Nickelodeon, occasionally shortened to Nick, is an American pay television channel owned by Paramount Global through Paramount Media Networks’ subdivision, Nickelodeon Group. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children, the channel is primarily aimed at children and adolescents aged 2 to 17, along with a broader family audience through its program blocks.
The channel began life as a test broadcast on December 1, 1977, as part of QUBE, an early cable television system broadcast locally in Columbus, Ohio. The channel, now named Nickelodeon, launched to a new nationwide audience on April 1, 1979, with Pinwheel as its inaugural program. The network was initially commercial-free and remained without advertising until 1984. Nickelodeon gained a new facelift regarding programming and image that fall, and its ensuing success led to it and its sister networks MTV and VH1 being sold to Viacom in 1985.
Throughout history, Nickelodeon has introduced several sister channels and programming blocks. Nick Jr. is a preschool morning block launched on January 4, 1988. Nicktoons, based on the flagship brand, launched as a separate sister channel in 2002. In 1999, Nickelodeon partnered with Sesame Workshop to create Noggin, an educational brand consisting of a cable channel and an interactive website. Two blocks aimed at a teenage audience, TEENick (previously on Nickelodeon) and The N (previously on Noggin), were merged into a standalone channel, TeenNick, in 2009.
As of September 2018, the channel is available to about 87.167 million households in the United States.
The channel's name comes from the first five-cent movie theaters called nickelodeons. Its history dates back to December 1, 1977, when Warner Cable Communications launched the first 2-way interactive cable system, QUBE, in Columbus, Ohio. The C-3 cable channel carried Pinwheel daily from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time, and the channel was labelled "Pinwheel" on remote controllers, as it was the only program broadcast. Initially scheduled for a February 1979 launch, Nickelodeon launched on April 1, 1979, initially distributed to Warner Cable systems via satellite on the RCA Satcom-1 transponder (the owner of the satellite, RCA Americom, later became GE Americom as a result of General Electric's acquisition of RCA Americom's parent company, RCA Corporation, before merging with Luxembourg-based Société Européenne des Satellites to form SES Global, now SES S.A, which one of the ancestors of the Satcom series, the SES and AMC satellite constellations, still operate, Nickelodeon presently broadcasts on AMC-11). Originally commercial-free, advertising was introduced in January 1984.
Programming seen on Nickelodeon includes animated series (such as SpongeBob SquarePants, The Loud House, Middlemost Post, The Patrick Star Show, Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years, The Smurfs, Rugrats and Monster High), live-action, scripted series (such as Danger Force, Tyler Perry's Young Dylan and That Girl Lay Lay), and original made-for-TV movies, while the network's daytime schedule is dedicated to shows targeting preschoolers (such as Bubble Guppies, PAW Patrol, and Blue's Clues & You!).
A re-occurring program was bi-monthly special editions of Nick News with Linda Ellerbee, a news magazine series aimed at children that debuted in 1992 as a weekly series and ended in 2015. In June 2020, Nickelodeon announced that they would bring back Nick News in a series of hour-long specials. The first installment, Kids, Race and Unity: A Nick News Special premiered on June 29, 2020, and was hosted by R&B musician Alicia Keys.
Since 2021, Nickelodeon has aired at least one live National Football League game a year, produced by corporate sibling CBS Sports and incorporating elements unique to Nickelodeon into the broadcast such as green slime in the end zone and SpongeBob SquarePants' face superimposed on the netting of the goalposts. Nickelodeon also carries the weekly shoulder program NFL Slimetime during the season which includes similar graphics. Nickelodeon offered the first alternate broadcast of a Super Bowl in 2024 when it aired a SpongeBob SquarePants-themed simulcast of CBS' coverage.
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. Though the Nicktoons branding has infrequently 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, six to seven hours of these programs are seen on the weekday schedule, and around nine hours on weekends, including a dedicated weekend morning animation block.
In 2006, the channel struck a deal with DreamWorks Animation to develop the studio's animated films into television series (such as The Penguins of Madagascar). Since the early 2010s, Nickelodeon Animation Studio has also produced series based on preexisting IP purchased by Paramount, such as Winx Club and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Nickelodeon has produced a variety of original made-for-TV movies, which usually premiere in weekend evening timeslots or on school holidays. Nickelodeon also periodically acquires theatrically released feature films for broadcast on the channel.
