Should Nickelodeon Age Itself Up?

[TMC]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2487090/board/flat/213065619?p=1

This is another armchair network executive thread, but it asks a
serious question:

Should Nickelodeon start featuring more shows that cater to older
teens... not tweens... Exclusively like Degrassi, House of Anubis,
etc. as well as keep their current animated lineup?

I asked this about two years ago before Nick hit its downward spiral
(in ratings) because I thought this was going to be their "go to"
strategy since Disney dominates the tween market. Everybody and their
uncle claims Nick programs (Victorious, Wendell & Vinnie) for older
viewers rather than pre-teens, so if this is true, why not just
produce shows for this older audience?

The underlying thing that prompted me to ask what others think is a
recent article cited the average age of a CW (Gossip Girl, Vampire
Diaries) viewer is 42, and not the teen viewers usually associated
with the network:

http://www.bizjournals.com/losangeles/news/2013/03/26/the-cw-looks-to-
age-up-its-content-to.html

Unlike Nickelodeon, however, CW is listening to these findings and
changing into a network for older viewers with their 2013-14 pilots
all being geared toward adults, males and 20somethings versus female
tweens / teens.

Thoughts?



It seems like Nick has an identity crisis because while they have Nick
and TeenNick respectively it's like half the shows on Nick are geared
toward older teens versus the pre-teens they are supposedly targeting.
So, if this is who they really want then why don't they just go all
out and program for this demographic...

Especially now when Disney keeps handing them their ass on a platter
each week when it comes to the tween audience.

I would like to see some concrete evidence on who is really watching
Nick because it might be like the CW where they wanted one audience,
but it turned out an entirely different one was (is) watching.



I definitely see the identity crisis, iCarly did better outside of the
kid 5-11 demographic than inside it, which means it was just an
overall great family sitcom, something that would've worked like Full
House or Home Improvement back in the day, the stuff Dan Schneider
produces is always of a great quality for a family sit down. Something
like Marvin Marvin is just a *beep* stain on any good Dan has done for
the network and just removes any element of maturity for the network.



Nickelodeon does NOT corner the tween market anymore. No way, shape or
form. Disney is dominating that specific audience right now and the
weekly ratings prove this.

Nick is doing better than Disney in animation (Kora and others), but I
won't suggest they turn into Cartoon Network II because that would be
a truly stupid move considering CN (along with other cartoon-centered
networks) already dominate that specific niche already.

The reason I opened this up for discussion is because I feel there is
a potential market for teen shows like on TeenNick, but they could
possibly expand on this with more programming aimed specifically at
teens... And possibly get better ratings because this is an audience
Disney has no interest in pursuing at the current time.

I understand both of your points about Nick having specific channels
for specific audiences, but at the same time their primary channel
(Nickelodeon) is in trouble and this is why I thought it would be
interesting to see what others think purely from a hypothetical point
of view.



@Likerash

As stated in my post above...

Nick is getting killed in the pre-teen demographic right now. So, it
would make sense (speaking hypothetically) for them to look at other
areas where they stand to possibly have better ratings, or there is at
least less resistance than going head to head with Disney.

All of this is just discussion & speculation, "What if?", but I feel
if concrete data showed older audiences were in fact watching Nick
more than the intended tween audience than it would be a logical move
for TPTB at Viacom / Nickelodeon to consider trying to go after
greener pastures instead of just beating their head against the brick
wall of the Magic Kingdom where nothing is going to change no matter
how hard they want it to.

Granted, Sam & Cat is premiering in June, but that is ONE show versus
Disney's five tween-targeted shows. It's not going to be enough in the
long-run, IMO.

Yes, people are going to tune in to the premiere of S&C and if it is
good, keep tuning in, but Nick should also be developing more shows
that A) Don't have an identity crisis like Wendell & Vinnie, and B)
shows that are far better than Marvin, Marvin that AREN'T Dan
Schneider shows if they really want to continue what is (right now) a
one-sided war with Nick on the losing end ratings-wise.

Also, it will be interesting to see WHO tunes in for S&C considering
Jennette and Ariana's fan bases (not just tweens; teens).



Nickelodeon might not be filing for Chapter 11, but their main source
of income... The tween shows... Are under performing. I am not making
this up. Just check the weekly Nielsen ratings. Also, Viacom's stock
was devalued early last year and while it wasn't totally Nick's fault,
their under performing shows played a role, no doubt.

With that said, it all comes back to having a viable strategy and that
was TPTB not just canceling almost every single one of their (then)
current tween shows with nothing to replace them with until Sam & Cat
premieres.

I mean, if we really want to go back and cite the main reason Nick is
no longer the leader in children's entertainment it's when they
decided to become a Disney clone and go after the music dollars, but I
digress.



Nicks poor rating have more to do with them being idiots than
anything. I haven't had TV in awhile but when I did I'd say a good
deal of what they showed was Spongebob, occasional Fairly Odd Parents,
a hour of Figure it out, and hour of Drake and Josh. So in their 12
hour block atleast half of it was Spongebob. Also for some reason they
still show Nick Jr shows even though there is a Chanel for that if you
get Nick you more than likely get it (I wouldn't have a problem if the
Njr show was Yo Gabba Gabba because that show is so out there and
trippy that it's awesome)

I mean they seriously have some great shows from the past along with
iCarly and Victorious that you could show yet we get like 6 hours of
Spongebob a day. I mean seriously I want to know why so much
Spongebob?

Now onto their prime time shows that compete against Disney shows.
It's not that the Disney shows are good in fact none of them are
really good. It's just the Nick shows for the most part suck. Out of
the current crop BTR is the only good one and it still wasn't as good
as any of Dan's shows. Super Nijahs might be good but the only episode
I ever saw was the one with Daniella Monet because its the only one I
ever saw advertised. I really thought the show had been canceled till
Ciara Bravo tweeted about her guest spot
coming up.

