Kidville

**Omniversal Kids** (formerly **Kidville**) is an American pay television channel. The channel was launched on July 27, 1995.

The network was first launched as a joint venture between NBC, Comcast, Nelvana, and HiT Entertainment devoted to children's television programming aimed at a preschool audience. The network rebranded under its current name on July 7, 2007 to take the branding of its sister company, expanding its primetime programming to focus on a wider youth audience aimed at older children, while continuing to broadcast preschool-oriented programming during the daytime hours.

Omniversal Kids is available to approximately 56 million American pay television households (48.2% of households with television) in the United States as of January 2006 (when it was still primarily known as Kidville) which used to be arranged for kid's ages 9-16. While the Kidville preschool programming is arranged for children ages 3-7.

## History

### Origins (1994-1995)

The ideas that formed Kidville started in October 1994, when NBC, HiT Entertainment, Nelvana, and Comcast entered a partnership. A Kidville VOD service was launched in April 1995, offering 55 hours of preschool shows in both English and Spanish. Lesser-known shows were put in a category called "Children's Favorites" and eventually in their own categories.

### First generation (1995-1999)

After a successful on-demand launch and months of preparation, Kidville was launched on TV on September 26, 1995. It showed series from PBS, HiT Entertainment, and Sesame Workshop's libraries. Its main target audience was originally preschoolers, and featured schedules based on the day.  Morning programming featured shows designed for kids to get ready for the day, late Morning and Afternoon programming featured educational shows for kids staying home from school, Noon programming featured shows aimed at kids returning from school, and evening programming was designed to get kids ready to go to sleep.

There was a multi-platform approach to Kidville. The linear channel had variety with various shows from all over the world, the on-demand services had instant access to specific shows, and the programming blocks incorporated the use of the website. The look and feel of the channel during this era were designed to look like a children's picture book and is mostly done in a 2D style.

Hosts Jake Sewell and Meredith Baker were intended not simply to act as navigators but to add value with live-action interstitials involving singing, game playing and storytelling. Sewell read birthday cards as part of Live from Birthdays, and Baker did crafts, sang songs, taught stretches and sign language, introduced Spanish words, and told stories as part of The Evening Show. She was unfairly fired the next year for appearing in a PSA about not getting pregnant, and was subsequently replaced by Paul McGinnis, and then Celina (Caroline Buruss), who would become the most iconic host of the block. Kidville's earlier original shows were often short-form series or started out as short-form before becoming half-hour shows. These included Dishes by Kidville and Bedtime Business.

By 1997, Kidville started airing other blocks during different times of the day. The Learning Show, which aired on afternoons and later weekends, launched in May, Get Up and Go with Silly Jilly and The Kidville House Show, which aired on weekday mornings, both launched on Kidville's 2nd anniversary, and Mouse, Dragonfly, and Unicorn, which aired on afternoons, launched on May 1, 1998.

Kidville's scheduling also eschewed the practice of combining multiple episodes of short-form children's series into a single half-hour episode with interstitial segments for U.S. broadcast, electing to air such programs individually in their original format. For example, *Tristan & Friends**'* older episodes last 4 and a half minutes. They aired exactly like that without being elongated. The network would be advertising-supported, but ads would only air between programs in small quantities and would be aimed towards parents and caregivers. During commercial breaks, many advertisements were aired for identity theft, paying taxes, and car insurance, although there were commercials aimed for kids as well, mostly mail-order toy commercials from As Seen On TV such as *Pillow Pets.*

### Second generation (1999-2005)

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In Spring 1999, it was announced Mila & Friends were coming to Kidville with their own block, which launched in August that year. After that, they appeared on The Sunny Side Up Show with Charlotte Davis and Bryla the Fox. Kidville got a major facelift at that time, and each block and most shows opened with Kidvillelets and/or their parents opening a cardboard shoebox with the Kidville logo.

In 2000, Kidville started investing in long-form original programming with the premiere of Artsy and Crafty, which launched alongside a weekend edition of The Kidville House Show, which replaced The Learning Show. Other new shows were created specifically for the channel, including a 26-episode, long-form version of Bedtime Business and The Bryla Show, a live-action/animated spin-off of The Kidville House Show.

### Third generation (2005-2008)

Kidville had new graphics introduced on July 27, 2005, due to the channel turning 10. A few NBC shows were dropped as well. Garfield & Friends was removed, *Babar*and *Tristan* were also removed. *Kidsongs* was disposed of, and Yo Awesome Awesome! was axed. As a result, The Kidville House moved to a new set and removed "The" and "Show" from its name, and Kidville introduced two new shows, *Celina's World* and *Trotro*. This was at the time Kidville received a new slogan, "Free to Learn." The graphics were made to be sleek, minimalist, and modern, as opposed to the crafty and creative childhood feel of the previous two eras.

In July 2007, the Kidville channel was replaced with Omniversal Kids, a channel run by NBCUniversal which airs shows aimed at both preschoolers and bigger kids. As a result, TKhS was replaced by a pre-recorded interstitial series called *The Kidville Preschool Block*. Bryla started to be downplayed, even though she would occasionally appear in segments such as "Bryla at School." Kidville continued as a programming block on Omniversal Kids until January 2008, when the name was removed.

