Nickelodeon

**Sister Networks** | Nick at Nite, Nicktoons, Nick Jr., TeenNick, TV Land, MTV, MTV2, Tr3s, MTV Hits, MTV Jams, mtvU, Palladia, VH1, VH1 Classic, VH1 Soul, CMT, CMT Pure Country, Comedy Central, Logo,Spike Network

**Nickelodeon** (styled as **nickelodeon**, commonly referred to as simply **Nick**, and originally called Pinwheel) is an American basic cable and satellite television network that is owned by the MTV Networks Kids & Family Group, a unit of the Viacom Media Networks division of Viacom. Aimed mainly at pre-schoolers, children, pre-teens, and teenagers 2–16 years of age. It broadcasts Sundays through Wednesdays from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., on Thursdays and Fridays from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., and on Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. (Eastern and Pacific Time).

Since 1985, it has shared its channel space with Nick at Nite, a nighttime service that broadcasts during the interim hours and features reruns of older primetime sitcoms, along with some original series and feature films, and is treated as a separate channel from Nickelodeon by A.C. Nielsen Co. for ratings purposes. Both services are sometimes collectively referred to as "Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite", due to their common association as two individual channels sharing a single channel space. Since 2006, Nickelodeon has been run by president and chief executive officer Cyma Zarghami.

## History

### Early History (1977-1979)

Nickelodeon's history dates back to December 1, 1977, when QUBE, the first two-way major market interactive cable television system was launched in Columbus, Ohio by Warner Cable (owned by Warner Communications, and predecessor to Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment). One of ten new cable channels offered at no additional charge to QUBE cable subscribers was C-3, which showed Pinwheel exclusively from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day.

### Relaunch as Nickelodeon and National Expansion (1979–1990)

Even though Nickelodeon launched on April 1, 1979, its RCA Satcom-1 satellite transponder, purchased from televangelists Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker, went into orbit on March 26, 1979. Despite its prior history on the QUBE system under the Pinwheel name, Nickelodeon designated 1979 as the channel's official launch year. The channel began airing on various Warner Cable systems, beginning in Buffalo, New York and quickly expanded its audience reach. Originally a commercial-free cable channel, shows airing as part of its broadcast day (which initially ran from 10 a.m.-10 p.m. ET on weekdays and 9 a.m.-8 p.m. ET on weekends) included *Video Comic Book*, *PopClips* and the long-running *Pinwheel* (which was now formatted as a daily hour-long series that ran in a three-five hour block format, and was a precursor to the Nick Jr. block), along with other shows such as *America Goes Bananaz*; *Nickel Flicks* and *By the Way*. In 1980, new shows were added to the lineup, including *Dusty's Treehouse*; *First Row Features*; *Special Delivery*; *What Will They Think Of Next?*; *Livewire* and *Hocus Focus*.

As Nickelodeon was originally commercial-free, in-between show interstitials consisted of a male mime doing tricks in front of a black background. As the channel signed off for the night, Star Channel (later renamed The Movie Channel in November 1979) would take over the channel space. Nickelodeon's first popular children's television series was *You Can't Do That on Television*, a Canadian sketch comedy series that made its American debut on Nickelodeon in late 1981. On April 12, 1981, the channel moved its programming hours to 8 a.m.–9 p.m. ET; by this point, The Movie Channel became its own separate 24-hour channel and Nickelodeon began turning its channel space over to the Alpha Repertory Television Service (ARTS) during its off-hours; ARTS became A&E in 1984, after ARTS merged with NBC's struggling cable service The Entertainment Channel.

In 1983, Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment began divesting its assets and spun off Nickelodeon and two other channels, MTV and the now-defunct Radio Television Station (RTS) into the newly formed subsidiary MTV Networks; in order to increase revenue, Nickelodeon began to accept PBS-style corporate underwriting for its programming. The green slime originally featured on *You Can't Do That On Television* was then adopted by the channel as a primary feature of many of its shows, including *Double Dare*. In the early years, other shows such as *Livewire*, *Standby: Lights, Camera, Action*, *The Third Eye*, *Mr. Wizard's World* and *Space Stars* were part of Nickelodeon's regular schedule.

