The Lookback : Qubo but on NBC (and Telemundo and I/ Ion)

The Flashback  Children's TV NBC 

              2006 was a change year in network television in general.  UPN was going away, the Wb was going away. The parent company of CBS and UPN had broken away from Viacom (or the old Viacom became CBS Corp and a new Viacom was formed). CBS and Warner the owners of UPN and the WB  created a new network called  the CW.  Also Fox created a new network for their UPN stations called  My Network TV.  Our story takes us the broadcast networks children's TV broadcast block.

             This is a story of three networks... this is a story of a block that has a stranger, maybe slightly positive ending.  We have to go back to 1998 for a moment. PAX TV was launched it was named after it's creator Lowell Bud Paxson, the creator of HSN.  It was a collection of UHF tv stations and brought in religious and family programming it's viewers. They had a block for kids called PAX Kids which was programmed by DiC.  (Source) The block died in 2001.  It's not that PAX TV didn't find ways to run E/I programming after this it was probably the first network to just take random shows and say yeah they're educational. 
       
           In 2005, PAX TV became known as the worst named network ever, I, or the long name of I: Independent television. Or I we only air 5 hours of programming and 19 hours of infomercials. (I: Infomercials)  Later in 2005, NBC ended up owning a legal 32% stake (just enough not to be too much and illegal) of the now named Ion Media Networks. Mr. Paxson would step down.
           
              2006: Discovery Kids and NBC were to part ways this left NBC needing to find something else. (Return of TNBC people were hopin')   Also NBC owned Spanish network (still do) Telemundo.  There was no Disovery Kids on Telemundo.  Instead, Telemundo aired "Dora the Explorer" (yes) but in Spanish, pay attention, they also aired Jacob Two-Two, and "Rugrats".  At least in 2005. (Did our Nick on CBS post end up in here?)

              In May 2006, something was announced.  NBC, Telemundo, and I (not me) were coming together to create a new children's TV block.  Fridays on I , Saturdays on NBC, and Saturdays on Telemundo but in Spanish.  ( Sábado en Telemundo en español)  It was marketed as "A Smart Place for Kids" I'm glad that wasn't the name, KOL Secret Slumber Party was too much for me. The block  was more than just a block.  Ion Media had seen that digital television with the idea of having extra channels on a feed, had thought to launch a children's channel in the space, using their large amount of channels to do it.  This was back when Digital sub channels were either My Network TV/ CW stations, weather, a channel that tried to be MTV for the new times, and Retro TV.  A Children's channel on Free  To Air was a good idea, PBS wanted one for PBS Kids GO, but this post is already getting long to mention more about that.  (source)

            A name was announced , a creative name, that also could work in Spanish: Qubo. (It took us this long to make our point, and me pointing it out here is not helping)

           We need programs, I wasn't a program making channel (I the network, not me) and NBC didn't have a children's department making shows anymore. So whom could they get to help?  Canadian company, Corus, wanted their programs in the US and Qubo needed shows so they popped together, but wait there's more! Scholastic and Classic Media joined in. (In the future, or our present, NBC owns Classic Media now)  The block was going to be targeted towards 4 to 12 year olds. (That narrows it down) 

              More after the jump

The Lookback: Discovery Kids on NBC

The Flashback NBC 

        I already did this one too, but I thought, if I could could clean up and make a new Nick on CBS post, might as well make a new Discovery Kids on NBC post. Many of my past ones were made at the time in 2014, when the final traditional network block was going off the air.  Now, I can add more details to a post and do more.  Compared to the Nick (jr) on CBS post, I really liked the Discovery Kids on NBC one, so some of the stuff from that one will end up here, but this post will be more hefty. (Anyway you can read the original one here)

            Our story takes us to 1996.  Discovery Communications (now known as Discovery Inc.) was expanding beyond just Discovery Channel. Then known as digital cable, the idea was to expand and add more serviced channels.  Discovery was going to give viewers their programs but on more promoted platforms.  Discovery was a channel that aired different aspects of programming.  Science programming would also get it's own channel so Science lovers (that's a term) would get their own channel: Science Channel (Good Name) , Discovery Travel and Living, and Discovery Civilization. (The Discovery part tells you who owns them)   Another market that they decided to get into was children's television.  Discovery, back then, was more educational and had many child viewers either willingly or for schools watching their programming.  This brings us Discovery Kids.

             Discovery Kids wasn't the biggest most carried cable network , at start. By 2001, Discovery Kids maybe had about 15 million homes much less than Nick, Disney, Cartoon Network, even Fox Family.

