Where Nickelodeon went wrong

[TMC]

http://my.hsj.org/Schools/Newspaper/tabid/100/view/frontpage/schoolid/2040/articleid/344575/newspaperid/2026/Where_Nickelodeon_went_wrong.aspx


Where Nickelodeon went wrong
Sunday, March 14, 2010 By Will Chronister
- Illustration by Jan Concepcion
Advertising


Reading Nickelodeon’s TV lineup these days is like looking across a
ravaged battlefield after a twelve-hour onslaught. There are sights
that make you gaze in sorrowful regret and things that make you turn
away in disgust. You search for a sign of hope, but such efforts are
futile. The halcyon days of years ago are long gone, replaced with a
wasteland of carnage and the pungent odor of utter devastation.


Have I carried this metaphor far enough? The point is simple:
Nickelodeon was at its height at the start of the last decade, but in
the years that followed, it lost its way. When the 2000 Nickelodeon is
compared with the 2010 Nickelodeon, there’s no contest.


Cartoons and Live Action: There’s nothing wrong with having shows with
actual people. Even in 2000, Nick had the likes of All That, Kenan &
Kel, and Cousin Skeeter (which included a puppet in addition to its
human cast). But Nickelodeon’s emphasis was where it should have been:
cartoons. Hey Arnold! and Doug, to name two, provided entertainment
that was both fun and wholesome, the unique combination of
entertainment and values that only cartoons can deliver. In 2010, the
cartoons are an afterthought. Nickelodeon pushes live action
programming as its most important shows. True Jackson, VP and iCarly
are not without their positive attributes, but they lack the carefree
yet down-to-earth qualities that previous shows had. Instead, they
present an amalgam of canned laughter, clichéd drama, and adolescent
themes to an audience that has no need for such messages. Nickelodeon
now seems to be not only focused on appealing to an older demographic,
but also pushing a younger demographic to embrace the older one’s idea
of entertainment. This shift in audience is as sad as it is troubling,
given the fun and reputable programming Nickelodeon used to promote.


Game Shows: In 2000, Nickelodeon ran Figure It Out, Double Dare 2000,
and Wild and Crazy Kids, all of which made knowledge and physical
activity appealing to young viewers while promoting friendly
competition. Today, Nickelodeon’s game show ranks have shrunk to one:
Brainsurge. This disparity shows Nick’s insistence on focusing on plot-
driven shows. This choice would not a bad thing if the programs it now
promotes in place of game shows were not so poor. These days, the
station seems bent on keeping up with the live action-dominated Disney
Channel, which appears to be Nick’s model for success, rather than
sticking to the fun-for-the-whole-family shows that made it so
entertaining in the past. Rather than being engaged by an interactive,
if cheesy, game show, Nick watchers are now left staring blankly at
the television screen.


SpongeBob SquarePants: There is perhaps no better way to encapsulate
the sad decline of Nickelodeon than by analyzing its single most
successful series. SpongeBob Squarepants began in 1999 as a wildly
original series that appealed to wide audiences because of its
unabashed goofiness as well as its amusing wittiness. Despite
SpongeBob and Patrick’s immaturity, the dialogue remained surprisingly
refined; where else but SpongeBob could a child expect to hear the
line “prepare to be eradicated?” Somewhere around the time of The
SpongeBob SquarePants Movie in 2004, the series lost its way. As the
series drags on now, it lacks everything that made its first seasons
so great; instead, it has been boiled down to inane giggling and silly
facial expressions, neither of which are funny when unaccompanied by
actual humor. Indeed, SpongeBob SquarePants acts as a microcosm of the
entire Nickelodeon dilemma; whereas the station once had interesting,
funny shows, the 2010 version seems all too superficial and contrived.


So, what does this mean for the average Fenwick Friar? Very little. In
fact, I would be surprised if more than 20% of us still choose to
watch Nick anymore. But there is a generation younger than us that is
growing up watching a Nickelodeon that is a shadow of its former self.
It is our duty, then, as guardians of the old Nick tradition, to teach
the young ones about good children’s television -- the fun it should
provide and the lessons it should impart. Only then will they be able
to leave behind the war-torn landscape of 2010 Nickelodeon and move on
toward a brighter future.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fire-Cyma-Zarghami-as-President-of-Nickelodeon/244152928984086