Since 2007, the network has been bringing back older shows that used to air on its channel when it was originally known as Kidville.

## Branches

* NBC Kids - A block of Kidville shows that aired Saturday mornings on NBC.
* Kidvilleonline.com -  A website for the brand. It was launched in 1995 as an online portal for Kidville’s viewers. It featured games, videos, and many exclusive activities featuring unique characters and worlds.

## Series

Kidville aired a wide variety of different shows, which fit into six categories:

* Kidville Originals - Shows made specifically by and for Kidville.
* PBS library - Reruns of shows from PBS' archives
* HiT Entertainment library - Reruns of shows from HiT Entertainment’s archives.
* Sesame Workshop library - Reruns of shows from Sesame Workshop's archives.
* Programming Blocks - Hosted links in between shows which aired at different times of the day.
* Acquired series - Shows acquired from outside companies, which Kidville aired but didn't produce.

## Current programming

### Original

* Celina's World (2005 - present)
* Fleegles (2006 - present)
* Obstacle Course (2009 - present)
* Ultimate House Makeover (2009 - present)
* Carmen Goldenquills (2010 - present)
* Powerferrets (2011 - present)
* Rita and Floof (2015 - present)
* Where's Wesley? (2015 - present)

### Acquired

* The Softies (2005 - present)
* Almost Naked Animals (2007 - present)
* Atomic Betty (2007 - present)
* All hail King Jaunty (2010 - present)
* Out of Jimmy's head (2011 - present)

## Former programming

### Original

* Live from Birthdays (1995 - 1997)
* Handrew's Adventures (1996 - 2000)
* Dishes by Kidville (1996 - 1998)
* Artsy and Crafty (2000 - 2012)
* Bedtime Business (1998 - 2012)
* The Bryla Show (2002 - 2008, 2013 - 2018)
* Space Case (2004 - 2012)
* Squeaky, hoot, and Don (2005 - 2015)
* What Dana Thinks (2006 - 2014)
* Jungle Jam (2006 - 2014)
* The Ozzie and Cresent Show (2007 - 2016)
* The Kidville Preschool Block (2006 - 2013)
* The Make and Do Show (2008 - 2015)
* Gabrielle Dances (2009 - 2015)

#### Programming Blocks

* The Evening Show (1995 - 2007)
* The Learning Show (1997 - 2001)
* Get Up and Go with Silly Jilly (1997 - 1999)
* The Kidville House Show (1997 - 2007)
* Mouse, Dragonfly, and Unicorn (1998 - 2004)
* Mila & Friends (1999 - 2003)
* Healthy Heroes (2002 - 2005)

### Acquired

* Morcar (1995 - 2005)
* Kidsongs (1995 - 2005)
* James the Ferret (1995 - 1999)
* The Mila & Friends Show (1999 - 2005, 2007 - 2014)
* Bath Tubbies (1999 - 2001)
* Bananas in Pyjamas (2000 - 2005)
* Roll Play (2000 - 2002)
* The Flumps (2000 - 2002)
* Mopatop's Shop (2001 - 2006)
* ActiveTown (2001 - 2006)
* Wiggly Park (2003 - 2006)
* 71 Jungle Avenue (2002 - 2003)
* Manon (2002 - 2005)
* Poko (2003 - 2006)
* Nalanan' (2003 - 2009)
* Leonie Lionheart (2003 - 2012)
* Johnson and Friends (2004 - 2006)
* Jacob Time (2004 - 2009)
* You Do Too (2004 - 2006)
* The Story Makers (2005 - 2012)
* Trotro (2005 - 2016)
* Lunar Jim (2006)
* Polka Dot Shorts (2006 - 2016)
* Ken Kaboom (2007 - 2016)
* Ranger Ramon (2007 - 2011)
* Garfield & Friends (1995 - 2005)
* Bobby's World (1995 - 1999)
* Ovide and the Gang (1995 - 2007)
* Turbo Dogs (1995 - 2003)
* Snorks (1995 - 2005)
* Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats (1995 - 2000)
* Babar (1995 - 1999)
* Ian (1995 - 2009)
* Jiggo and the Jet Team (1995 - 1999)
* Charlotte, the French Cat (1995 - 1999)
* Oakie Doke (1995 - 1999)
* Camberwick Green (1995 - 1999)
* Jeezy! The Adventures of Pengy Quin (1996 - 1999)
* Stella's Shoes (1998 - 2003)
* Balamory (1999 - 2000)
* Yo Awesome Awesome! (2001 - 2005)
* The Cool Music Band (2003 - 2005)
* Baby Bongo in the Big Blue House (2006 - 2007)

1. ↑ https://www.webrtcworld.com/news/1995/apr/1130689.htm
2. ↑ https://www.tvweek.com/in-depth/1995/12/saluting-Kidvilles-launch-pbs-sp/
3. ↑ https://www.awn.com/news/Kidville-makes-viewers-stars-its-new-afternoon-block