And then there is the worst show ever aired by Nick or even Disney
Marvin Marvin. I don't see how that kid even got a show on Nick. I
mean did he find himself a cross roads demon or was did someone from
Nick molest him? There is no reason this kid should have ever had his
own show let alone two of them. I've watched the movies and I didn't
hate them and actually if you get really stoned they are hilarious. I
mean I could see him getting the guest spot on iCarly because his
videos were very popular but everything he did on that show wasn't
good and I don't know how but his acting was awkward when he was
playing himself. Nothing about that episode screams give this kid a
job and Marvin is the worst he has done. The fact that it hasn't been
cancel astounds me.

As far and Wendell and Vinnie goes I love the show and don't see why
it doesn't have better ratings. I made fun of the show before I saw it
but after watching it I changed my mind. Who cares if it is Nick or
Nick at Night, just give it a consistent day and time.

As far as animated content they do amazing. All there shows are
atleast watchable or amazing except for Spongebob and that's only
because the over played it to where I hate it. Fairly Odd Parents is
still going strong TMNT is probably the best version other than the
movies and even better than the original cartoon. And don't get me
started on the Legend if Korra, those people are artist. The animation
is beautiful and the story's are better than most critically acclaimed
dramas on television. I love Dan's stuff but Avatar and Korra are
arguably the best thing Nick has ever done in the history of the
network.

So pretty much Nick needs to stop showing Nick Jr on Nick, cut down on
Spongebob to a hour maybe 2 a day and starting showing other shows in
their catalog, push Wendell and Vinnie to the last Nick timeslot/first
Nick at Night timeslot, and kill Marvin Marvin with a shovel and bury
it so deep in the woods no one will find it.



To whoever said Nick has the same problems as other channels, you're
completely WRONG. Nick's ratings are sad right now, their daily blocks
(especially their Saturday night one) are all over the place, and they
have very little content to work with. You can blame that last one on
them taking shows and moving them over to TeenNick and airing reruns
of certain shows (such as Spongebob, Fairly Odd Parents, etc.)
throughout the day. So no, Nick is not in a good spot at all.

I'm obviously with ferrisb1-1 on this one. Nick has been aiming for
the tween demographic for a quite a while to compete with Disney
Channel even with Dan's more "mature" humor in his shows. One perfect
example is when they kept pushing singing careers on their stars (i.e.
Miranda Cosgrove and Victoria Justice). And some could argue "well
some of the stars like Victoria and the Victorious cast want singing
careers". Which is true but they were obviously going with something
when they constantly push Victoria's singles, songs from the show,
music videos, and just her whole career over her (more) talented cast
mates simply because she was the star of the show. Ever wonder why Liz
Gillies, Leon Thomas, and Ariana Grande only got to musically shine on
Nick with the songs they did on the show usually with Victoria even
though they each have their own singing careers? Hell, Nick is
promoting a summer tour of Big Time Rush and Victoria when she's not
even on the on the network anymore.

But anyways, Nick does need to fix their content. They've always had
more mature content than Disney such as the ones someone previously
named like "You Can't Do That On Television", "Roundhouse", and even
"Rocko's Modern Life" (go back and watch). Yeah, we can use the excuse
that they already have TeenNick but look at it right now. With the
exception of Degrassi and a few other shows, majority of the channel
are reruns of Nick shows and shows that were once on Nick at a point.
The point being made is that Nick needs to mature. They got lost
trying compete with Disney for the tween audience when really their
audience are teens.



Nick started out as the anti Disney... "You can't do that on
television" "Ren and Stimpy" "Pete and Pete" "Rocko's Modern Life"
"Are you Afraid of the dark" "Salute your shorts" even "All that"....
If we compared it to music Disney was Pop and Nick was Punk Rock.
Disney stayed the same but Nick decided it wanted some of that Pop
money so it became more Pop Punk if you want a network version of
Blink 182, Nick finally had enough and wanted everything Disney had
decided to
become early Avril Lavigne. Nick remembers where it came from mainly
since they still have Dan, but they essentially sold out.

But Pop is always the majority of the time unless Punk finds someone
amazing will always make more money than Punk



mo their ratings issues stem from:

1. Inconsistent scheduling (A new show will be on saturday 1 week, not
show a new airing for 3 weeks and then show a new airing on sunday 5
weeks later)

2. Block scheduling their shows: This goes back to the 6 hour blocks
of spongebob, no one wants to watch that and frankly people will stop
checking all together if there is anything on when half of the weekend
is just blocks of spongebob

[Ian J. Ball]

In article
<e63915ab-007c-4f1e...@z10g2000pbn.googlegroups.com>,

TMC <tmc...@gmail.com> wrote:

> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2487090/board/flat/213065619?p=1
>
> This is another armchair network executive thread, but it asks a
> serious question:
>
> Should Nickelodeon start featuring more shows that cater to older
> teens... not tweens... Exclusively like Degrassi, House of Anubis,
> etc. as well as keep their current animated lineup?

It's too late. NICK is f***ed. The answer is "Yes", they should do that.
But they blew their chance to do that when they cancelled "Victorious"
(and pretty much all of their "older" skewing shows, for s*** like
"Marvin Marvin").

It's too late for NICK, now. They're toast.
Honestly, the most likely scenario is that Viacom decides to abandon
kids entirely on NICK, and make it a "general audience" channel, or
something.

--
"Surf-crazed aliens... Of course." - Amber, "Alien Surf Girls",
Episode #1.1, "Wipeout".
Wait a minute... "Of course"?! "*Of course*"?!! Did I miss a step here??!!