Nick Jr. Channel

Nick Jr.

Headquarters	New York City, New York
Programming
Language(s)	English
Ownership
Owner	Viacom Media Networks (Viacom)

Nick Jr. (stylized as nick jr.) is the name of an American cable television channel owned by the Nickelodeon Kids and Family subsidiary of Viacom. The channel was known as Noggin from its February 2, 1999 launch until September 28, 2009 at 8:00 AM (Eastern Time)/7:00 AM (Central Time).

Sister channel The N was relaunched as TeenNick at the same time as Noggin's relaunch as Nick Jr.; like with TeenNick, Nick Jr.'s name was taken from a former program block on parent channel Nickelodeon, which aired weekday mornings from 1988 to 2009 under the Nick Jr. name; and still survives today on Nickelodeon as a block known in promotions as Play Date, which has traditional commercial breaks and no common continuity between each series. Nick Jr. is aimed at 2-6 year olds, and features a mix of originally-produced programming, and series previously and concurrently aired on Nickelodeon's Nick Jr. block. It is the main competitor to Disney Junior in most countries and PBS Kids in the United States and Canada.

The network's logo has been adjusted as part of a brand unification effort which saw all five of the Nickelodeon networks take on a unified look. Although the former motif of using an orange 'adult' figure and blue 'child' was discontinued in the new text-only logo, the tradition of 'Nick' being orange (representing the adult) and 'Jr.' remaining in blue (as the child) was retained.

History

As Noggin (1999–2009)

File:Noggin logo.svg

The Noggin logo.

Nick Jr. was first launched as Noggin on February 2, 1999, as a joint venture between Viacom's Nickelodeon and the Children's Television Workshop (a.k.a. Sesame Workshop), but Sesame Workshop's interest was sold to Nickelodeon at some point in 2002. From 1999 to 2002, Noggin was targeted at preteens. Starting in 2002, it was targeted for preschoolers; the format was changed due to low ratings. Noggin's first (but officially second) mascot was "Feetface" from April 1, 2002 to April 7, 2003, followed by Moose A. Moose and Zee Bird from April 7, 2003 to March 1, 2012. There was also Phred, a strange pickle character, from 1999 to 2002 (first official mascot). Since March 1, 2012, the Nick Jr. channel is hosted by characters from Nick Jr. shows. The network took its name from a slang term for "head" or, by extension, reflecting its original purpose as an educational channel. By the time Noggin introduced "Feetface" on April 1, 2002, it was one of the first examples of a new animation style called "photo-puppetry", in which the animation is created by the use of manipulation of photographs. Until September 12, 2005, the network aired classic Sesame Workshop productions such as of 2007, Noggin no longer aired any show produced by Sesame Workshop on all devices, excluding Dish Network, which kept them until 2008.

When Viacom decided to launch The N, which was formatted similarly to Nickelodeon's defunct 2000-09 TEENick block and later featured some recent family-oriented series that aired on Nick at Nite. The N was aimed at teens and had thought-provoking programming considered by many as too complex for Noggin's target pre- and elementary-school-age viewers. The N took up 12 hours of Noggin's programming space (operating in a similar manner as Nickelodeon and Nick at Nite) from 6 p.m.-6 a.m./ET seven nights a week. Every time Noggin signed off for the day, a message was shown on screen that explained Noggin would be back at 6:00AM ET the next morning. The fact that Noggin shared channel space with The N (now TeenNick) made it very similar to parent network Nickelodeon as it has shared channel space with Nick at Nite during the nighttime hours for most of its existence starting with Black Entertainment Television for the first couple of years on the air, then ARTS (Alpha Repertory Television Service, now A&E) and currently with Nick at Nite since July 1985, which is commonly considered a nighttime program block on Nickelodeon.

Noggin's last "Feetface" era day signed off at 6:00pm on Sunday, April 6, 2003, with the last "Feetface" show to air on Sunday, April 6, 2003 on the channel was Little Bear, right before the last "Feetface" footage. After that, it showed a sneak preview for the mascots "Moose A. Moose" and "Zee Bird", followed by the last goodbyes to everyone at Noggin, the 2002-2003 mascot "Feetface", the last Noggin bumper, followed by the schedule and clock to The N's Sunday program lineup. At 6:00am on Monday, April 7, 2003, Noggin had their mascots, "Moose A. Moose" and "Zee Bird", with photo-puppetry being retained on the channel.