The channel struggled at first, having lost $10 million by 1984, mostly due to a lack of successful programs including failed shows such as *Against the Odds* and *Going Great*, and had finished dead last among the cable channels. After firing the previous staff, MTV Networks president Bob Pittman turned to Fred Seibert and Alan Goodman, who created MTV's iconic IDs a few years earlier, to reinvigorate Nickelodeon. Seibert and Goodman's company, Fred/Alan (now Frederator Studios), teamed up with Tom Corey and Scott Nash of the advertising firm Corey McPherson Nash to replace the "Pinball" logo with an "orange splat" logo featuring the "Nickelodeon" name written in the Balloon font, which would be used in hundreds of different variations over the next 25 years. Fred/Alan also enlisted the help of animators, writers, producers and doo-wop group The Jive Five to create new channel IDs. Within six months of the rebranding, Nickelodeon would become the dominant channel in children's programming and remained so for 26 years, even in the midst of increasing competition in recent years from other kids-oriented cable channels such as Disney Channel and Cartoon Network. The same year as the rebrand, Nickelodeon began accepting traditional advertising. It also began promoting itself as "The First Kids' Network", due to its status as the first American television network aimed at children.

In January 1985, after A&E dropped its partnership with Nickelodeon and became its own 24-hour channel, Nickelodeon simply went to a test screen after sign-off. That July, Nickelodeon added a new nighttime block called Nick at Nite, and became a 24-hour service. That same year, American Express sold its stake in Warner-Amex to Warner Communications; by 1986, Warner turned MTV Networks into a private company, and sold MTV, RTS, Nickelodeon and the new VH1 network to Viacom for $685 million. In 1988, Nick aired the first annual Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards (previously known as The Big Ballot) and introduced Nick Jr., an educational television block for preschool-age children. Nick Jr. was made to replace Nickelodeon's former preschool block, Pinwheel.

### Success in the '90s and '00s

On June 7, 1990, Nickelodeon opened Nickelodeon Studios, a television studio/attraction at Universal Studios Florida in Orlando at which many of its sitcoms and game shows were filmed and entered into a multimillion-dollar joint marketing agreement with international restaurant chain Pizza Hut, which provided Nickelodeon Magazine for free at participating Pizza Hut restaurants (which was put on hiatus for three years). In 1991, Nickelodeon developed its first animated series, *Doug*, *Rugrats* and *The Ren & Stimpy Show*; these series, known as Nicktoons, premiered on August 11, 1991. The network had previously refused to produce weekly animated series due to high cost. The three Nicktoons found success by 1993, resulting in Nickelodeon developing its fourth Nicktoon, *Rocko's Modern Life*, which was also a success. Later, Nickelodeon partnered with Sony Wonder and released top selling videocassettes of the channel's programming until 1997. *Doug* and *The Ren & Stimpy Show* would both end production about that time, but still would air reruns up until about 2001. However *Doug* would find success a few years later when ABC picked it up for its Disney's One Saturday Morning block in 1996. *Rugrats*, on the other hand, returned from hiatus on May 9, 1997 (reruns continued to air up until that point).

On August 15, 1992, the channel extended its Saturday schedule to 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. ET with the launch of a primetime block called SNICK, which was home to shows such as *Are You Afraid of the Dark?*, *Clarissa Explains It All*, *All That*, *The Amanda Show* and *Kenan & Kel*; in 2004, the block was reformatted as the Saturday edition of TEENick (which originally debuted on Sunday evenings in 2000), the Saturday night block continues today without an official block name (though A Night of Premieres and "Gotta See Saturdays" have been used for the channel's Saturday night programs in recent years); the TEENick branding, with its spelling altered to TeenNick, has since been used on the Nickelodeon sister channel previously known as The N. In June 1993, Nickelodeon resumed its magazine brand, Nickelodeon Magazine.