           Meanwhile, in 1992, NBC had jumped ship on children's TV.  The reasons range from "Hey Saved By the Bell is doing well, let's do more of that" , the changing market place, FOX Kids chipping away, and just an change in mood. So NBC went for Teens with TNBC (get it TeenNBC) TNBC was a 3 hour block: the other hours were given to adults to create the first network Saturday morning show , the Saturday Today Show.  (weee)    The teen block did kind of work and it did fit with the E/I rules placed on network TV.  NBC was on the forefront of knowing things were changing either by luck or really really good foresight. (Or it's their fault?)

               In 2001, NBC washed their hands off the TNBC block, it's death date was set for September 2002. Because September 2002, everything was going to change.   NBC, at the time, was owned by General Electric. It was also the only network (major) owned with a children's cable network or department or something.  (This is before even the concept of NBC Universal) Discovery had a little issue as well, that children's channel didn't have a large audience, NBC does.  Let's pop together!

              Discovery was given the 10am-1pmet slot (time zones vary, my Colorado markets aired it between 8am and 11am unless a sport came on) (and the other station was 9 to Noon ) The block was maybe going to be 2.5 hours if NBC renewed their NBA rights in 2001, and they didn't .(oops)  At least in 2001, NBC said the block for Teens wasn't working and something something E/I rules.. (source)

     NBC West Coast president Scott Sassa said the network couldn't reach thetarget teen audience through its primetime programming to help market and
promote its Saturday-morning schedule.
He added that he would have programmed the block with other content if not
for the Federal Communications Commission's network requirements for kids'
programming.

            This gave a small unheard network a chance to maybe grab new eyeballs (what?) I would actually think, Discovery Kids' biggest viewing in their history, was never their own network.  On October 5th, 2002 Discovery Kids on NBC first started.  (wonderful)

more after the jump

2020 Primetime Emmy Nominations

Awards  Emmys 

          It's still somehow that time, the 72nd Primetime Emmys nominations have been announced. The award show airs on ABC on Sunday, September 20th; hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. 



Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series

Anthony Anderson, black-ish

Don Cheadle, Black Monday

Ted Danson, The Good Place

Michael Douglas, The Kominsky Method

Eugene Levy, Schitt's Creek

Ramy Youssef, Ramy

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series

Christina Applegate, Dead to Me

Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Linda Cardellini, Dead to Me

Catherine O'Hara, Schitt's Creek

Issa Rae, Insecure

Tracee Ellis Ross, black-ish

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series

Jason Bateman, Ozark

Sterling K. Brown, This is Us

Steve Carell, The Morning Show

Brian Cox, Succession

Billy Porter, Pose

Jeremy Strong, Succession

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series

Jennifer Aniston, The Morning Show

Olivia Colman, The Crown

Jodie Comer, Killing Eve

Laura Linney, Ozark

Sandra Oh, Killing Eve

Zendaya, Euphoria

The Lookback: KOL Secret Slumber Party/ KEWLopolis/ Cookie Jar TV :

CBS The Flashback Saturday Morning 

         2006:  Viacom and CBS had given up on their marriage and divorced on January 1st, the old Viacom became CBS corp.and the new Viacom was formed. Nickelodeon on CBS was there lingering and waiting for its fate. 

          January 19th 2006:  Nick (Jr) on CBS was condemned to death  and was waiting for it's final date in September.   CBS had found someone else, like a recently divorced person rebounding to a new lover. (this is getting weird)  DiC (pronounced Deek) was brought on to work with CBS in running the 3 hour Saturday Morning block.  DiC was around doing children's programming for sometime. I even remember the syndicated block they had because it aired on 3 different local stations around  me. The new block was going to be called "CBS’s Secret Saturday Morning Slumber Party,” (the heck?) .  (SOURCE)

               2006 was an interesting turning year for network TV. A few days after January 19th,  Time Warner , the owner of the WB network, and CBS corporation, the owners of UPN decided that their networks were bad ideas and decided to mate and have a new network called the CW.    Going with our target for this post:  The Kids WB block had changed already in 2006, on December 31st 2005, the last broadcast of the daytime weekday Kids WB block was aired.  Stations wanted something more "adult"in their afternoon line up. Kids WB was the last non-PBS weekday children's block on broadcast TV.  (Minus any station airing the Dic Syndication block on weekdays at the time)  The Saturday morning block was expanded to run from 7am to Noon, all time zones the same.  That was going to continue on the CW since UPN didn't have a children's block. (UPN , yoUr Parent's Network)

            Over on NBC, Discovery Kids and NBC decided to not work together anymore even they probably were going to have less viewers watching than they had on NBC (Discovery Kids Network kind of died after the block ended and withered until the Hub was launched) NBC was going with Ion Televison , then known as "I" formally PAX TV (Feel the Spirit) where Telemundo, NBC, and I (get it?) were going to have a new block. Fridays on I , Saturdays on NBC, and Saturdays but in Spanish on Telemundo.   Over on ABC, that would be the last year of ABC Kids, I mean , the last year they did anything with ABC kids.    (Can we go back to CBS, Now?)

