Nick at Nite

Nick at Nite (stylized as nick@nite) is an American nighttime programming block broadcast over Nickelodeon Monday - Saturday nights from 9 p.m. - 7 a.m. ET/PT and Sunday nights from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. ET/PT. While Nickelodeon is known for its children's shows during the day, Nick at Nite appeals to adult audiences with a lineup of live-action and animated sitcoms, shown with about a ten-year lag, although the network has added more recent shows in the later 2000s, such as , , and Young Sheldon.
==History==
Nick@Nite debuted at 8:00 pm on July 1, 1985 as a block on Nickelodeon. MTV president Bob Pittman had asked Nickelodeon General Manager Gerry Laybourne to develop programming to fill the time vacated by A&E Network (which occupied the former Alpha Repertory Television Service time slot) to take better advantage of precious satellite time. After futile attempts at original program development, she asked programming and branding consultants Alan Goodman and Fred Seibert of Fred/Alan Inc. (successful as the original MTV branders and Nickelodeon's explosive rebranding) to come up with programming. After being presented with over 200 episodes of (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", and Fred/Alan developed the original logo with Tom Corey and Scott Nash of Boston, creators of the well-recognized Nickelodeon logo.
Its initial programming (running from 8PM - 6AM, seven days a week) was a block of classic sitcoms such as The Donna Reed Show and Dennis the Menace, and the classic drama Route 66. As Nick at Nite grew, it would add to its library of shows branching out to rerun sketch comedy, such as original Saturday Night Live episodes as well as the Canadian series Second City Television. It also briefly reran the 1970s mock local talk show Fernwood 2Night. As the years went by, the channel's sitcom library swelled to over a hundred shows. For the station's 20th birthday celebration in June 2005, TV Land aired an episode from almost every series that had appeared on Nick at Nite.
=== 10th Anniversary===
In 1995, Nick at Nite celebrated its 10th Anniversary with a week long event. Throughout the week, the channel aired "hand picked episodes" of almost every series aired on the network. Each episode was introduced with its history, episode number, and how long it ran on Nick at Nite. The 10th Anniversary on-screen bug was shown at the bottom left corner of the screen for 10 seconds once per half hour show, it was used for the entire year of 1995 as was the 20th Anniversary logo in 2005.
===Today===
In 2004, , an animated series based on the book of the same name by Bill Cosby was added to the line up but then pulled upon its cancellation. In April 2005, Nick at Nite premiered a reality series, The Search For The Funniest Mom In America, in which mothers from across the country competed to win $50,000 and a chance to develop a show for Nick at Nite. The winner of the competition was Darlene Westgor. In August 2005, another original series, Hi-Jinks premiered, where parents pull pranks on their children. A recent second installment of "Funniest Mom in America" hosted by Katey Sagal aired, beginning on April 12, 2006. Nick at Nite also began broadcasting a new animated mini-sitcom entitled At the Poocharelli's in mid-2006. In June 2007, Nick at Nite began airing a game show called Bet the House.
Nick at Nite has also spun off a niche network, TV Land, which features a variety of rerun programming. The networks were operated together until December 17, 2006, when Nickelodeon began overseeing Nick at Nite, and "Nick at Nite's TV Land" was shortened to "TV Land".
On February 13, 2006, the Latin American version of Nickelodeon started broadcasting Nick at Nite for the first time. Since January 2007, the network has aired shows like , , , , , , , , , Kenan and Kel, Clarissa Explains It All, , and , which have been broadcast pn Latin American local networks and other cable channels. Although the Latin American Nickelodeon was launched in the mid-1990s, it had never carried the Nick at Nite block before.Mundonick.com
On January 1, 2007, the Nick at Nite logo changed the color from blue to orange thus creating a match with Nickelodeon's colors. On September 3, 2007, a new logo similar to the then-current Nickelodeon logo but in the shape of a crescent moon was introduced.
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.