In March 1993, the channel enlisted the help of viewers to come up with new shapes in which to display its iconic orange logo to use for their television promos; the final results (which included the logo in 3D and in form of a cap, a balloon, a gear, a rocket and a top, among other shapes) began airing, along with the channel's new promo presentation package, in June 1993. The success of the Saturday primetime block led Nickelodeon to expand its programming into weeknight primetime in 1996, by extending its broadcast day to 8:30 p.m. ET (and later extended to 9 p.m. ET from 1998 to 2009) on Sunday through Friday nights.

In 1994, Nickelodeon launched *The Big Help*, which spawned a spin-off program *The Big Green Help* in 2007; the program is intended to encourage activity and environmental preservation by children. That same year, Nickelodeon removed *You Can't Do That on Television* from its schedule after a 13-year run and subsequently debuted a new sketch comedy show, *All That*. For many years, until its cancellation in 2005, *All That* would launch the careers of numerous actors and actresses including Kenan Thompson, Amanda Bynes and Jamie Lynn Spears. The show's executive producer, Dan Schneider, would go on to create and produce numerous hit series for Nickelodeon including among others *The Amanda Show*, *Drake & Josh*, *Zoey 101*, *iCarly*, *Victorious* and recently *Sam & Cat*.

Also in 1994, Nickelodeon debuted the Nicktoon *Aaahh!!! Real Monsters*, which would eventually find success in 1996. In October and December 1994, Nickelodeon sold Halloween and Christmas themed episodes of its Nicktoons through syndication to local markets across the United States, with then-new former corporate relative, Paramount Domestic Television (now CBS Television Distribution). In 1998, *The Rugrats Movie* was released in theaters; the movie grossed more than $100 million in the United States and became the first non-Disney animated movie to ever earn that much. Then in May 1999, the channel debuted the animated series *SpongeBob SquarePants*, which quickly became one of the most popular Nicktoons in the channel's history, and has remained very popular to this day, consistently ranking as the channel's highest-rated series since 2000.

In March 2004, Nickelodeon and Nick at Nite were split up in the Nielsen primetime and total day ratings, due to the different programming, advertisers and target audiences between the two services; this caused controversy by cable executives believing this 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 encompasses only the hours they each operate under the total day rankings, though Nickelodeon only is rated for the daytime ratings; this is due to a ruling by Nielsen in July 2004, that networks have program for 51% or more of a daypart to qualify for ratings for a particular daypart.

Nickelodeon Studios closed down in 2005 and was converted into the Blue Man Group Sharp Aquos Theatre in 2007; Nickelodeon now tapes its live-action series at the Nickelodeon on Sunset studios (formerly the Earl Carroll Theatre) in Hollywood, California and other studio facilities in Hollywood and other locations. In 2005, Nickelodeon premiered the animated series *Avatar: The Last Airbender*, which became a hit series for the channel. In 2007, Nickelodeon began a four-year development deal with Sony Music to produce music-themed series for the channel, help fund and launch albums in conjunction with the label tied to Nickelodeon shows and produce original songs for the programs to be released as singles as result; the only series produced under the partnership that was greenlit as a series, *Victorious* debuted in 2010, though a similar hit music-themed sitcom, *Big Time Rush* that debuted the same year features a similar partnership with Columbia Records, though with Columbia only being involved with the show's music, Sony Music became involved with that show's production midway through its first season. *Big Time Rush* soon, after less than a month on the air, became a hit series, garnering 6.8 million viewers for its debut on January 18, 2010, and setting a new record for highest-rated live action series premiere in the channel's history.

### Rebranding, Future Plans and Critical Reception (2009–present)

Nickelodeon announced in February 2009 that Noggin and The N were to be rebranded as Nick Jr. and TeenNick to bring both channels in line with the Nickelodeon brand identity. On February 9, 2009, Nickelodeon discontinued the TEENick and Nick Jr. programming blocks, although the programming featured within the blocks remained. Nickelodeon later announced in May 2009 that Nickelodeon Magazine would be discontinued by the end of the year. In July 2009, Nickelodeon unveiled a new logo for the first time in 25 years on the packaging of Nickelodeon DVDs coming out beginning that month, the Australian service, and that year's Nickelodeon Animation Festival, intending to create a unified look that can better be conveyed across all of MTV Networks's children's channels.

