PBS Kids

PBS Kids (styled as PBS KIDS) is the brand for most of the children's programming aired by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. Some public television children's programs are not produced by PBS member stations or transmitted by PBS. Instead, they are produced by independent public television distributors such as American Public Television, and are not labeled as "PBS Kids" programming, as it is mainly a programming block branding. The target audience is children between the ages of 2 and 8. The network is also available in sub-Saharan Africa and Australia.

## **History**

### **PTV block**

PBS had historically aired programs for children such as Sesame Street, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, and Reading Rainbow; prior to 1993, these programs aired under general PBS branding. In August 1993, PBS introduced new branding for their children's programs featuring "The P-Pals", animated characters shaped like PBS logos who encouraged skills such as gathering information, self-esteem, cooperation and achieving goals in specially developed interstitials.

The framework for PBS Kids was established as part of PBS' "Ready to Learn" initiative, a project intended to facilitate access of early childhood educational programming to underprivileged children. On July 11, 1994, PBS repackaged their existing children's educational programming as a new block called "PTV", airing on 11 member stations at launch. In addition to scheduled educational programming, PTV also incorporated interstitial content with the P-Pals in their fictional world "PTV Park" for younger children. Older children were targeted with live-action and music video interstitials.

Apple Computer provided a $1.5 million grant to PTV and became its first national underwriter on June 26, 1995, as part of their "Bring Learning Home" corporate initiative. A "Ready To Learn" grant unveiled on January 8, 1996, supported the development of Dragon Tales and Between the Lions, which premiered in 1999 and 2000, respectively, as well as their online activities and outreach efforts. By September 1996, 95 PBS stations reaching three quarters of the United States were carrying the PTV service. Starting on October 7, 1996, PBS packaged their programs for school-aged children into the block The Game, airing on 31 stations by the end of the year.

PBS announced on January 18, 1999, that it would launch the PBS Kids Channel, meant to be the centerpiece of a larger initiative, in September. On June 9, PBS revealed a wide rebranding of its children's programs and services, known as PBS Kids, at its annual meeting in San Francisco. PBS would also increase its children's programming budget by 25% and commit to two new series: Caillou and Anne of Green Gables: The Animated Series.

### **PBS Kids**

On September 6, 1999, PBS launched the 24-hour PBS Kids television network. The separate network (referred to as the PBS Kids Channel in press materials) was available on high-tier subscription providers, and was also offered to PBS member stations for use on a "cablecast" service (a subscription-based local channel provided by the member station) or for use on the member station's free-to-air analog channel to provide a portion of the daytime PBS Kids programming on the station. Participating stations were required to pay an annual fee of $1,000 to use the feed. At launch, 32 PBS member stations had signed up to use the service. The channel was partly created to compete against the Nick Jr. block and its sister network Noggin; at the time, Noggin was co-owned by the Children's Television Workshop (the production company behind Sesame Street) and Nickelodeon. Because the pay-TV rights to the Children's Television Workshop's programs were owned by Noggin, the channel did not broadcast CTW programming, including longtime PBS staple Sesame Street, though an exception was made with Dragon Tales (which premiered on the same day as the launch of the PBS Kids Channel).

The new PBS Kids branding elements began rolling out on PBS stations in October; PBS provided grants to stations who adopted the new branding early. The PBS Kids website was relaunched with some new areas on February 1, 2000.

PBS Kids Bookworm Bunch was a three-hour Saturday morning lineup of shows produced by Nelvana and based on the popular children's books Corduroy, George Shrinks, Elliot Moose, Marvin the Tap-Dancing Horse, Seven Little Monsters, and Timothy Goes to School. The first season of the Bookworm Bunch premiered on September 30, 2000. The shows that formed the Bookworm Bunch were all based on children's books: Corduroy (by Don Freeman), Elliot Moose (by Andrea Beck), Timothy Goes to School (by Rosemary Wells), Seven Little Monsters (by Maurice Sendak), George Shrinks (by William Joyce), and Marvin the Tap-Dancing Horse (by Betty and Michael Paraskevas). When the block premiered, each show was succeeded by a promotional spot for Elliot Moose, then after five-to-ten weeks, replaced with music videos featuring songs performed by Nancy Cassidy. Each of these were a montage of clips of every show that aired on the block at that time set to sing songs, usually coming from albums called Kidsongs.