The channel occasionally airs feature films produced by the network's Nickelodeon Movies film production division (whose films are distributed by sister company Paramount Pictures). Although the film division bears the Nickelodeon brand name, the channel does not have access to most of the movies produced by its film unit. The majority of the live-action feature films produced under the Nickelodeon Movies banner are licensed for broadcast by various free-to-air and pay television outlets within the United States other than Nickelodeon (although the network has aired a few live-action Nickelodeon Movies releases such as Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging and Good Burger).
Nickelodeon also advertises hour-long episodes of its original series as movies; though the "TV movie" versions of Nickelodeon's original series differ from traditional television films in that they have shorter running times (approximately 45 minutes, as opposed to 75–100 minute run times that most television movies have), and use a traditional multi-camera setup for regular episodes (unless the program is originally shot in the single-camera setup common of films) with some on-location filming.
In 2002, Nickelodeon entered a long-standing broadcast partnership with Mattel to air films and specials based on the toy company's Barbie (and later Monster High) dolls. The first Barbie movie to air on Nickelodeon was Barbie as Rapunzel on November 24, 2002. The Barbie and Monster High films are usually aired under a brokered format in which Mattel purchases the time in order to promote the release of their films on DVD within a few days of the Nickelodeon premiere, an arrangement possible as Nickelodeon does not have to meet the Federal Communications Commission rules which disallow that arrangement for broadcast channels due to regulations banning paid programming to children.
Nick Jr. – Nickelodeon currently broadcasts shows targeted at preschool-aged children on Monday through Fridays from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time (7:00 to 10:00 a.m. during the summer months, other designated school break periods, and on national holidays). The block primarily targets audiences of preschool age as Nickelodeon's usual audience of school-aged children are in school during the block's designated time period. Programs currently seen in this block include PAW Patrol, Peppa Pig (from the UK), Blaze and the Monster Machines, Ryan's Mystery Playdate, Blue's Clues & You!, Santiago of the Seas, and Baby Shark's Big Show!.
Nick at Nite – Nickelodeon's nighttime programming service, which premiered on July 1, 1985, and broadcasts from prime time to early morning (the block's air time varies each night). Originally featured classic sitcoms from the 1950s and 1960s such as The Donna Reed Show, Mr. Ed and Lassie, programming eventually shifted towards repeats of popular sitcoms from the 1980s to the 2000s such as Home Improvement, The Cosby Show and Roseanne. In 1996, a pay television channel, TV Land (formerly Nick at Nite's TV Land, until 1997) based on the block, launched with a similar format of programs. Nick at Nite has also occasionally incorporated original scripted and competition series, with some in recent years produced through its parent network's Nickelodeon Productions unit. As of 2021, programming on Nick at Nite consists entirely of acquired shows such as Full House, Friends, Mom and Young Sheldon. Since 2004, Nielsen has broken out the television ratings of Nick at Nite and Nickelodeon as two separate networks.
That New Thursday Night – a live-action comedy block airing from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time. The schedule features Danger Force, Tyler Perry's Young Dylan, That Girl Lay Lay, The Really Loud House, and Erin & Aaron (all first-run episodes are cycled on the schedule, giving it a variable schedule).
AfterToons – an animation block airing weekday afternoons and featuring new episodes of a rotating selection of Nickelodeon animated series. The series currently featured are SpongeBob SquarePants, The Loud House, The Patrick Star Show, Big Nate, Rugrats, and The Smurfs.
SNICK – "SNICK" (short for "Saturday Night Nickelodeon") was the network's first dedicated Saturday primetime block that aired from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time. Geared toward preteens and teenagers, it debuted on August 15, 1992 (with the initial lineup featuring two established series that originally aired on Sundays, Clarissa Explains It All and The Ren & Stimpy Show, and two new series, Roundhouse and Are You Afraid of the Dark?). The block mainly featured live-action series (primarily comedies), although it periodically featured animated series. SNICK was discontinued on January 29, 2005, and was replaced the following week (February 5, 2005) by a Saturday night edition of the TEENick block.