On September 28, 2009, the new logo debuted across Nickelodeon and Nick at Nite, along with the rebranded TeenNick, Nick Jr. and Nicktoons (formerly The N, Noggin and Nicktoons Network, respectively) channels in varying versions customized for brand unification and refreshment purposes; a new logo for Nickelodeon Productions also began being used in end credit tags on all Nickelodeon shows, even on episodes aired before the new logo took effect (end credit tags of programs airing on TeenNick, Nick Jr. and some shows on Nicktoons only use the current Nickelodeon Productions logo and variants for their respective channel's original programming on episodes of series made after the rebrand). New York based creative director/designer Eric Zim rebranded Nickelodeon, creating the new identity, logos, and the look and feel. In addition to creating the new Nickelodeon corporate logo, he created a whole new logo system to represent the company’s entire family of sub-brands (including digital networks Nick Jr., Nicktoons, TeenNick and Nick at Nite).

Though it is mainly a wordmark, during the days prior to the 2010 and 2011 Kids' Choice Awards, the logo bug was given a blimp background to match the award given out at the show; and beginning the week of September 7, 2010, the logo was formed by a splat design (a la the 2006-2009 logo) in the on-screen program bug during new episodes of its original series. The new logo was adopted in the UK on February 15, 2010, in Spain on February 19, 2010, in Asia on March 15, 2010, and in Latin America on April 5, 2010. The "Nickelodeon on ABS-CBN" block on ABS-CBN in the Philippines adopted the rebranded logo on July 26, 2010. On November 2, 2009, a Canadian version of Nickelodeon was launched, in partnership between Viacom and Corus Entertainment (owners of YTV, which has aired Nick shows for several years, and will continue to do so); as a result, versions of Nickelodeon now exist in most of North America.

On May 12, 2010, after an agreement was reached with Haim Saban (who earlier that month had bought back rights to the Power Rangers franchise from The Walt Disney Company), Nickelodeon agreed to air an eighteenth season of the series, and the production resumed in late 2010. The new show, *Power Rangers Samurai*, debuted in February 7, 2011; as part of the deal, Nickelodeon also planned to air the existing 700-episode catalog of the series on the Nicktoons cable channel later that year.

On January 1, 2011, Nickelodeon debuted *House of Anubis*, a series based on the Nickelodeon Netherlands series *Het Huis Anubis*, which became the first original scripted series to be broadcast in a weekdaily strip (similar to the soap opera format) and the first original series produced by the flagship Nickelodeon in the United States to be produced outside of North America. 2011 saw the start of the toppling of Nickelodeon's longtime ratings dominance among the kid-targeted cable channels: the channel was the highest-rated cable channel during the first half of that year, only for its viewership to experience a sharp double-digit decline by the end of that year described as “inexplicable” by parent company Viacom. The channel did not experience a ratings increase during a calendar week until November 2012, however its 17-year streak as the highest-rated cable network in total day viewership was broken by Disney Channel during that year. In Spring 2013, Ubisoft and Nickelodeon partnered to develop a new animated series, *Rabbids Invasion* (based on the Rabbids video game franchise) which premiered on August 3, 2013.

## Programming Blocks

### Current

* **Nick At Nite** – Nick at Nite (stylized as **"nick@nite"**) is Nickelodeon's nighttime programming service, which debuted on July 1, 1985, and broadcasts Sunday through Wednesdays from 8 p.m.–7 a.m., Thursdays and Fridays from 9 p.m.–7 a.m. and Saturdays from 10 p.m.–7 a.m. ET/PT. Originally featuring classic sitcoms from the 1950s and 1960s such as *The Donna Reed Show*, *Mr. Ed* and *The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet*, programming eventually changed to repeats of popular sitcoms from the 1980s to the 2000s such as *Home Improvement*, *The Cosby Show* and *Roseanne*.

