In total day, average ratings are about 1.5 million viewers. It is also the #1 cable network among women aged 18–49 averaging a 0.7 rating/415,000 total viewers.


title: Nick at Nite

text: On April 29, 1996, Viacom spun off a separate network from Nick at Nite, TV Land (originally branded as "Nick at Nite's TV Land" until 1999), which features a variety of rerun programming; the channel is usually carried on the basic tiers of cable, IPTV and satellite providers. On December 17, 2006, TV Land ceased operating under the control of Nick at Nite as Nickelodeon began overseeing that service under the MTV Networks Kids & Family Group, though TV Land continued to be operated as part of Viacom's MTV Networks division. During its early years, the channel ran classic television series from the early 1950s to the 1970s. In 2004, TV Land began to incorporate sitcoms from the 1980s and 1990s; reality shows and weekly movie presentations were added as the decade progressed. However, much of TV Land's programming continues to include series from the 1960s and 1970s. While in 2017 its original programming efforts were made up of multi-camera sitcoms such as "Younger" and "Teachers" targeted towards a female Generation X audience, in late 2018, the former moved to Paramount Network and the latter was canceled. That decision was eventually reversed; cast members of "Younger" announced in April 2019 that "Younger" would remain at TV Land and Season 6 would premiere in June 2019.


title: Narain Karthikeyan

text: Kumar Ram Narain Karthikeyan (born 14 January 1977) is an Indian racing driver. He was the first Indian driver to compete in Formula One.


title: Narain Karthikeyan

text: He has previously competed in A1GP, and the Le Mans Series. He has won multiple races in A1GP, British F3, World series by Nissan, AutoGP, Formula Asia, British Formula Ford & Opel series in his single-seater career. He won the British Formula Ford Winter Series in 1994 & Formula Asia Championship in 1996. He also finished fourth overall in British F3 in 2000 & the World Nissan series in 2003. He made his Formula One debut in with the Jordan team, and was a Williams F1 test driver in and . Like several other former F1 drivers, Karthikeyan moved to stock car racing and drove the No. 60 Safe Auto Insurance Company Toyota Tundra for Wyler Racing in the 2010 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.


title: Narain Karthikeyan

text: In 2011, he returned to F1 with the HRT team, continued with the team in 2012 and was expected to drive for them in the 2013 season as well.


title: Narain Karthikeyan

text: However, HRT was not included in the FIA's 2013 entry list, and thus Karthikeyan was left without a drive. From 2014–2018, Karthikeyan raced in Japanese Super Formula series. In 2019, he ended his single-seater career by joining SuperGT series in Japan.


title: Narain Karthikeyan

text: Karthikeyan was born in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. He did his schooling at Stanes Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School in Coimbatore. His interest in motorsport began at an early age, as his father was a former Indian national rally champion winning South India Rally seven times. With the ambition of becoming India's first Formula One driver, Karthikeyan finished on the podium in his first ever race, at Sriperumpudur in a Formula Maruti. He then went on to the Elf Winfield Racing School in France, showing his talent by becoming a semi-finalist in the Pilote Elf Competition for Formula Renault cars in 1992. He returned to India to race in Formula Maruti for the 1993 season, and in the same year, he also competed in the Formula Vauxhall Junior championship in Great Britain. This gave him valuable experience in European racing, and he was keen to return for the following year.


title: Narain Karthikeyan

text: In 1994, he returned to the UK, racing in the Formula Ford Zetec series as the number two works Vector driver for the Foundation Racing team. The highlight of the season was a podium finish in a support race for the Portuguese Grand Prix held at Estoril. He also took part in the British Formula Ford Winter Series, and became the first Indian driver to win any championship in Europe.


title: Narain Karthikeyan

text: In 1995, Karthikeyan graduated to the Formula Asia Championship for just four races. However, he showed pace immediately and was able to finish second in the race at Shah Alam, Malaysia. In 1996, he had a full season in the series and became the first Indian and the first Asian to win the Formula Asia International series. He moved back to Britain in 1997 to compete in the British Formula Opel Championship with the Nemesis Motorsport team, taking a pole position and win at Donington Park and finishing sixth in the overall points standings.