The first season aired from September 30, 2000 to February 14, 2001, and consisted of this schedule:

* 8:00am Corduroy: Season 1 (Episodes 1a to 13a)
* 8:15am Elliot Moose
* 8:45am Timothy Goes to School: Season 1 (Episodes 1 to 13)
* 9:15am Seven Little Monsters: Season 1 (Episodes 1 to 13)
* 9:45am George Shrinks: Season 1 (Episodes 1 to 13)
* 10:15am Marvin the Tap-Dancing Horse: Season 1 (Episodes 1 to 13)
* 10:45am Corduroy: Season 1 (Episodes 1b to 13b)

Reruns of this season aired, it is never canceled and still exists to this day on October 27, 2001.

The second season aired from November 3, 2001 to October 6, 2003, and consisted of this schedule:

* 8:00am Timothy Goes to School: Season 2 (Episodes 1 to 13)
* 8:30am Marvin the Tap-Dancing Horse: Season 2 (Episodes 1 to 13)
* 9:00am Seven Little Monsters: Season 2 (Episodes 1 to 26)
* 9:30am George Shrinks: Season 2 (Episodes 1 to 26)

Reruns of this season aired, Preventing the cancellation of PBS Kids Bookworm Bunch only at PBS Kids.

The channel was unsuccessful and had only reached 9 million households as of 2002, compared to Noggin's 23.3 million households at the time. Cyberchase is an American animated television series that premiered on January 21, 2002 on PBS Kids. The series focus around three earth kids, Jackie, Matt, and Inez, who are brought into Cyberspace, a digital universe, to protect it from the evil Hacker. Using math in application with problem-solving skills, environment and weather, they are able to prevent Hacker from causing any more harm. In Cyberspace, they meet Digit, a cybird that helps the kids on their mission to save Cyberspace. Originally, THIRTEEN in partnership with Nelvana, produced the show for PBS Kids. It aired on PBS Kids from 2002-present, on V-me, PBS. Original network: PBS Kids (2002–present). Picture format: NTSC (2002–2014), HDTV 1080i (2015–present). Original release: January 21, 2002 – present. Cyberchase was created by WNET New York and premiered on PBS Kids on January 21, 2002. In 2010, after the season 8 finale, Cyberchase went on hiatus, but it returned in 2013 for a ninth season, followed by a tenth season in 2015. The eleventh season premiered on October 23, 2017, and the twelfth season premiered on April 19, 2019. A thirteenth season was announced on October 19, 2020, and premiered on February 25, 2022. A fourteenth season premiered on April 21, 2023. The PBS Kids Go! programming block was launched in October 2004, with the purpose of making older children watch and appreciate PBS Kids educational programming as it was found that only preschoolers and kindergarteners were watching PBS Kids. PBS Kids launched a new lineup of programming called PBS Kids GO!. This lineup features PBS Kids programming targeted at somewhat older kids and preteens that used to air under the general PBS Kids umbrella, such as Arthur and Cyberchase. the programs never added. With Prevention of the PBS Kids Channel from failing, the premiere of Maya & Miguel and Postcards from Buster on PBS Kids GO! only at PBS Kids. Preventing the failure of PBS' 24-hour PBS Kids channel was launched in 1999, PBS, HiT Entertainment, Sesame Workshop, and Comcast announce plans to prevent the launch a 24-hour preschool cable channel and video-on-demand service on Comcast. The PBS Kids network is never shut down and still exists to this day. The channel was unsuccessful and had only reached 9 million households as of 2002, compared to Noggin's 23.3 million households at the time. Once the channel is never shut down and still exists to this day on September 26, 2005 (alongside PBS YOU), many member stations which had been using the PBS Kids channel on their cablecast channels or free-to-air digital subchannels is never shut down and still exists to this day, the other member stations is never shut down and still exists to this day. PBS Kids GO! only at PBS Kids is aired shorts and other interstitial content related to its main programming, usually in between episodes or right before the end credits. Short-form programming included The Amazing Colossal Adventures of WordGirl (debuted on November 10, 2006, and later became a full series on September 3, 2007). Cyberchase was created by WNET New York and premiered on PBS Kids on January 21, 2002. In 2010, after the season 8 finale, Cyberchase went on hiatus, but it returned in 2013 for a ninth season, followed by a tenth season in 2015. The eleventh season premiered on October 23, 2017, and the twelfth season premiered on April 19, 2019. A thirteenth season was announced on October 19, 2020, and premiered on February 25, 2022. A fourteenth season premiered on April 21, 2023.