Programs currently (2014) airing on Nick at Nite include *George Lopez*, *Yes, Dear*, *Friends*, *My Wife and Kids*, *Full House*, *The Nanny* and *See Dad Run*. ACNielsen rates Nick at Nite as being a separate cable channel from Nickelodeon. In 1996, the original older programming was spun off Nick at Nite as a new channel entitled TV Land, which currently airs a variety of older shows, primarily sitcoms from the 1950s through the 2000s.

* **Nick: The Smart Place to Play** – Nickelodeon currently programs shows targeted at preschool-age children on Monday through Fridays from 8:30 a.m.–2 p.m. ET/PT (7–10 a.m. during the summer months, other designated school break periods and on major holidays). This block was previously known as "Nick Jr." from January 1988 to February 2009 and as the "Play Date" from 2009 to 2010. The block exists because Nickelodeon's usual audience of school-age children are in school at that time; the block does not air on weekends at any time of the year. Programs currently seen in this block include *Team Umizoomi*, *Dora the Explorer*, *Bubble Guppies*, *Peter Rabbit* and *Max and Ruby*.

* **Gotta See Saturdays** – "Gotta See Saturdays" is a morning animation and evening live-action block airing on Saturdays from 9 a.m.–1:30 p.m. and 8–10 p.m. ET/PT. Nickelodeon has long aired first-run episodes of its original programming on Saturdays, though this particular block debuted on September 22, 2012; recent episodes of certain original series may air when no new episodes are scheduled to air that week. The Saturday morning schedule features *SpongeBob SquarePants*, *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles*, *Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness* and *Power Rangers Megaforce*, while the Saturday primetime schedule features *Sam & Cat*, *Marvin Marvin* and *The Haunted Hathaways* (all first-run episodes are cycled on the schedule, giving it a variable schedule). Premieres of the network's original made-for-cable movies also occasionally air during the primetime block, usually in the form of premiere showings.

* **Nick Studio 10** – "Nick Studio 10" is a late afternoon programming block that debuted on February 18, 2013, airing weekdays from 4–6 p.m. ET/PT. It is the first live hosted afternoon program block seen on Nickelodeon since ME:TV, a short-lived block that ran in 2007. The block currently features repeat airings of *SpongeBob SquarePants* and *The Fairly OddParents* on a regular basis, which are shown in an off-the-clock schedule due to the live segments featured following each program's individual acts.

### Former

* **Nick Jr.** – Nick Jr. was a programming block on the Nickelodeon television channel, seen on Nickelodeon weekday mornings. It was aimed at kids ages 2 to 6 years. On September 28, 2009, Nick Jr. was launched as a full channel, being moved out of Nickelodeon. It is owned by MTV Networks, a division of Viacom International.

* **TEENick** – TEENick was a teen-oriented television programming block that aired on Nickelodeon. The block launched on March 6, 2001 and lasted until February 2, 2009. TEENick aired on Sunday nights from 6-9 p.m. ET/PT and, beginning in 2004, began to also air on Saturday nights from 8-10 p.m. ET/PT (replacing the popular SNICK block that started in 1992). It was originally hosted by Nick Cannon, and then by Jason Everhart (aka "J. Boogie").

"TEENick" and "The N" had a programming block "TEENick" on 'The N'". It aired on January 16, 2007 and then lasted until May 12, 2007, but then returned on March 1, 2008. The block included shows such as *Romeo!*, *Just Jordan*, *The Naked Brothers Band*, *iCarly*, *Are You Afraid of the Dark?*, *Drake & Josh*, *All That*, *The Amanda Show*, *Zoey 101*, *Mr. Meaty* and *All Grown Up!*. On August 3, 2009, TEENick was dropped from The N again.