Nick in the Afternoon – "Nick in the Afternoon" was a daytime block that ran on weekday afternoons during the summer months from 1995 to 1997, and aired in an extended format until December for its final year in 1998. It was hosted by Stick Stickly, a Mr. Bill-like popsicle stick character (puppeteered by Rick Lyon and voiced by actor Paul Christie, who would later voice the Noggin mascot Moose A. Moose). The block was replaced for Summer 1999 by "Henry and June's Summer" (hosted by the animated hosts of the anthology series KaBlam!). From 2011 to 2012, Stick Stickly returns to television for TeenNick's "The '90s Are All That" to host "U-Pick with Stick" on Friday nights as a concept of user-chosen programming.
U-Pick Live – "U-Pick Live" (originally branded as "U-Pick Friday" from 1999 to late 2000, and originally hosted by the Henry and June characters from KaBlam!) was a block that aired weekday afternoons from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time from October 14, 2002, to May 27, 2005, which was broadcast from studios in New York City's Times Square district, where Nickelodeon is headquartered. Using a similar concept that originated in 1994 with the Nick in the Afternoon block, "U-Pick Live" allowed viewer interaction in selecting the programs (usually cartoons) that would air on the block via voting on the network's website.
TEENick – "TEENick" was a teenage-oriented block that ran from March 4, 2001, to February 1, 2009, which ran on Sundays from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time; a secondary block on Saturdays launched in 2005, taking over the 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. Eastern/Pacific timeslot long held by SNICK. It was originally hosted by Nick Cannon, and then by Jason Everhart (aka "J. Boogie"). Beginning in January 2007, Noggin's own teenage-targeted block The N ran a spin-off block called "TEENick on The N." The TEENick name, which was removed on February 1, 2009, later became the name of the channel TeenNick on September 28, 2009.
ME:TV – "ME:TV" was a short-lived live hosted afternoon block that ran during summer 2007, which ran on weekday afternoons from 2:00 to 6:00 p.m. Eastern/Pacific Time.
Nick Saturday Nights – a primetime live-action block airing from 8:00 to 9:30 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time. It was introduced on September 22, 2012, as Gotta See Saturday Nights. Recent episodes of certain original series may air when no new episodes are scheduled to air that week. Premieres of the network's original made-for-TV movies also occasionally aired during the primetime block, usually in the form of premiere showings. Saturday premieres were discontinued for the time being on December 11, 2021.
Nick Studio 10 – "Nick Studio 10" was a short-lived late afternoon programming block that ran from February 18 to June 17, 2013, which ran weekdays from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time. The block featured wraparound segments based on episodes of the network's animated series, which were shown in an off-the-clock schedule due to the segments that aired following each program's individual acts.
Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards – The Kids' Choice Awards are a 90-minute-long annual live awards show held on the fourth Saturday night in March (formerly the first Saturday in April until 2008, but returned in 2011). The award show (whose winners are selected by Nickelodeon viewers though voting on the channel's website and through text messaging) honors popular television series and movies, actors, athletes and music acts, 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).
Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Sports – A spin-off of the Kids' Choice Awards, "Kids Choice Sports" is held in July with the same KCA voting procedures and differing categories for team sports and athlete achievements for the past year (featuring categories such as "Best Male Athlete", "Best Female Athlete", "King Of Swag", and "Queen Of Swag"), along with the award featuring a sports-specific purple mohawk. Its inaugural ceremony aired on July 17, 2014.
Nickelodeon HALO Awards – The HALO Awards features five ordinary teens who are Helping And Leading Others (HALO). Its inaugural ceremony aired on December 11, 2009. The awards show is hosted by Nick Cannon and airs on Nickelodeon and TeenNick every November/December until 2017.
Worldwide Day of Play – The "Worldwide Day of Play" is an annual event held on a Saturday afternoon in late September that began on October 2, 2004, to mark the conclusion of the "Let's Just Play" campaign launched that year, which are both designed to influence kids to exercise and participate in outdoor activities; schools and educational organizations are also encouraged to host local events to promote activity among children during the event. Nickelodeon and its sister channels (except for the Pacific and Mountain Time Zone feeds and the Nick 2 Pacific feed that is distributed to the Eastern and Central Time Zones), some of the network's international channels and associated websites are suspended (with a message encouraging viewers to participate in outdoor activities during the period) from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time on the day of the event.[26] 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.
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