title: Narain Karthikeyan

text: In 1998, Karthikeyan made his debut in the British Formula 3 Championship with the Carlin Motorsport team. Competing in only 10 rounds, he managed two third-place finishes in the final two races of the season, at Spa-Francorchamps and Silverstone, to finish 12th overall. He continued in the championship for 1999, finishing on the podium five times, including two wins at Brands Hatch. His season also included two pole positions, three fastest laps and two lap records, helping him to sixth in the championship. He also competed in the Macau Grand Prix, qualifying in sixth position and finishing sixth in the second race. He was the first racing driver to record a win for Carlin in British F3 ever since then Carlin have been invincible in terms of race wins in the British F3 Championship. Continuing his drive in the British F3 Championship in 2000, he finished fourth overall in the standings, and also took pole position and fastest laps in the Macau Grand Prix. He also won both the International F3 race at Spa-Francorchamps and the Korea Super Prix.


title: Narain Karthikeyan

text: Karthikeyan started 2001 in the Formula Nippon F3000 Championship, finishing the year amongst the top ten. In the same year, he became the first Indian to ever drive a Formula One car, testing for the Jaguar Racing team at Silverstone on 14 June. Impressed with his performance, he was then offered a test drive in the Jordan-Honda EJ11 at Silverstone in September. Karthikeyan again tested for Jordan, at Mugello in Italy on 5 October, finishing just half a second off the pace off Jordan's lead driver Jean Alesi.


title: Narain Karthikeyan

text: In 2002, he moved into the Telefónica World Series with Team Tata RC Motorsport, taking a pole position and setting the fastest non-Formula One lap time at the Interlagos Circuit in Brazil. Continuing in the renamed Superfund World Series in 2003, Karthikeyan got four podium finishes on his way to fourth overall in the championship. These results earned him another Formula One test drive, this time with the Minardi team. He was offered a race drive for the 2004 season, but was unable to raise the necessary sponsorship funds to seal the deal.


title: Narain Karthikeyan

text: He continued in the Nissan World Series in 2004, taking wins in Valencia, Spain and Magny-Cours, France, and finished 6th in the standings, and also made a single appearance in the FIA GT Championship for Scuderia Veregra, partnering Anthony Beltoise and Maktoum Hasher Al Maktoum at the Dubai 500km, finishing 11th in class and 19th overall.


title: Narain Karthikeyan

text: On 1 February 2005, Karthikeyan announced that he had signed a preliminary deal with the Jordan Formula One team and said that he would be their main driver for the 2005 Formula One season, making him India's first Formula One racing driver. His partner was Portuguese driver Tiago Monteiro. Karthikeyan completed the necessary testing distance of 300 km in an F1 car in order to gain his superlicence at the Silverstone Circuit on 10 February.


title: Narain Karthikeyan

text: In his first race, the Australian Grand Prix, Karthikeyan qualified in 12th position. After a poor start which saw him drop to 18th place by the end of the first lap, he finished in 15th, two laps behind winner Giancarlo Fisichella. He achieved his first points in the 2005 United States Grand Prix where all but three teams pulled out due to an argument over tyre safety. He finished fourth, finishing ahead of the two Minardi drivers but behind teammate Monteiro. Apart from the USGP, his highest finish was 11th place. In the 2005 Japanese Grand Prix free practice, he was fastest for a long period and eventually qualified 11th. At the 2005 Chinese Grand Prix he qualified in 15th place. In an unlucky end to his 2005 season, Karthikeyan crashed his Jordan into a wall at the Chinese race, but was unhurt and able to provide an interview afterwards.


title: Narain Karthikeyan

text: Because the Jordan team was taken over and renamed Midland for the 2006 season, the management change prompted some doubt over Karthikeyan's future at the team. Near the end of 2005, he announced he would not be driving for Midland the following year allegedly due to their demand that he pay as much as $11.7 million to secure his seat on the team.


title: Narain Karthikeyan

text: On 8 December 2005, Karthikeyan tested for Williams at Spain and finished fifth, outpacing the confirmed Williams second driver, Nico Rosberg, who finished ninth. On 27 January 2006, Williams confirmed Karthikeyan as their fourth driver. He was to perform testing duties for the team alongside Alexander Wurz who had been confirmed earlier as the team's third driver. He was retained as a reserve test driver for Williams alongside Kazuki Nakajima in 2007. Karthikeyan said he was "blown away" by the difference between Formula One's stragglers and a top-flight team.