The TEENick name was discontinued in February 2, 2009 to give a separation of time between the block's end and the September 28, 2009 launch of TeenNick, the replacement name for "The N", a 24-hour network which had progressed from taking half of the broadcasting day on Noggin from 2002-2009 to eventually becoming its own network at the end of 2007 under the former 1999-2007 (2009 on Dish Network) channel space of Nickelodeon Games and Sports for Kids. Nickelodeon continued to air new episodes of live-action series on Saturday nights like *iCarly*, *Victorious*, *Big Time Rush*, *How to Rock*, *You Gotta See This*, *Supah Ninjas* and *Bucket and Skinner's Epic Adventures* without any theme branding. In Fall 2012, the final episodes of *iCarly* and *Victorious*, new episodes of *Big Time Rush*, *How to Rock* and *You Gotta See This* was branded as part of Nick's newest Saturday block Gotta See Saturdays, which airs Saturday mornings and nights.

* **Nick in the Afternoon** – Nick in the Afternoon was a programming block on Nickelodeon that aired from 1995 to 1998 on weekday afternoons during the summer, hosted by Stick Stickly, a Mr. Bill like popsicle stick puppeteered by Rick Lyon and voiced by New Yorker Paul Christie (who would later voice Nick Jr. mascot, Moose A. Moose until 2012). The 1998 stint ran from the summer until December. Henry and June's Summer replaced this Nickelodeon summer block a year later. Stick Stickly was later revived for the TeenNick 1990s' block The '90s Are All That.

* **U-Pick Live** – U-Pick Live is a program that aired on Nickelodeon from October 14, 2002 to May 27, 2005 on weekday afternoons from Nickelodeon Headquarters in New York City's Times Square. Starting at 5:00 p.m. EST to 7:00 p.m. EST. The show allowed viewers to pick via internet voting the Nickelodeon shows, usually cartoons, that would air. The hosts of the show also took part in sketches and gags, often including members of the studio audience and celebrity guests. Interviews with celebrity guests and musical performances were also frequent features.

It originally was U-Pick Friday from 1999 to late 2000, hosted by Henry and June of *KaBlam!*. The concept of U-Pick originated with the Nick in the Afternoon block in 1994. After U-Pick Live's cancellation, the concept of user-chosen programming would not return until its comeback as part of The '90s Are All That in 2011.

* **SNICK** – SNICK (short for Saturday Night Nickelodeon) is a two-hour programming block on the American cable television network Nickelodeon, geared toward older (tween to teen) audiences, that ran from August 15, 1992 until August 28, 2004. It was aired on Saturdays starting at 8 p.m and ending at 10 p.m. ET. In 2004, SNICK was revamped as the Saturday night edition of TEENick. Nickelodeon continues to run a Saturday night programming block today, though since the TEENick name was removed from the lineup in February 2009, the block no longer goes by any name.

The block debuted on Saturday, August 15, 1992, with a pair of Sunday favorites (the preteen-oriented sitcom *Clarissa Explains It All* and the Nicktoon *The Ren and Stimpy Show*) and the network premieres of *Roundhouse* (a musical comedy variety series) and *Are You Afraid of the Dark?* (a horror drama anthology series)

### Seasonal Programming Blocks and Events

* **Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards** – The Kids' Choice Awards are a 90-minute long annual event held on the last Saturday night in March (formerly the first Saturday in April until 2008), that is broadcast live on the network (though broadcast on a three-hour delay on the channel's Pacific Time Zone feed and the Eastern and Central time zone version of Nick 2 that simulcasts the Pacific time zone feed for digital cable subscribers). The award show (whose winners are selected by Nickelodeon viewers though voting on the channel's website and through text messaging) honors the biggest television, movie and music acts of the past year, with winners receiving a hollow orange blimp figurine (one of the logo outlines used for much of the network's "splat logo" era from 1984 to 2009). The show features numerous celebrity guests as hosts and presenters, and features performances by two or three musical acts. Celebrities (and audience members) are also commonly slimed during various points within the awards broadcast. Since the 2009 telecast, slime stunts have been also incorporated into the show. SpongeBob SquarePants currently holds the record for the most Kids' Choice Award wins, while Rosie O'Donnell has hosted the most KCA telecasts.

