Nickelodeon's Ratings Drop -- and the Meanest Thing the Disney Channel's Ever Said

[kguillou]

Somebody wrote this blog (unfortunately, the link no longer works) from a year ago which was pretty much on point in regards to Nick no longer being cutting edge and original:
http://ifeelknifed.blogspot.com/2010/05/nickelodeon-has-lost-its-ident ity.html

That was a very well written piece that pretty much hits the nail on the head. Now I'm going to be bold here, but when you really get down to it, it think modern day nickelodeon is a reflection of modern day kids. Let's be honest, kids these days are of a much different variety than they were in the 90's. I mean, we're living in a completely different era now, the age of the internet and hyper-realistic video games and misogynistic rap music. Its all affected how modern kids are and ultimately the programming that they choose to watch.

Back in the late 80's/90's, you could sort of call it the "breakthrough" era, it was the beginning of all of the things i mentioned earlier. Video games were blossoming, hip-hop was starting to break into the mainstream, the internet was in it's infancy etc. etc. Kids were becoming more rebellious as they were discovering these things, but as rebellious as they were, there was still an innocence to them that was retained. Look at the Rugrats. The show is about rebellious babies that were way smarter than anyone thought, but at the end of the day, they were still BABIES, and that's what made the show so charming. Or Hey Arnold, a show about regular inner city kids who found themselves caught up in adult situations, but they were still KIDS and they acted like it. The characters on these shows retained their innocence and showed that these were regular kids just like you and me.

These modern "kids' shows don't have characters that act like kids, they act like idols that kids cannot relate to.But again, maybe its just a sign that times are different, in this modern "Pop/rap/Modern Warfare" age that we live in, kids would rather watch a show about a spoiled pre-teen music star than an average foot-ball headed kid dealing with average problems. OH well.

 

[Webhead2006]

Ya I made same point myself times have changed a lot same with censoring too.

 

[enterthemadness]

Well, maybe Nick/Nicktoons should not have passed over Adventure Time back in 08. CartoonNetwork picked that up in 08, series debut in 10.

CartoonNetwork/Adult Swim > Nick and Disney.

 

[TMC1982]

Based on all of the comments that I've been reading so far on IMDb, I've come to the conclusion that these are the most basic and fundamental problems regarding Nick as of late:
1) They have no distinguishable corporate identity. Nick is a pale imitation of Disney because they wanted the music-driven dollars Hannah Montana generated for Disney.

2) They lack variety in their programming. Nick currently has only three of four main shows (iCarly, SpongeBob, Victorious, and occasionally Big Time Rush) compared to Disney's seven or eight. That's one problem. A big problem. They constantly screwed over their other shows (True Jackson, VP, The Troop, Mighty B, House of Anubis, Brainsurge, etc.) for SpongeBob, iCarly, and Victorious. Nick's daily schedule is basically 80% SpongeBob, iCarly, and Victorious, another big problem!

3) They have no real regular TV seasons like most networks (even Disney!). Nick also takes forever to air new episodes of their shows (in other words, there is no reliability on when a new episode is going to be seen). While Disney airs a new episode of Good Luck Charlie, Jessie, A.N.T. Farm, Shake It Up, Phineas and Ferb and So Random almost every week, Nickelodeon took three months to air a new episode of iCarly and True Jackson.

4) They have no new, or innovative products that aren't rehashes of previous shows (e.g. Victorious is Tania). Dan Schneider perhaps needs to step aside and let more new voices be on Nick because he IS arguably part of the problem. Nick does everything in-house and does not develop new talent (producers, actors, shows) actively like Disney does. Disney is constantly on the look out for new writers, directors, showrunners and of course, young performers.

5) Most importantly, the ratings just aren't there compared to Disney.

 

[enterthemadness]

Well, let's all cheer when CN overtakes Nick.

 

[Webhead2006]

Cn won't they are doing bad in ratings for the most part. But ya the problem is they need to revamp schedules to air all the shows more evenly with more promos for new shows. This has been problem since about 08/09 tv season yrs. When nick started to air less new episodes of shows and drag them out over months wait. With endless reruns inbetween.

I went on wikipedia a month or so ago. Looking at schedules of episode counts/airings of top nick shows from early 90s/late 90s/early 00s to see how things where. Some should had larger episode counts of over 20 episodes. Or they where as short as 13 episode seasons. But they aired more stuff consistantly with shorter breaks. Or it was just a long break between seasons. That is the format they need to get back to.

The issue is spamming spongebob all day. Then other shows like carly/btr/victorious only have limited airings week long. Then other shows like power rangers/supah ninjas getting the butt of things regulated to at most two airings on nick regular on weekends.