              Now enter AOL, (for the love of...) Aol had (hold on) yep, had a kids site called KOL ,( Kids Online) and they wanted to be part of this CBS and Dic action for some reason.  So instead of calling the block the CBS' Secret Saturday Morning Slumber Party  (rolls of the tongue like butter) it was to be called the KOL Secret Slumber Party. The name is still long but not as long. The name also may have been for stations that might air part of the block on Sunday, didn't want people to mass panic thinking it was still Saturday. (what?) That or they maybe saw the idea of a long name as bad thing.
         

more after the jump

The Lookback: Nick on CBS

The Flashback  Saturday Mornings 

            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

But First These Messages: Uhhh Random 90's ads

But First These Messages

   Trying something different (again!) Finding commercial breaks on the internet is apparently easy, so we are taking one video and looking  at the commercials  included.  This might be a weird idea.

 But First These Messages....

        These ads are from Cleveland so there will be some Cleveland stuff in here, Like this radio station


Fun fact this station still exists as a classic rock station as we write this, cool (2020)

Neon is cool

Note : if it didn't work (Start the video at :30)  

What? Toasters are automatic? cool!  Also May Company was a department store, like many department stores  featured in 90's ads it doesn't exist anymore.
  It was founded in Joshuaonline home state of Colorado in 1877 and closed down in 2005.

Pretty / I don't  know what else to say,I don't understand the concept of writing on your face  to decorate it so alright.

(note :if it doesn't work auto. then move to 1:00 in) 

This commercial is simple really.  I want to buy Gems now

Write this down and don't be 30 years late 

(note: if it doesn't work start from 1:32 to 2:02 finish)  

         
       I'm not that impressed it's a Hynudai Excel so uhhhh yeah , plus manual shifts are cool

             

Meanwhile, someone is wondering where their shift went 

more after the jump

Shepard Smith Coming to CNBC

Cable News TV News  CNBC 

          Former Fox News anchor, Shepard Smith, is coming to CNBC as a general news anchor.  CNBC announced Wednesday that Smith will be anchoring a new 7pm ET newscast bringing back "The News" title,  a name that was  used on MSNBC with Brian Williams from 1996-2002, when the program moved to CNBC in 2002 until 2004, when Williams was preparing to take the NBC Nightly News anchor desk.

           Smith is joining CNBC as their general news and chief general breaking news anchor. He joins after leaving Fox News Channel in October of 2019 ,after 23 years being their chief news anchor , appearing for breaking news on both Fox News Channel and the FOX network. He anchored programs like "Fox Report", "Studio B" and "Shepard Smith Reporting".   

     CNBC has been running a "Special Report" on the network since January in the 7PM ET slot , this will  be replaced by "The News with Shepard Smith" sometime later this year. 

       Thoughts:  It is interesting to see that CNBC, a business news focused channel , at least in daytime, is interested in going into general news, though as stated above that isn't out of their wheel.  The idea of having a news show that might be a better counter weight to what the cable news channels could bring in viewers who want the news of the day without any of the excess you get on CNN or MSNBC.  Shepard Smith  is  a good news anchor  and makes for a good choice for a lead anchor , especially if there is a big news story that needs to be brought.

  You can read the press release after the Jump

One Shot Posts: Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun

Anime 

   
         Welcome to another Joshuaonline "One Shot Post" here on Joshuaonline, part of our posts that we don't think fit in any of our other segments on this blog.  Sometimes, I have used this segment to write about Anime, in this case , we've done it again.

             Here's an interesting premise  for a show:  A 14 year old boy is sold to a demon by his parents and his life is better than it was before he was sold.  You read that right.  "Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-Kun" is a 2019-2020 anime series, that also will be getting a season 2 in 2021 (also the series is called "Marimashita! Iruma-Kun) with this premise.

             Our main blue haired main character  is 14-year-old Iruma Suzuki, who was just minding his business working on a fishing boat when he is grabbed by a demon named Sullivan and brought to the netherworld.  Iruma's not dead or anything (that'd be a bad twist) and he demon gives him a way to understand Demon talk and words.  So why did  a demon buy our main character? (plot reasons?)  This old man demon wants one thing... loading.... a grandson.  This show about a boy who is sold to a demon is about a boy sold to a demon who is lonely and just wants a grandson because he wants to brag about having a grandson to other demons who have grand children. That's the sweetest thing I've never thought would be written.

            We learn about them through the series that Iruma's parents in our world (slightly) are awful people.  You would at least get the grasp of that from the fact that they willingly sold their son to a demon.   Iruma even figures that yeah the would  really sell him to a demon.  Iruma has this thing about him where he can't refuse if someone asks him for help or makes a request of him. So when Sullivan begs him to let him be his grandfather, Iruma can't  refuse. This will play into his character as the series progresses on.

More after the Jump