Nick at Nite overhauled its on-air appearance on September 28, 2009 as part of Nickelodeon's universal rebranding effort – the new logo, also based on Nickelodeon's current 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 stopped 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-uniform closing credits – which Nickelodeon had been utilizing since at least 2000 (both Nick at Nite and Nickelodeon often omit end tag scenes or blooper reels of some shows using this format).
On October 1, 2017, Nick at Nite's sign-on time was moved to 10:00 p.m. ET, extending the network's daily schedule to nine hours.
====Nick at Nite HD====
A high definition feed of Nick at Nite is available on many cable and all satellite service providers. The high definition feed was launched on November 14, 2007 alongside Nickelodeon HD. 4:3 content is pillarboxed on the high definition feed to fill the 16:9 aspect ratio. All programs produced in standard definition are aired pillarboxed on the high definition feed. Commercials made in 16:9 are also letterboxed to fill the 4:3 feed, unlike most other Nickelodeon-owned channels. From September 28, 2009 until June 2012, all commercial bumpers had been broadcast in 4:3; most 16:9 video footage in the bumps are letterboxed. All 4:3 content is pillarboxed on the HD feed as opposed to being cropped to fit the 16:9 aspect ratio.
On June 5, 2017, Nick at Nite's sign-on time was moved to 10:00 p.m. ET, further extending the network's daily schedule to eight hours. Sometimes, Nickelodeon takes the 10:00 p.m. ET hour back, making Nick at Nite start at 11:00 p.m. ET again. This has happened two times since 2013, from August 26 to December 31, 2014, August 1, 2015 to January 1, 2016, and September 2 to December 31, 2016.
Nick at Nite currently signs on at 9:00 p.m. ET, generally after one of Nickelodeon's live-action programs.
==Programming==
===Original programming===
Nick at Nite has also occasionally experimented with creating its own shows, sometimes with bizarre and surrealistic results. In 1988, the channel had a contest called the Do It Yourself Sitcom Special, where viewers could create their own sitcoms and send them in and the winner would supposedly get their own show.
In 1988, the channel aired a 30-minute animated Christmas special, the pilot for what was to be an animated series entitled Tattertown, created by Ralph Bakshi. The series never emerged, but the special, later renamed Christmas in Tattertown, was aired every Christmas on Nick at Nite for several years.
In 1990, the channel briefly aired a show called On the Television,"On the Television" (1990) a mock TV critic show hosted by Siskel and Ebert-type characters and featured bizarre, sometimes disturbing clips from parodied TV shows supposedly beginning that week.
In the early 1990s, a special made up of old TV commercials was aired only once, but the idea of showing old commercials would be rehashed by the network on several other shows and eventually become a staple of offshoot channel, TV Land. There was one special that was promoted as a TV dad quiz. The host walked through a "typical TV Home", and quizzed the viewers at home with trivia about classic TV dad clichés. At one point, the host told the viewers to connect pictures of TV dads with their appropriate TV moms 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 futilely trying to clean the magic marker off their screens for the rest of the show.
In 1991, Nick at Nite created its own sitcom based around the rerun genre it had pioneered. The sitcom, named Hi Honey, I'm Home! after the cliché phrase used by TV dads addressing their TV wives when returning home in the evenings from work, was about a 1950s sitcom family, the Nielsens. The family's show has been removed from syndication and they are forced to leave TV Land and move to a real 1990s suburban neighborhood. Once there, the family is repeatedly confronted with culture shock. The show aired on ABC on Fridays during the network's TGIF lineup, and then would "rerun" on Nick at Nite the following Sunday nights.
In 2008, the channel announced that it was making a remake of the 1990s game show Nickelodeon GUTS, called My Family's Got GUTS for families, as well as hosting a dog competition show My Family's Got GUTS eventually premiered on Nickelodeon in September 2008.