What they should do on nick regular morings weekdays from 6/7am to 11am should be animated blocks of spongebob/fair odd parents/tuff puppy/etc... then noon-7pm should be blocks of the current live action shows icarly/victorious/btr paired together, and then have power rangers/supah ninjas reruns taking up the 5-7pm end of regular nick schedule block minus new episodes of bob which ever day that is. Along with brainsurge in there somewhere. Then leave the weekend morning/evening block same. Since it works for them.

 

[kguillou]

Hah thats right, i forgot Cartoon Network is in trouble as well. Wow, have we officially reached the end of kids' programming? Saturday morning cartoons have been dead for a decade, and now Nick and CN seem to be at their end...

 

[Webhead2006]

they are really not at the end of the ropes though they are ok but in the bad ok stage. They can get better. But like stated they both need to revamp schedules and promote each show more evenly and all that. As for saturday morning toons ya we dont have any real blocks of those with new shows these days. New toon shows are more prime time shows like tues/wensdays/fri/ saturdays for nick/cn.

 

[Marvin]

Figures, if they had a line up that was of the ilk that Avatar is this wouldn't be happening, instead I tend to see all inexpensive flash animation whenever I tune in.

The 90's.
boy was that a great time to be a kid.

 

[enterthemadness]

CartoonNetwork & Nick are not going off air guys....be realistic. NBC will go off the air at their rate, kids networks won't.

 

[Lencho01]

Figures, if they had a line up that was of the ilk that Avatar is this wouldn't be happening, instead I tend to see all inexpensive flash animation whenever I tune in.

The 90's.
boy was that a great time to be a kid.

I always thought Avatar was a fluke as far as being on Nick goes.

 

[TMC1982]

This New York Times article called Nickelodeon is thriving as it battles the Disney Channel for tween viewers gives some insight in Nick trying to emulate Disney's "formula for success":

At first glance, Disney Channel is showing signs of cooling. Miley Cyrus, the 17-year-old “Hannah Montana” actress, has a controversial
new sex-kitten persona. A series built around the Jonas Brothers is a
dud. And the executive who turned Disney Channel into a juggernaut,
Rich Ross, left television last year to run Disney’s movie studio.

But Disney is preparing a renewed programming attack, including a
“High School Musical” spinoff, a TV movie called “Sharpay’s Fabulous
Adventure.” Disney also has high hopes for the movie “Lemonade Mouth,”
the story of five high school students who meet in detention and form
a band, and “Shake It Up,” a dance-driven sitcom. Over all, Disney
plans to expand its content pipeline by 30 percent in 2011.

On the animation side at Disney, “Phineas and Ferb,” guided by an
executive poached from Nickelodeon, is a breakout hit. In 2012, Disney
will go after Nick Jr., introducing Disney Junior, a channel for
preschool children.

“I guess I could make an imitation-is-flattery joke,” Ms. Zarghami
says dryly.

She has done her share of co-opting the competition’s playbook.
“Victorious” is an aspirational, music-infused program that shares DNA
with “Hannah Montana.”

Even “Big Time Rush,” a co-production with Sony Music Entertainment,
nods to the Disney formula, says Rob Stringer, chairman of the
Columbia/Epic Label Group at Sony. “You take what Disney has done,” he
says, “and make it more interesting — quirkier, a little cheeky,
polite anarchy.”

WHATEVER the model, it’s working. “BTR” made its debut on the
Billboard Top 200 chart at No. 3, and the band has sold more than one
million digital tracks.

“When I saw the sales numbers and looked at how well the show is doing
in the ratings,” Ms. Zarghami says, “I thought to myself, ‘Oh my God,
it doesn’t get much better than this.’ ”

 

[antsman41]

That's what happens when you make ****** shows were kids are ruthless and the parents are idiotic.

What happened to shows like Pete & Pete, Boy Meets World, and Step By Step?

Where parents were honest and real, kids did do dumb things but had consequences...

These kids shows are ADD now, I just re-watched BMW and everything but some minor Eric comedy still holds up 10 years later. BMW is just as good at 23 yo as it was when I was 13 years old.

 

[Webhead2006]

its a pretty normal tactic though if one thing is hot everyone wants to copy it. Take for example movies with the whole reboot/remakes deals going around all the time. Same for network tv with the likes of doctor/cop/lawyer shows. It sucks for us viewers to get the same crap over and over again. But if its working for the networks all they are looking at is ratings/sales/and money made off programs.

 

[Call Me Darkman]

People are making a big deal about this. Disney Channel doesn't air non-Disney advertising. So, Nickeledeon is still the #1 source for advertisers. They haven't lost a dime. It's just Viacom stockholders over-reacting since their stock went down. They're just using Nickeledeon as a scapegoat.