* **Worldwide Day of Play** – The "Worldwide Day of Play" is an annual event held on a Saturday afternoon in late September that launched on October 2, 2004, to mark the conclusion of the "Let's Just Play" campaign that launched the same year, both of which are designed to influence kids to exercise and participate in outdoor activities; during the event, schools and educational organizations are also encouraged to host local events to promote activity among children. Nickelodeon, its respective sister channels (Nick Jr., TeenNick and Nicktoons) and some international Nickelodeon channels suspend programming and the websites for all four Nickelodeon channels are taken offline for a three-hour period from 12-3 p.m. ET/PT (during which an on-screen message that encourages viewers to participate in outdoor activities during that time and notifying them that the channels will resume normal programming at 3 p.m. ET/PT is shown). However, the primary channel's Pacific/Mountain time zone feed and the Eastern/Central Time Zone version of Nick 2 that simulcasts the Pacific time zone feed for digital cable subscribers does not suspend regular programming until the Eastern Time Zone feed resumes programming. Since 2010, the Worldwide Day of Play event became part of The Big Help program, as part of an added focus on healthy lifestyles in addition to the program's main focus on environmental issues. New episodes of Nickelodeon's original series are commonly aired during its Saturday primetime lineup on the night of the event.

### Nickelodeon Programming Blocks on Other Channels

On November 9, 1998, Spanish-dubbed versions of *Rugrats*, *Aaahh!!! Real Monsters*, *Hey Arnold!*, *Rocko's Modern Life*, *KaBlam!* and *Blue's Clues* debuted on Telemundo. Nickelodeon programs were seen on Telemundo on weekdays until September 5, 2000, when they were relegated on weekends only, to make room for a morning news program; Telemundo dropped the lineup in November 2001 after NBC purchased that network. On September 14, 2002, a two-hour block featuring *Blue's Clues*, *Dora the Explorer*, *Little Bill*, *As Told by Ginger*, *The Wild Thornberrys*, *Rugrats*, *Hey Arnold!* and *Pelswick* debuted on most CBS stations. Then in 2005, a two-hour block featuring Nick Jr. shows returned on most CBS stations until September 2006 after the Viacom-CBS split, when the airtime was leased to DIC Entertainment and then later DiC purchaser Cookie Jar Group for their Cookie Jar TV block. In April 2008 *Dora the Explorer*, *Go, Diego, Go!* and *Pinky Dinky Doo* from Nick Jr. were picked up by Univision for a block called Planeta U. Nickelodeon sister network TeenNick runs a nightly block called The '90s Are All That, which debuted on July 25, 2011 due to the long-standing popularity of Nickelodeon's 1990s live-action and animated series, which comprise the two-hour late night block.

## Sister Networks

### Nicktoons

This channel debuted on May 1, 2002, and was known as Nicktoons TV from its launch until May 2003 and as Nicktoons Network from 2005 until September 2009. Nicktoons airs classic Nicktoons such as *The Ren & Stimpy Show*, *Invader Zim*, *The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius* and *Rugrats* during the overnight and early morning hours, and also airs Nicktoons produced exclusively for the channel and current first-run Nicktoons aired on Nickelodeon during the daytime and evening hours, along with a minimal amount of live-action programs from Nickelodeon. The channel is carried on a separate digital cable tier and is carried on expanded satellite packages.

### Nick Jr.

This United States-based television channel aimed at preschool-aged children, originally launched as a joint venture between MTV Networks and the Children's Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop) before Sesame Workshop opted out of the venture in 2002, has only programming promotions and underwriter-style sponsorships in lieu of regular commercials (though traditional advertising appears on the channel during the nighttime "Nickmom" block) and is usually carried on a digital cable tier and the basic tiers of satellite providers. Nick Jr.'s programming consists of preschool-oriented programming also seen on Nickelodeon's Nick Play Date block, original series exclusive to the channel and some discontinued shows seen on the former Nick Jr. block on Nickelodeon.

