I have written about about this block before , as I was marking the end of commercial Saturday morning broadcast TV children's TV back in 2014. This was the first block I wrote about then and thought maybe to give it another look and see if anything can be said differently, and what can be added. Let's take a look.
By the year 2000, Saturday Morning broadcast TV for kids was dead, what was on the air was the buying of time , really.. Also the results of media consolidation were in full force by this point as well, and that has to do with this story as much as anything else.
Our story starts with CBS. Due to changes in the Children's television act of 1990, more cable penetration, media consolidation, and the target audience's lifestyles changing, CBS had given up running their own children's block. By this time only FOX and The WB were still doing such. (Disney on ABC doesn't count in a technical sense; NBC was producing but for teens) CBS had given up a section of Saturday morning programming to their morning show. (CBS Saturday Morning) following what NBC had done in 1992, and giving an audience they could give more commercials , a program.
A condition of the children's television act is to limit advertising for children under 13 to 12 minutes on weekdays and 10.5 minutes on weekends ( guess where Saturday falls) this meant that some revenues would be gone but could be made up on a program for adults like CBS Saturday Morning. The block for children was cut to 3 hours to match the legal requirement (at the time to have 3 hours of Educational children's programming.) They decided to outsource that time to a company willing to have the commitment to the block they didn't want to have hands in. (In theory) Nelvana ran a block called Think CBS , later CBS Kidshow. (either that or its CBS Kids show or CBS Kids how or CBS kid show ) .
Now let's talk about UPN. UPN was a broadcast network owned by Viacom and until 2000, Chris Craft as well. The name is UPN meant United Paramount Network. Viacom owned children's cable network Nickelodeon. It would make sense that after Disney bought ABC and made a Saturday block run by Disney, to have UPN have a block by Nick on UPN. That didn't happen, they made a deal in 1998 to have Disney produce their block. (Partly Viacom owned network including some local stations owned by Viacom were airing a block run by Disney while Viacom ran Nickelodeon , that's a funny story) Nick and UPN was considered but Disney really must have wanted this. (Source)
Viacom was able to purchase CBS in 2000. In a twist, the original Viacom was once CBS Films and owned with CBS but in 1971 the laws made it where a company that owned a network couldn't own a film and syndication unit.( A good rule, that was also killed by bad decisions) . Since our story is about one block (yeah you are taking forever)..
Nick....oh wait... Nick Jr. on CBS. So, in actual fact, they decided to skew younger and have the block be a Saturday extension of Nick Jr which didn't run on weekends. On September 16, 2000 the 3 hour block launched. Maybe the idea was since, FOX, the WB, and ABC were going after kids above 7 and Nickelodeon already existing and targeting the same audience, that skewing younger would be a mission. (Sad they didn't do Teen Nick on CBS and go after TNBC) The block was also originally ad free, because sure. Nelvana wasn't fully out of the works because they had worked with Nick to bring shows including preschool shows.
More after the Jump
More after the Jump
"Franklin" and "Little Bear" are Nelvana shows. Also on the block, they included : Blue's Clues, "Dora the Explorer", "Little Bill",Kipper, and, Maisy. In fact, the first year was 4 hours before being brought down to 3 , buts some stations didn't air the entire block because of local news and in some time zones, sports and news. CBS Saturday Early Show aired in the middle of the block in some areas.
The branding isn't much to write about, mostly the Nick Jr. branding of the time of an older person being nick and a child being the jr. still confusing as Nick is kids' channel but we don't question that. The CBS logo shows up to scare the children.
In 2001, the block continued. "Little Bear" and "Kipper" were swapped out with "Oswald" and "Bob the Builder" taking the spot.
2002. Let's start with the networks as a whole. Over on Fox, the Fox network had given up being their own runner of children's programming, selling their block and network to Disney (history is disturbing), it was replaced with a block run by 4 Kids entertainment , called the FOX Box. Disney's One Saturday Morning was re branded at ABC Kids ,while Disney's One Too was unbranded on UPN until it died 2003. NBC had given up on teens (just like the parents do) (yikes that's a bad joke) and let Discovery Kids have a crack in their block. Still meaning that Kids WB was the only block still being run by their own network. In 2001, One Saturday Morning had added reruns of two of then Disney Channel's biggest series : "Even Stevens" and "Lizzie McGuire" on the block. Maybe Nickelodeon wanted to counter little bit.