In addition to classic episodes of Nickelodeon favorites such as Blue's Clues and Dora the Explorer, and original shows such as Jack's Big Music Show, many preschool-oriented shows originating from non-U.S., English-speaking countries that would otherwise not likely be seen on American TV are shown. Some examples include Little Bear, and Franklin from Canada Connie the Cow, Tiny Planets from the UK. However, in 2008, this was being de-emphasized; Tweenies was permanently pulled from the schedule in January, and Tiny Planets was pulled in April. Tiny Planets was previously shown intermittently — but not every day — 6 a.m. Eastern/5 a.m. Central, as Tweenies was for a year until it was pulled. Since July 2006 this is also being done with 64 Zoo Lane, suggesting that it too may disappear eventually (however, unlike the other two shows, they also sometimes are showing it at 7 a.m. Eastern/6 a.m. Central. However, they have also recently introduced The Upside Down Show, which is from Australia (though like the British Tiny Planets, has American origins via Sesame Workshop).

Technically, Noggin did not show commercials, but it did show ads between shows such as Connie the Cow's Milk Break, as well as other "tie-in" media such as the music video that tied in with the film spots for airings of shows on other channels within the Nick family. The channel's other revenues presumably come from fees paid by cable television distributors.

The network was also a launching point for the music videos of pop musician/children's performers like Laurie Berkner, Lisa Loeb and Dan Zanes, initially as filler between 23-minute-long shows run commercial-free, and (because of their success in that format) now as music video shows like Move to the Music.

In August 2007, Nickelodeon announced that on December 31, 2007, Noggin's sister channel, Nickelodeon GAS, would leave the satellite and digital cable channel lineups, and move to the online-only TurboNick, with The N taking over Nick GAS's channel position after splitting from Noggin. However, due to technical problems on the Nick GAS/The N change on Dish Network, which kept Nick GAS on its usual slot, the channel continued to timeshare with The N on Dish Network. In April 2009, Dish Network removed GAS from its lineup (replacing it with the west feed of Cartoon Network) and split The N/Noggin in May 5, 2009. Also, when Sesame Workshop’s classic shows (such as The Electric Company) aired on Noggin, they had to be edited for running time.

At 6:00pm ET, the old 12-hour version of Noggin signed off for the last time on non-Dish Network devices on December 30, 2007, and on Dish Network on May 5, 2009.

As Nick Jr. (2009–present)

In an attempt to extend the association of the Nickelodeon brand to two sister cable channels on February 24, 2009, it was announced that Noggin was to be rebranded as Nick Jr. and TeenNick taking over The N as the 24/7 channels. This is similar to how Nick Jr. launched its own channels in the UK on September 1, 1999 and in Australia on March 14, 2004. Later that summer, it was announced that the network's logo would be adjusted as part of a brand unification effort which would see Nick Jr, and the rest of Nickelodeon's channels and products take on a unified look.

Noggin relaunched as Nick Jr. on September 28, 2009 at 6:00 AM Eastern/5:00 AM Central, and the new text-only logo took effect. Although the former motif of using an orange 'adult' figure and blue 'child' was discontinued in this logo, the tradition of 'Nick' being orange (representing the adult) and 'Jr.' remaining in blue (as the child) was retained. The Nick Jr. channel also retained the Noggin mascots Moose A. Moose and Zee until February 29, 2012, although it still didn't air commercials and marginalize closing credits for promotion of other shows.

As is common with newer networks which have taken another former network's channel slot, some guide providers have not updated their listings slot for Nick Jr. to the current logo and may display either the Noggin or The N logos, or both logos in the same image instead to denote Nick Jr.

A Spanish language version of the block debuted July 12, 2010, as part of the transformation of MTV tr3s into Tr3́s. "Tr3́s Jr." aired Spanish dubs of Blue's Clues, and SpongeBob SquarePants. The block has since then discontinued and no longer airs on Tr3́s.

On February 29, 2012, an animated short featuring live-action kids and Nick Jr. characters, featuring a song to the tune of Parry Gripp's "Nom Nom Nom" aired. The next day, at 6:00 a.m. ET on March 1, 2012, an update of the network's image debuted, produced by Gretel Inc., with a new advertising campaign produced by BBDO. All content featuring Moose A. Moose and Zee D. Bird were retired from Nick Jr. completely; as a result, some of the interstitial learning activities that originally featured Moose's narration were recycled and replaced by the voice of the channel's new, female narrator.

