Nickelodeon is unveiling a new content slate created for today’s kids who are multicultural, family-focused, and in control of their entertainment choices across platforms. With a foundation of supercharging its globally powerful original franchises like SpongeBob SquarePants, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and PAW Patrol, and welcoming new, acquired properties into its ecosystem, Nickelodeon’s new slate represents a renewing of its commitment to serve all kids, through a multicultural lens; bringing in talent kids love from other platforms and formats; and opening up its demo to capture kid and parent co-viewing, to satisfy this generation’s demand for shared family time.
The slate, announced today by Nickelodeon President Brian Robbins, was put into development in October at the beginning of Robbins’ tenure and will begin to debut on Nick’s platforms this summer.
“We have a laser focus on who kids are today, and what they want, so we are making a wider variety of shows and series for them, and we’re working with brand-new kinds of talent and producers,” said Robbins. “We have a new creative team in place and a renewed energy that we’re harnessing to bring the buzz back to Nick.”
Nick’s new direction was developed against the network’s defining research insights into today’s kids, who are the most diverse generation ever, with the fastest growing segment being Hispanics; who cite shared experiences with their parents and family as their top priority; and who are in near-total control of their entertainment choices, enabled by any one of the 12 connected devices found in today’s average household.
Added Robbins: “Kids today are their own programmers, so we have been working very fast to transfer our expertise as television content makers to all the new places and platforms kids are going to. Our vision for a new Nickelodeon is to fill up every screen, of every size, to make an impact on as many consumers as we can and to be at the forefront of conversation for today’s kids and families.”
Highlights include strong contenders for the next big animated hits: The Casagrandes, the animated spinoff from The Loud House, featuring a multigenerational Mexican-American family; ideas in development to spin off the characters from SpongeBob SquarePants into their own stand-alone series, specials and feature-length movies; a new series based on Paddington; and bricktastic comedy-adventure LEGO® CITY.
Live-action classics All That, Are You Afraid of the Dark? And Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader are getting reboots, with new live-action series including Ryan’s Mystery Playdate (starring the YouTube wunderkind behind Ryan ToysReview), an untitled Simon Fuller/Ryan Tedder project, hidden camera prank show The Substitute, and competition series America’s Most Musical Family.
Robbins continued: “Everything we’re making will have different formats, for all platforms, so we can travel the audience back and forth from one to the other, while being home base for all the shows, the biggest franchises, the characters and talent they love.”
Details of Nickelodeon’s upcoming animation/animation-inspired slate:
Blue’s Clues & You! – This remake of the groundbreaking, curriculum-driven interactive series Blue’s Clues brings back beloved puppy Blue for an all-new generation of preschoolers. Premiering in November, the series features all-new CG animation, updates to favorite characters and stars Broadway actor Joshua Dela Cruz as the new live-action host.
The Casagrandes – Premiering in October, this companion to the animated hit The Loud House follows 11-year-old Ronnie Anne after she moves to the city with her older brother Bobby and her mom, where they now live with their big, loving and chaotic multigenerational Mexican-American family, the Casagrandes.
Dora the Explorer Theatrical Release – Paramount Pictures, Paramount Players and Nickelodeon Movies present in association with Walden Media the Dora the Explorer live-action movie, opening in theatres this August. Having spent most of her life exploring the jungle with her parents, nothing could prepare Dora (Isabela Moner) for her most dangerous adventure ever–high school. Always the explorer, Dora quickly finds herself leading Boots (her best friend, a monkey), Diego (Jeffrey Wahlberg), a mysterious jungle inhabitant (Eugenio Derbez), and a ragtag group of teens on a live-action adventure to save her parents (Eva Longoria, Michael Peña) and solve the impossible mystery behind a lost Inca civilization.
LEGO® CITY – The all-new high-stakes CG-animated comedy, created and produced by LEGO Group, depicts the funny, smart, and dynamic slices of life within the sprawling and diverse LEGO CITY community. Set to debut this year, the series follows the intertwining paths of the city’s everyday heroes as they work together to stop a mysterious master criminal who begins to wreak havoc on their town.
Paddington (working title) – Actor Ben Whishaw (Paddington 1 & 2) will reprise his role as the beloved voice of the title character in the new CG-animated series, which follows a younger Paddington and his adventures in London with the Brown family and their friends. Paddington is a Heyday Films and STUDIOCANAL production in association with Copyrights, helmed by Adam Shaw of Blue Zoo (Go Jetters, Digby Dragon, Miffy, Q Pootle 5), and developed for television and written by Jon Foster and James Lamont (The Amazing World of Gumball, Cuckoo, Paddington 1 & 2). The series will be produced by multi-award-winning David Heyman (producer of all eight Harry Potter films, Gravity, Paddington 1 & 2), Karen Davidsen (formerly with Disney and HIT Entertainment) and Simon Quinn (Isle of Dogs, Fantastic Mr. Fox). Paddington is executive produced by Rosie Alison (Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Paddington 1 & 2) and co-produced by Rob Silva.
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Season two of the 2D-animated series will premiere this fall, and follow the Turtles as they continue to hone their ninja skills, uncover new, powerful weapons and encounter a world beneath the streets of New York City. The franchise is also being expanded with an original, feature-length animated movie being produced by Nickelodeon Studios for Netflix.
Santiago of the Seas (formerly The Swashbuckling Adventures of Capitán Calavera) – This interactive animated series follows the adventures of eight-year-old Santiago Montes, a brave and kind-hearted pirate, and features a Spanish-language and Latino-Caribbean culture curriculum
SpongeBob SquarePants – Nick is commemorating the 20th anniversary with the “Best Year Ever,” a tribute that includes an original one-hour special, “SpongeBob’s Big Birthday Blowout,” premiering Friday, July 12. Additionally, plans are in place to expand the SpongeBob SquarePants universe with spinoffs focused on the core characters into formats such as new series, specials and feature-length movies. The anniversary will culminate with the May 22, 2020 release of the new SpongeBob theatrical, It’s A Wonderful Sponge, from Paramount Pictures, Paramount Players’ and Nickelodeon Movies.