Originally launching on February 2, 1999, and based on the former Noggin – which starting in 2002, shared channel space with the teen-oriented The N (now TeenNick, and operating as a separate channel from Nick Jr. since December 31, 2007), the network was rebranded Nick Jr. on September 28, 2009. The channel is named after the former Nick Jr. preschool program block on Nickelodeon, that ran weekday mornings from January 1988 to February 2009. Unlike Nickelodeon's other U.S. channels, save for overnight and morning programs airing on Nicktoons, full closing credits are seen during programs airing on Nick Jr. (generic credit sequences are used by Nickelodeon, TeenNick and at all other times, Nicktoons). Since 2012, Nick Jr. broadcasts a four-hour nightly program block aimed at mothers, called Nickmom; this block was controversial at its start due to its more lenient programming content (which includes profanity, some crude humor and suggestive references) compared to that permitted on Nick Jr. during the remainder of its schedule, particularly as Nick Jr. operates a singular feed operating on an Eastern Time Zone schedule, which results in the Nickmom block airing at the same time in all six U.S. time zones (being broadcast as early as 5 p.m. in the Hawaii–Aleutian Time Zone).

### TEENick

This television channel in the United States is aimed at teenagers and young adults, and is usually carried on a digital cable tier and the basic tiers of satellite providers. TeenNick, which has more relaxed program standards than the other Nickelodeon channels (save for Nick at Nite and the Nickmom block on Nick Jr.) allowing for moderate profanity, suggestive dialogue and some violent content (though Nickelodeon series and some off-network programs airing on the channel do not include this), once shared the evening and overnight time period daily with Noggin as The N (in a similar manner to Nickelodeon and Nick at Nite) starting with The N's initial launch on April 1, 2002, but on December 31, 2007, it took over Nickelodeon GAS's satellite transponder and became a standalone channel. The network was rebranded as TeenNick (with actor/comedian/rapper Nick Cannon as its "chairman") on September 28, 2009.

The channel is named after the former TEENick weekend evening program block on Nickelodeon, that ran from July 2000 to February 2009. The channel's flagship series is the Canadian teen drama *Degrassi*, which has aired uninterrupted on the channel since 2003 as The N, two years after its official debut on Canadian broadcast network CTV; TeenNick also airs repeats of current and former Nickelodeon series, and some acquired sitcoms and drama series. The channel has broadcast some original programming in the past, more prominently while known as The N, though series produced exclusively for TeenNick have been largely absent since the 2009 rebrand (save for the short-lived 2011 series *Gigantic*); first-run episodes of series airing on TeenNick since then have been primarily through Nickelodeon series moved to TeenNick to be burned off due to low ratings on the flagship channel and shows acquired by the channel. On July 25, 2011, TeenNick began airing The '90s Are All That, a block of Nickelodeon's most popular 1990s programming, targeting the network's target demographic from that era.

### TV Land

A cable channel that was based on the Nick at Nite block (and is usually carried on the basic tiers of cable and satellite providers), TV Land debuted on April 29, 1996, and originally aired classic television programming from the early 1950s to the 1970s. Starting in 2004, TV Land moved to more modern programming such as reality shows and 1990s sitcoms. In 2007, TV Land created a programming block called, "TV Land PRIME", that ran from 9 p.m. to 12 a.m. ET/PT until it was discontinued in 2011 (though curiously, shows that aired within the lineup that aired in timeslots outside of the block displayed the block's logo bug) and was aimed at older adults 40- to 55-years-old. Since 2008, TV Land has incorporated original programming onto its schedule, the most well-known being sitcoms that began to air on the channel starting in 2010 such as *Hot in Cleveland*, *The Exes* and *Happily Divorced*. In 2006, TV Land began to be operated separately from Nick at Nite, though Viacom still operates the channel as part of its Viacom Media Networks division.