Disappointed parents organized a social media effort to bring back the characters. Also, on that day, the "It's like preschool on TV" slogan was abandoned and replaced with "The Smart Place to Play," the same slogan that is currently being used on the preschool block airing on Nickelodeon's main channel. Nick Jr. also received an instrumental version of Nickelodeon's jingle. These changes were designed in anticipation of the launch of rival channel Disney Junior, which launched 23 days later.

NickMom evening block

On October 1, 2012, Viacom launched a new ad-supported female comedy block called NickMom (stylized as nickmom) on Nick Jr.'s channel space, which airs from 10 p.m.-12 midnight ET, with a replay from midnight-2 a.m. ET. The NickMom block airs mostly comedy programming aimed toward mothers. Programs include Parental Discretion with Stefanie Wilder-Taylor, MFF: Mom Friends Forever, NickMom Night Out, and What Was Carol Brady Thinking?, where episodes of The Brady Bunch feature comedic commentary in the style of Pop-Up Video from the Brady matriarch (Florence Henderson herself has no involvement in What Was Carol Brady Thinking?, and the commentary is penned by writers completely uninvolved with the original series). An upcoming original program, My 63 Moms, is scheduled for an early 2013 launch. On October 23, 2012, NickMom changed its airtime to start at 9:55 p.m. ET to fit stories from NickMom.com in.

However, the block has come to the air with heavy controversy. As Nick Jr. does not have a second network feed for the Pacific Time Zone, the Eastern feed is used by default, meaning that NickMom programming starts at 7 p.m. Pacific Time, and in time zones further west outside the continental United States, 6 p.m. in the Alaska Time Zone in Alaska, and 5 p.m in the Hawaii-Aleutian Time Zone serving Hawaii. Many parents have found the scheduling inappropriate, along with the programming of the NickMom block which features sexual, coarse, and child-bashing humor, and light profanity airing without any censorship. They also felt the purpose and lure of the network with full time pre-school programming was nullified in the pursuit of ratings gains with content not meant for children.

The content of the block's website has also been criticized for the same reasons, along with earlier allegations that the staff of the network's website took content from other websites, including pictures of children, without any attribution or credit, and without permission.

Subsequently the Nielsen ratings of the first week the NickMom block aired plunged 75% from the year-ago averages of Nick Jr. programming, with some programming earning a Nielsen "scratch" as being unrated due to a low sample size. Advertisers have been encouraged by parents to end sponsorship of the block, and some online parenting community members are encouraging an end to the block and return to children's programming during that timeslot. Fisher Price and Green Giant have terminated their advertising on the block as of October 26, due to consumer reactions in social media. This may end in 2014 as seen on the Wiki along with a new look.

Timesharing history

Timeline of Nick Jr.'s Operation Hours
Date	Information	Sign-Off
1999-2002, 2007-2009	Noggin was on 24 hours a day.	-
April 2002-December 2007 (April 2002-May 2009 on Dish Network)	Noggin switched to The N.	6:00pm eastern/5:00pm central
September 28, 2009	Nick Jr. gets its 24/7 TV network.	-
March 2012	Nick Jr. introduces a new look.	-
October 2012-present	Nick Jr. introduces a block called NickMom.	9:55 pm ET/8:55 pm CT (previously 10pm et/9pm ct)

Programming block

Nick Jr. also exists as a programing block on Nickelodeon currently under the title Nick: The Smart Place to Play. It currently airs shows such as Dora the Explorer, Bubble Guppies,Team Umizoomi, Peter Rabbit and Max and Ruby. It airs from 8:30AM ET to 2:00PM ET.

From 1988 to 2009, the block was titled under the same name as this channel. It then changed its new name (Nick Play Date) in time for Nick's re-brand in 2009.

Programming

Main article: List of programs broadcast by Nick Jr.

Commercials

Starting March 1, 2012, Nick Jr. airs promos for its preschool programming and short features, abandoning the commercial-free environment for kids that began with Noggin. Seven months later, on October 1, 2012, Nick Jr. started airing limited traditional advertising for companies (e.g. ABCMouse.com, Kmart, Playschool, etc.), but only in-between shows and usually after they announce "Nick Jr. was sponsored by *insert company here*".

Online video content on NickJr.com has television commercials or a Nick Jr. sting that play between video clips.

See also

• Nick Jr. (block)
• Nickelodeon

External links

• Official website