In 2009, Nick at Nite released a new "claymation" series called Glenn Martin, DDS
In November 2006, Nick at Nite was proud to continue Nickelodeon's "Best Day Ever" marathon, 24 hours of SpongeBob SquarePants which, at the end of the marathon, led to a new episode with the same name.
===Commercials===
Nick at Nite has used a myriad of unusual and unorthodox commercials, logos and, promotions. Alan Goodman and Fred Seibert assembled a team of highly imaginative writer/producers, modeled on their original 1981 creative team that had launched sister channel MTV: Music Television. Including Scott Webb, Jim Levi, Dave Potorti, Jay Newell, Will McRobb, and Tom Hill, the group was guided towards created a series of internal campaigns to emphasize the seeming paradox of a contemporary network setting that programmed reruns from the 1960s. A series of five "promises" were organized into four 30 second spots each hour, each emphasizing an attribute of the innovative programming format.
In 1986, the channel began running a few different animated 10 second channel identifications with a similar premise that all had vastly different endings, produced by Eli Noyes & Kit Laybourne, and the Fred/Alan agency. One of them was of a couple who would bring objects for a living room onto the screen including a couch and a television then sit down in front of the TV. The male would click the remote and something bizarre would happen, such as a gorilla appearing. Before the commercial was over the Nick at Nite logo would appear somehow tied to the premise of the commercial. Others were either a woman setting up her backyard behind a "city", which was made of cardboard, or a man setting up his bedroom, and then the unusual happening. These idents were used in many different variations until 1991 when they were discarded, and replaced with updated and newer idents(see paragraph below).
In 1991, Nick at Nite started running a wide variety of idents. These were made with almost every imaginable technique from limited animation, to claymation and 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" and proclaimed itself curator of "Our Television Heritage", although these claims were always somewhat tongue in cheek. They would also create sarcastic commercials for shows on their network: an announcer's voice would discuss the series, accompanied by clips and music, 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 hybrid way. A popular take-off of the Michelob Light commercial; "The Night belongs to Nick" ran for a short period of time before being taken off because of copyright woes. One series of promos had Dick Van Dyke (whose own '60s sitcom was a mainstay of the channel in the '90s) depicted as "President of Nick at Nite".
The early '90s also saw the addition of Nick at Nite's mascot, Dixie the TV Land Pixie. For a time, the network would also play a short bumper called "Milkman", about a milkman who would distribute wholesome advice to customers on his milk delivery route. In 1995, on the occasion of the network's 10th anniversary, a tribute to the commercials throughout the network's existence was aired and hosted by former network President Rich Cronin.
The channel also had a unique way of telling viewers what shows were about to play next. Beginning as only an announcer reading off that evening's block of shows and the times they would be on while the list was displayed and music was played, 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 a shoe phone, gun, and Max and 99) would appear on the screen while the announcer read off the show and time. The time that the show was on would be displayed in another box. This continues to be changed and updated.
The station also had a wide variety of "bugs" or logos displayed in the corner of the screen during logos would be on the lower left side of the TV screen, and from 1998 on, it would be on the lower right side of the TV screen. The network had a variety of bumpers. From 1994 to 1998, the bumpers had a yellow diamond Nick at Nite logo with (tonite) next to it. At the end of it the announcer said "Nick at Nite: Classic TV with a capital C", or "Nick at Nite: Open all night" (which had an animated background of a Diner with the words "Nick at Nite" on top). The announcer from 1994 to 2007, Bill St. James, is used for the premium movie channel , , as well as the ratings announcer for . From 1997 to 2002, the bumpers had either a cartoon drawing of a family watching TV, a tropical zoo with tucans or a drawing of moons and stars. At the end the announcer would say "On the place for TV Hits", then there would be a woman's voice that would say "Nick at Nite". Although introduced in 1997, it was used intact with the 1994 Nick at Nite "Classic TV" schedule bumper until 1998. In fact, one bumper had the "TV Hits" background schemes(a city with the Nick at Nite logo on a billboard), and the announcer announced "It's Classic TV", and the woman singing "Nick at Nite".