Welcome to the new school. Nick Jr. on CBS was re branded in 2002 in the fall of change, as Nick on CBS. They still had two Nick Jr. shows that being Blue's Clues and Dora the Explorer. The Nickelodeon series added were: Hey Arnold, The Wild Thornberrys, As Told by Ginger, and Pelswick. These shows were considered educational and information fitting with the government standard. In spring of 2003, the swapped out Pelswick and As Told by Ginger, for Rugrats and Chalk Zone
They did get on of Nick's most popular show at the time, thought it waning, Rugrats, with Spongebob really exploding at that time. Yes, Spongebob, never did air on the block. There could be reasons for that as much as Nick not wanting their most popular series on CBS to divert people who had cable to watch CBS instead of Nick for 30 minutes because of Spongebob. Maybe they couldn't wring out a way to say how the show is E/I .(ha wring!) Disney found a way to make "Hannah Montana" E/I for ABC , Nick could have found a way. The Fairly Odd Parents also wasn't airing on the block.
In Fall of 2003, "Rugrats" were put to pasture on the block (dark!) and replaced with "Little Bill" half the block was Nick Jr. the other half was Nick. No new shows from Nick were added, so they kept Wild Thornberrys, Hey Arnold, and Chalk Zone. The other Nick Jr, shows ,being highly consistent, were "Blue's Clues" and "Dora the Explorer" being the only shows on the line up still around from 2000.
In early 2004, You know what , yeah goodbye : "Little Bill" and "The Wild Thornberrys" were sent on the bus. The Rugrats spinoff "All Grown Up" was added it's educational because it "...explores issues such as seeking independence, relationships with parents, grappling with one's identity, and finding one's place socially..." "The Brothers' Garcia" a live-action Nick show , you may have never heard of, was added. Meanwhile, Blue's Clues and "Dora the Explorer" continues Dora is educational because, "This program is specifically designed to further the educational and informational needs of children, has educating and informing children as a significant purpose, and otherwise meets the definition of Core Programming as specified in the Commission's rules." (they seemed kind of passive aggressive there)
In fall of 2004, they gave up and went back to just being Nick Jr. On CBS. Behind the scenes CBS and Viacom were having problems and were about to break up. (Always the kid programming being affected when the parent companies don't get along) In came "Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends" (spider propaganda) and "Lazy Town" (Do I have to say what shows stayed on the line up?)
In 2005, they added the Dora spin-off "Go Deigo Go!" (It's spreading) and "The Backyardigans" along with Dora, Blues and Little Bill keeping on trucking. "Lazy Town" continued as well. On January 1st, 2006, CBS and Viacom celebrated the new year a happily divorced not couple. CBS owned the local stations and UPN, and Showtime, while Viacom kept the MTV networks meaning Nickeloden. So the block was like what NBC and Fox were doing.
On January 19th of that year, CBS said "Na Na Na Na, say goodbye" to Nickeloden having the block from September. They announced a new block produced by DIC along with AOL's KOL (even though AOL was still with Time Warner at the time) to make a new block called KOL Secret Slumber Party. (Yeah that's a name) (Source) It was for the best really. DiC didn't have a network, they did have a syndicated block, but still. Nick was fine without CBS anyway.
Nick Jr. on CBS ended on September 9th ,2006 with that new block taking over the next week.
Nick (Jr) on CBS really just existed. It wasn't something grand like One Saturday Morning, FOX Box, Kids WB, that were on against it. All the shows were just Nick shows airing on CBS to fill a gap of a legality mandated 3 hours. Nick really didn't need the boost at that time. The one thing about the block is it maybe brought people who didn't have cable a little hint of Nickelodeon on Saturday Morning wanting for a little bit of the same as others.
The network default schedule probably didn't help either , it aired with the Early Show in many markets right there in the middle, kids would have gone to the WB or outside or gambled at that point. (what?) It lasted as long as the corporate merger (plus 9 months) did left when that broke up.
In 2019, Viacom and CBS re-merged because reasons..... Saturday Morning TV had changed alot since 2006, Most of the networks air E/I programming target to above 12 year olds to get more ad money but still be in the law. The law has even changed, where a station can dump an hour of E/I to a digital sub channel, if they want. Maybe Nick programming can air specials on CBS, but the idea of Nick on CBS returning as a Saturday Morning block would be wild, but out of the realm of realism. Disney which owns ABC, gave up on their block in 2011, NBC had a block produced by their children's channel and died in 2016.
The block is worth writing about (twice!) as much to know that it existed and is part of a time when Saturday Morning Kids TV was changing and media as a whole was changing. It lasted when it did and did what it was meant to do. That's why I wrote about it (Twice!) and that's why it's worth it.
That's it for now, tune in next time when we buy a block on Sunday Mornings and have 2 hours of programming.
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