title: Narain Karthikeyan

text: Later in 2007, he was linked with the Spyker (previously Jordan) Formula One team after their driver Christijan Albers was fired, although Sakon Yamamoto got the drive. Due to the withdrawal of support of Williams F1 by Tata (Karthikeyan's main sponsor), Nakajima was given the lion's share of testing duties and Karthikeyan was sidelined.


title: Narain Karthikeyan

text: When the Spyker F1 team was bought out by Vijay Mallya towards the end of 2007, Karthikeyan had been linked with a drive with the new Force India Formula One team in 2008. However, he did not even get to test for the team. He was also linked to a drive with the Super Aguri team in January 2008, as one of the terms of an Indian consortium investing in the team. The deal was not agreed and he continued to drive for A1 Team India. He was India's only Formula One driver until the 2010 season, when Karun Chandhok signed to drive for the Hispania Racing F1 Team.


title: Narain Karthikeyan

text: On 6 January 2011, Karthikeyan announced that he would drive for the Hispania team in the season, following five years away from active involvement in the championship. He confirmed the deal via his Twitter page, saying it would be a "dream come true to race in front of the home crowd in the Indian GP in October," and adding that the support of financial backers Tata Group had been "instrumental".


title: Narain Karthikeyan

text: Driving for a small team, along with the increasing reliability of modern Formula 1 cars, meant that Karthikeyan twice set the record for the lowest placed finisher in a Formula 1 event. The first occurrence was during the Chinese Grand Prix where the single retirement of Jaime Alguersuari meant Karthikeyan finished in 23rd place, after he was overtaken by teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi on the final lap. However, in the European Grand Prix there were no retirements meaning that Karthikeyan once again broke the record by being the 24th car to cross the finish line.


title: Narain Karthikeyan

text: On 30 June 2011, Karthikeyan was replaced by Daniel Ricciardo for the remaining races of the season except the Indian Grand Prix but participated in Friday first practice in Germany, Singapore, Japan and Korea.


title: Narain Karthikeyan

text: On 23 October 2011, it was confirmed that Karthikeyan would replace Liuzzi for the Indian Grand Prix. Karthikeyan was outqualifed by 0.022 secs to qualify 22nd, however he started 24th and last due to blocking Michael Schumacher in qualifying. Despite picking up damage in the first lap of the race, Karthikeyan managed to beat Ricciardo by 31.8 seconds in the race to finish 17th. Liuzzi returned to replace Karthikeyan ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.


title: Narain Karthikeyan

text: On 3 February 2012, it was confirmed that Karthikeyan had again signed for the HRT team for the 2012 season partnering Pedro de la Rosa.


title: Narain Karthikeyan

text: In the Australian Grand Prix, he and teammate Pedro de la Rosa were unable to qualify. In Malaysia, both the HRTs managed to qualify, with Karthikeyan starting 23rd due to a 5-place gear box penalty for Heikki Kovalainen, the start was wet and the HRTs gambled to start the race on full wet tyres, whilst the other cars started on intermediate tyres. As the rain increased that gamble paid off as other cars had to pit for full wets which promoted Karthikeyan to a points-paying tenth place before the safety car then red flag came out for heavy rain. At the restart, after a few more laps behind the safety car, the track was dry enough for intermediate tyres and a few drivers pitted as the safety car came back in, however Karthikeyan stayed out and was as high as 5th place at one point, before McLaren's Jenson Button crashed into him whilst they were racing for position. Karthikeyan suffered damage however, but he pitted for intermediate tyres which dropped him to the back of the field, bar teammate de la Rosa who had a served a drive-through penalty. On lap 47, Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel received a puncture after hitting Karthikeyan's front wing, whilst lapping him and Vettel was forced to pit and replaced the punctured tyre which put Vettel down from 4th place, finishing 11th; Karthikeyan finished the race in 21st, however he was given a 20-second post-race penalty for his part in the collision, which meant he dropped to 22nd and last, behind de la Rosa.