Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Skydance Corporation. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children, it is primarily aimed at children and adolescents aged 2 to 17, along with a broader family audience through its programming blocks. Nickelodeon is the Top Basic Cable Network of 2014 

The channel began as a test broadcast on December 1, 1977, as part of QUBE, an early cable television system broadcast locally in Columbus, Ohio. On April 1, 1979, the channel was renamed Nickelodeon and launched to a new nationwide audience, with Pinwheel as its inaugural program. The network was initially commercial-free and remained without advertising until 1984. Nickelodeon gained a rebranding in programming and image that year, and its ensuing success led to it and its sister networks MTV and VH1 being sold to Viacom in 1985.

Nickelodeon began expanding as a franchise model with the addition of sister channels and program blocks. Nick Jr. launched as preschool morning block on January 4, 1988, and was eventually spun-off into the Nick Jr. Channel in 2009. Nicktoons, based on the flagship brand for Nickelodeon original animated series, launched as a standalone channel in 2002. Noggin, an interactive educational brand created in partnership with Sesame Workshop, existed as a television channel from 1999 to 2009 and a mobile streaming service from 2015 to 2024. Two blocks aimed at teenage audiences, Nickelodeon's TEENick and Noggin's The N, were merged to form the TeenNick channel in 2009.

As of December 2023, Nickelodeon was available to approximately 70 million pay television households in the United States, down from its peak of 101 million households in 2011.

 Programming 

Programming seen on Nickelodeon includes animated series (such as SpongeBob SquarePants, The Patrick Star Show,  Rugrats, Rock, Paper Scissors, Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years, The Loud House, The Casagrandes,   The Smurfs and Big Nate), live-action, scripted series (such as Danger Force, Tyler Perry's Young Dylan and All That), and original made-for-TV movies, while the network's morning schedule is dedicated to shows targeting preschool children (such as Blue's Clues & You!, Team Umizoomi, Bubble Guppies and PAW Patrol).

Nicktoons

Nicktoons is the branding for Nickelodeon's original animated television series. Until 1991, the animated series that aired on Nickelodeon were largely imported from foreign countries, with some original animated specials that were also featured on the channel up to that point. On August 11, 1991, Nickelodeon debuted its first three original animated shows. They are Doug, Rugrats and The Ren & Stimpy Show. Since then, the network debuted more original Nicktoons and even started an animation studio in 1998, called Nickelodeon Animation Studio.  

Though the Nicktoons branding has seldom been used by the network itself since the 2002 launch of the channel of the same name, original animated series continue to make up a substantial portion of Nickelodeon's lineup. Roughly 6 to 7 hours of these programs are seen on the weekday schedule and around nine hours on weekends, including a dedicated weekend morning animation block.

 Sister channels 
Nick at Nite

Nick at Nite is a programming block for adults and older youth audiences.The block was founded in 1985, as a replacement to the short-lived A&E block on Nick from 1984 to 1985 (A&E is now a 24/7 channel independent from Nickelodeon). This block is similar to Adult Swim, the nighttime programming block for Cartoon Network.

Nick Jr. Channel

The Nick Jr. Channel is a channel for children aged 2 through 6. It was based on Nick Jr., founded on January 4, 1988 as a morning programming block. A channel called the Nick Jr. Channel was launched on September 28, 2009. In the same year, the original Nick Jr. logo was discontinued on the block, following the decline of Noggin.

NickToons 

NickToons was a programming block founded on August 11, 1991, the same day Doug, Rugrats, and The Ren & Stimpy Show started. The programming block was repeated every Saturday and Sunday. Since 2002, Nickelodeon airs their Nicktoons scattered (sometimes even taking up all of the channel). A still-airing channel called Nicktoons was launched in 2002. The channel is for children ages 7 through 14. In the summer of 2025, it was rebranded as NickSpongebob and showed SpongeBob Squarepants 24/7.

TeenNick

TeenNick is a channel for teens originally for ages 13 through 19. It was started as a block on Nickelodeon called TEENick, which was founded in 2001. This block was for teenage audiences. The channel launched on September 28, 2009. It had shows such as Drake & Josh, iCarly, Danger Force, Tyler Perry's Young Dylan and All That and original made-for-TV movies.

NickMusic

NickMusic is a channel that launched in 2002 as MTV Hits, a spin-off to MTV. It was changed in 2016 as NickMusic. 

NickRewind
NickRewind was a block on TeenNick from 2019 through 2022 and Nick at Nite since 2023 on weekdays, that launched in 2011 on TeenNick. It showed re-runs of old Nickelodeon shows like Ren & Stimpy.

Nickelodeon anniversaries
Nick at Nite's 10th anniversary
The Dick Van Dyke Show It May Look Like a Walnut
Bewitched A Is for Aardvark
Mary Tyler Moore Show Chuckles Bites the Dust
The Bob Newhart Show Over the River and Through the Woods
Green Acres The Day the Pigs Went Wild
I Love Lucy Lucy Goes to Hollywood
The Munsters A Visit from Dracula
Welcome Back Kotter Kotter's Return
F-Troop The Great Troop Robbery
Donna Reed Show The Maid Who Came to Dinner
Nickelodeon's 20th anniversary
Rugrats All Growed Up
Rugrats Runaway Reptar
Hey Arnold Helga Blabs It All
Hey Arnold Married
The Angry Beavers Muscular Beavers
The Angry Beavers Beach Beavers A-Go-Go
Rocko's Modern Life Clean Lovin'
Rocko's Modern Life Ed Good, Rocko Bad
CatDog CatDog's End
The Wild Thornberrys Forget Me Not
The Secret World of Alex Mack The Secret
Kenan & Kel Two Heads Are Better Than One
SpongeBob SquarePants Help Wanted/Reef Blowers/Tea at the Treedome
SpongeBob SquarePants Bubblestand/Ripped Pants
Rocket Power New Squid on the Block/Down the Drain
The Amanda Show Pilot
100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd Pilot
Little Bill The Treasure Hunt/The Best Way to Play
All That Episode 50
Figure It Out Season 3 Episode 1

 Notes 

 Related pages 
List of programs broadcast by Nickelodeon
List of movies by Nickelodeon
Nicktoons
Nick.com
The Club (Nickelodeon)
MTV
Nick Jr. Channel
NickRewind Jr. (United States)

 References 

 Other websites 
 Official site (United States)
 Official site (United Kingdom)

Category:1977 establishments in New York (state)
Category:Viacom
Category:American television networks


Category:Children's television networks in the United States