==Ratings==
Nick at Nite is ranked number one with Adults 18-49 for 2008 in total day, according to Nielsen Media Research (31/12/07-14/12/08)--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.
According to Market Watch, Nick at Nite is the top cable network with Adults 18-49. In total day, average ratings are about 1.5 million viewers. It's also the number one cable network with women (18-49). The highest rated shows are The George Lopez Show averaging about 768,000 people during its 10:00pm time slot, and Family Matters is the number two show, averaging 775,000 viewers during its 11PM timeslot. http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news.aspx?date=12/16/08&id=20081216nickatnite01
==International==
===Australia===
In Australia, Nick at Nite aired from October 1995 until early 2001. It shared the same channel as Nickelodeon, broadcasting from 8PM until 6AM on weeknights and 10PM until 6AM. Shows have included SpongeBob SquarePants, , , , The Fugitive, , , , , , , and .Nick AU
When Nickelodeon relaunched as a free-to-air channel in Australia in August 1st 2023, Nick at Nite was relaunched, once again timesharing with Nickelodeon.
===UK===
Nick at Nite was one of the planned, and advertised, stations as part of Sky's new Multichannels package, but was never launched.Nick at Nite For UK Now in DoubtSat trio in U.K. debut - Entertainment News, International News, Media - Varietyftp.funet.fi/pub/dx/text/sfnet.harrastus.dx-kuuntelu/1700-1799/1724
===Germany===
In Germany, Nick nach Acht (Nick after Eight) aired on Nickelodeon Germany after 8:15PM Central European Time. It aired documentaries, drama series, movies and sitcoms. It used an adapted logo of its American counterpart. Many parts of the block included reruns of Ren and Stimpy and CatDog. This is only on Nick Germany's website, though. Since December 2008, Nick and Comedy Central share the same programming block, with Comedy Central airing after 8PM, effectively replacing Nick nach Acht NICK Programm In 2017, the block relaunched at NickNight but later got replaced by Comedy Central +1
===Latin America===
In Latin America, Nick at Nite is aired every day on Nickelodeon Latin America from 10PM until 6AM since February 6, 2006. Shows have included , , , , Kenan & Kel, Clarissa Explains It All, , , , and . It replaced the programming block "Fantabuloso", which aired teen series and was very similar to TEENick. On July 4, 2009, Nick at Nite Latin America was removed from Saturdays and Sundays to make room for Nick Hits, which airs classic Nicktoons from 22:00PM to 06:00AM. On April 5, 2010, Nick at Nite was rebranded with a new logo, bumpers and idents, from Nick at Nite USA's 2009 rebrand, and was aired on Saturdays and Sundays again. Because of this, Nick Hits was removed and the Nicktoons that aired on that block were moved to Nick at Nite. On January 1, 2015, Nick at Nite Latin America was made defunct, and was replaced by a temporal block named Nick Clasicos.
===Japan===
In Japan, Nick at Nite airs everyday from 8:30PM until 6AM since August 4, 2008. Shows have included Drake & Josh, , , , The Adventures Of Pete & Pete, , , , , , and .
===India===
In India, Nick At Nite airs everyday from 8PM to 12PM since July 28, 2008. Shows have included The Andy Griffith Show, Coach, The Odd Couple, , Home Improvement, George Lopez, , and Drake & Josh.
===Russia & the CIS Countries===
In Russia and the CIS countries, Nick at Nite airs on Nickelodeon (CIS) everyday from 9:30PM until 1:30AM Moscow Time. Shows have included Drake & Josh, , , , iCarly, , George Lopez, and Unfabulous.
===Southeast Asia===
In Southeast Asia, Nick at Nite started on March 9, 2009, and airs Monday to Friday from 8PM-9:30PM (PHIL/SING time). Shows have included My Family's Got GUTS, , , and Heathcliff.
===References===
==See also==
*List of programs broadcast by Nick at Nite
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