 

[kguillou]

That's what happens when you make ****** shows were kids are ruthless and the parents are idiotic.

What happened to shows like Pete & Pete, Boy Meets World, and Step By Step?

Where parents were honest and real, kids did do dumb things but had consequences...

These kids shows are ADD now, I just re-watched BMW and everything but some minor Eric comedy still holds up 10 years later. BMW is just as good at 23 yo as it was when I was 13 years old.

Quick side note, I never understood what was up with that sudden change in Eric's character in the later seasons. In the later seasons he just becomes plain wacky and goofy. Were there new writers or something?

 

[Webhead2006]

Totally eric became such a goofball in the college yrs. Where in early yrs his character was handled better.

 

[JoeyConQueso]

That was more than just becoming a goofball, they made him straight up crazy. Yeah, I wasn't a fan of the college years.

 

[Webhead2006]

well for the others they were fine in college years it was just eric really went overboard.

 

[TMC1982]

Nickelodeon right now is to me like World Championship Wrestling in that they both stuck with their so-called "golden goose" (the nWo angle=SpongeBob and Dan Schneider and to a lesser extent, Scott Fellows) far too long and resorted to copying the competition (e.g. bringing in Vince Russo, making Nitro more like RAW, etc.=Making a bunch of almost Disney Channel/It's a Laugh Productions like "wishful fullfilment"/kids want to become famous tweencoms). Also, both resorted to bringing in previously established "names" (any celebrity that they brought in like Master P, KISS, Jay Leno, etc. or of course, stars who made their names in the World Wrestling Federation or WCW's forerunner, Jim Crockett Promotion/National Wrestling Alliance=Power Rangers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Kung Fu Panda, etc.) instead of building or grooming more homegrown or fresh talent.

Another analogy that I would like to use is the Star Trek franchise under Rick Berman and Brannon Braga during the Voyager and Enterprise period. Like Nickelodeon, Star Trek was arguably at its peak during the 1990s, but started to falture once it became quite apparent that things were becoming rather creatively bankrupt, "safe", or formulaic. Like Nickelodeon, Star Trek really could've used some fresh voices like Manny Coto (which unfortunately for Enterprise, was too little, too late). It wasn't until the box office failure of Nemesis and the premature cancellation of Enterprise that it officially became apparent that a clean creative slate had to be made.

 

[TMC1982]

That's what happens when you make ****** shows were kids are ruthless and the parents are idiotic.

What happened to shows like Pete & Pete, Boy Meets World, and Step By Step?

Where parents were honest and real, kids did do dumb things but had consequences...

These kids shows are ADD now, I just re-watched BMW and everything but some minor Eric comedy still holds up 10 years later. BMW is just as good at 23 yo as it was when I was 13 years old.

Nickelodeon has become way too "corporate" (as evidence by the change in their logo) and generic if you ask me. They should really strive to be an alternative to Disney or the anti-thesis so to speak of what they're doing. So naturally, when they see their competition making big dollars via a specific formula, Nick is going to go the utterly safe route which in return, stripped them of whatever made them unique and bold in the past. I really doubt that a show like The Adventures of Pete & Pete for example, would make it on today's Nickelodeon.

 

[TMC1982]

They really need to do away with all the live action tween crap (except iCarly since that's pretty much the only good one) and get back to what made that channel so popular and unique in the first place - the Nicktoons.

Although I don't understand how the Disney channel is doing so well when they play the exact same crap too.

I guess this could be its own thread and I've already posted my own personal issues with the Disney Channel (to make things fair so to speak). Here's a more detailed analysis about what's supposedly wrong with Disney also:
Is Disney Channel getting...lackluster?

 

[Webhead2006]

I dont really see whats so wrong with dan S. What he/his company should do is try some more variety in shows. Like the 90s shows we used to have on nick like clarissa, hey dude, are you afaid of the dark, and the other cool live action shows.

 

[Mace Dolex]

I'm 35 so I'm not exactly the target age range their going for t: but if I were a kid even I wouldn't watch most of Disney's shows, in fact even as a teenager in the 90's I never watched Disney.

 

[TMC1982]

I dont really see whats so wrong with dan S. What he/his company should do is try some more variety in shows. Like the 90s shows we used to have on nick like clarissa, hey dude, are you afaid of the dark, and the other cool live action shows.

However at the same token, Dan's humor is perhaps an acquired taste because it can arguably come across as either awkward, unfunny and/or just plain strange. Dan also tries to write for adults and older viewers (who otherwise see that Dan recycles jokes from one show to the next) by putting in sexual innuendos that a lot of times borders on offensive.