Nickelodeon
From The TV IV
| Nickelodeon | |
 | |
| Founded | 1979 |
| Company | MTV Networks |
| President | Herb Scannell |
| Current Popular Series | SpongeBob SquarePants |
Nickelodeon (Nick for short) is a cable television network for children. The first Nickelodeon channel was American, but there are now several channels in different countries such as Japan, Australia, and UK. Nickelodeon shares channel space with Nick at Nite, which targets adults 25-54.
[edit] History
The world's first cable channel devoted to programming for children and youth, Nickelodeon debuted in 1979 as Pinwheel (renamed to "Nickelodeon" in 1981). It was originally owned by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, a joint venture of American Express and the cable division of Warner Bros.; it is now part of MTV Networks, a division of Viacom.
In 1986, Nick held the Big Ballot, an award show voted on by kids that would later become the Kids' Choice Awards. Each April, the Kids' Choice Awards show honors kids' favorites in movies, music, television, and sports, and features stereotypically juvenile elements like the Best Fart award and a celebrity burp-off.
Nickelodeon began producing original animated shows, known as Nicktoons, in 1991. The three original Nicktoons, Doug, Rugrats, and The Ren & Stimpy Show, debuted that year.
Nickelodeon has produced and aired many programs, including Pinwheel, Rocko's Modern Life, You Can't Do That on Television, Double Dare, Clarissa Explains It All, The Adventures of Pete & Pete, The Ren & Stimpy Show, Rugrats, SpongeBob SquarePants, and The Fairly OddParents. Nickelodeon also became known for its iconic green slime, originally used on the Canadian sketch-comedy show You Can't Do That on Television, then adopted by the station as a primary feature of many of its shows, especially Slime Time Live.
[edit] Spinoff Networks
With over a decade of programming under its belt, and sharing a channel with a block of programming targeted at adults, Nickelodeon needed extra channel space to store its library of shows. The first channel to be spun off was Nick Games and Sports (or Nick GAS for short), which debuted on March 1, 1999. This satellite channel carries Nickelodeon's classic game shows like Figure it Out, Legends of the Hidden Temple, Double Dare, Nickelodeon: G.U.T.S., and Nick Arcade.
The next channel created was Noggin, and it was a joint venture between the Children's Television Workshop (who would soon sell their stake to Viacom) and Viacom. Noggin featured programming for preschoolers, much like Nick Jr, and featured original programming as well as Nick Jr. programming like Dora the Explorer. Soon Noggin would split in half, and the nighttime/evening half of the channel would become The-N, a channel targeting viewers 12-24 with programming ranging from TV-G to TV-14. While it started off as another Nickelodeon depository for shows like Pete & Pete, The-N now relies a lot on original programming like Corus co-produced Radio Free Roscoe, Degrassi: The Next Generation, and Soup2Nuts' O'Grady.
Nickelodeon's latest channel is Nicktoons Network, which debuted on May 1, 2002 as NIcktoons TV. It is mostly another depository for Nick's ever expanding animation library, but does air programming unique to itself nationally. Some shows are acquired like Marathon's Martin Mystery, and one in particular is a vast, international co-production titled Skyland. Nicktoons Network is attempting to establish its own brand separate from Nickelodeon by acquiring animated shorts and showcasing new talent. The network currently targets kids and young to mid teens.
While technically not a spinoff network, satellite and some digital cable providers carry Nick Too, which is simply the west coast feed of Nickelodeon.
