Upfront update:
Nick focuses on families
No. 1 kids network slates six new shows and renews 16
By Diego Vasquez
Mar 12, 2010
At yesterday's upfront presentation, Nickelodeon got right to the point: It wants to hold its position where it leads and strengthen its position everywhere else.
The network outlined five core goals for the coming season, including maintaining its cartoon dominance, winning with teens, expanding its brand and playing up key franchises.
Its other main goal? Providing more family viewing opportunities, an area where primetime incarnation Nick at Nite has always excelled. To that end, Nickelodeon is moving up NAN's start time to 8 p.m. and renewing the broad-focused primetime animated show "Glenn Martin, DDS."
The aim: To promote family viewing at a time when the broadcast networks seem to have all but abandoned the idea.
The network announced six new shows and 16 returning ones, and offered a preview of the much-anticipated summer feature film "Avatar: The Last Airbender," directed by M. Night Shyamalan and based on the hit 2005-'08 Nick cartoon.
The new shows include one that's clearly aiming for the "iCarly" set, "Victorious," a comedy about a girl attending a performing arts boarding school. Next fall "House of Anubis," a mystery set at a British boarding school, will premiere, aiming at a slightly older set.
Another new show, "Kung Fu Panda: The Series," will follow the successful formula of Nick's "Penguins of Madagascar," spinning off a popular DreamWorks film. Cartoons "Planet Sheen," a "Jimmy Neutron" spinoff, "Bubble Guppies," from the producers of "The Backyardigans," and "T.U.F.F. Puppy," about a crimefighting dog, are also in the works.
Returning series include "iCarly," "True Jackson: VP," "Big Time Rush," "The Troop," "Spongebob Squarepants," "Penguins," "Fairly Oddparents," "Fanboy and Chum Chum," "Go, Diego, Go!," "The Wonder Pets," "Backyardigans" and "Dora The Explorer," which will celebrate her 10th anniversary.
Nick is coming off another strong year among kids 2-11, 6-11 and households, placing first in total-day on ad-supported cable for all three during the 2009 season with viewership flat to the previous year.
NAN placed third in the kids demos and second among households, seeing growth among all three.
Notes TV analyst Steve Sternberg on his blog, "It is no coincidence that Nick-At-Nite is regularly near or at the top of the primetime cable rankings among adults 18-49, tweens, teens, and kids. I've been pointing out for several years that roughly 80% of homes only have one TV set turned on during primetime. Families are indeed searching for shows they can watch together, Nick is one of the few networks that seems to understand this."
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