Paramount+, the streaming service from ViacomCBS, today announced a new slate of exclusive original kids and family programming including new movies and series. The announcement was made by Brian Robbins, Chief Content Officer, Movies and Kids & Family for Paramount+, during the ViacomCBS Investors Event.
Drawn from Nickelodeon’s stable of globally popular franchises, and following the success of Paramount+’s kids and family original series like Rugrats, Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years and Star Trek: Prodigy, this new slate of content, produced by Nickelodeon, will add further momentum to the service’s popular kids’ content offering. Additionally, in the wake of the new iCarly’s success last year, Robbins also reviewed plans to further serve the Young Adult (13-34) audience with a slate of forthcoming Y/A original movies and series.
“As we’ve known with Nickelodeon’s long-standing success, the kids and family audience is incredibly loyal, and we see that on Paramount+ as well, with kids and family ranking as one of the strongest genres on the service in terms of both engagement and subscriber acquisition,” said Robbins. “So as they stay for our shows and look for even more of them, we’re doubling down on giving them what they want by expanding the universes of the characters they love the best.”
“Our Kids & Family content is not only bringing young audiences to Paramount+ but it’s also a key component in retaining our existing subscriber base and expanding their viewership habits,” said Tanya Giles, Chief Programming Officer, ViacomCBS Streaming. “Paramount+ is a service for the whole household and we’re now seeing nearly half of our subscribers engaging with kids and family content on the service, a double-digit gain over last year.”
Robbins announced several new franchise-expanding titles for Paramount+, including:
Transformers: Earthspark, from Nickelodeon and Hasbro’s Entertainment One (eOne), launching globally in Fall 2022. This 26-episode action-comedy series introduces a new generation of Transformers robots — the first Transformers robots to be born on Earth. Together with the human family who welcomes them in and cares for them, they’ll redefine what it means to be a family.
Designed for kids and families alike, Transformers: Earthspark blends the humor and heart of Nickelodeon with the action and high stakes adventure of Transformers. Set on present-day Earth, the series centers on two human kids as they forge a connection with Transformers robots like never before and work alongside fan favorites like Optimus Prime and Bumblebee. This animated series is comedic, heartfelt, high energy, and action-packed, featuring new characters, and stars a diverse, multicultural human family, reflecting the current world we live in.
The series is executive produced by Ant Ward (Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Ciro Nieli (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and Nicole Dubik (Transformers: Rescue Bots) and developed and co-executive produced by Dale Malinowski (Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). Produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studio, the series is developed for television by Claudia Spinelli, Senior Vice President, Series Animation. Production will be overseen for Nickelodeon by Conrad Montgomery, Vice President, Current Series, Animation and for eOne by Kari Rosenberg, VP, Original content, Action Adventure Brands.
Earth has new heroes ????
Transformers: #EarthSpark coming this fall @hasbro #Transformers pic.twitter.com/RrdtVKLtgh
— Nickelodeon Animation (@NickAnimation) February 15, 2022
The Expanding SpongeBob SquarePants Universe: Following the success of Kamp Koral on Paramount+ and The Patrick Star Show on Nickelodeon — the first season of which will soon be available to stream on Paramount+ — a further expansion of the SpongeBob universe is coming exclusively to the service with three brand-new movies based on the show’s original characters, with the first dropping in 2023. In addition, a fourth SpongeBob release from Nickelodeon Animation is currently in development for theatrical release.
More Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Surfaces: A new era of TMNT-mania takes over in 2023 with a new animated take on the Turtles coming to theaters, produced by Point Grey Pictures’ Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and directed by Jeff Rowe. Nickelodeon Animation will swiftly follow that film with a series of exclusive movies for Paramount+ beginning in 2023, each centering on one of the property’s storied villains in never-before-told tales.
Blue’s Big City Adventure, the now-announced animation/live-action hybrid movie based on Blue’s Clues & You!, is set to premiere later this year and follows host Josh and Blue as they head to New York City, with the help of Steve and Joe, to audition for a big Broadway musical. Produced by Nickelodeon Animation.
Dora the Explorer: The preschool return of the groundbreaking Latina heroine in an all-new CG-animated series produced by Nickelodeon Animation, and featuring the beloved characters, plus key modernization to the storytelling, debuts in 2023.
Plus, now in development from Nickelodeon is the first-ever live-action Dora the Explorer series, inspired by the tone of Paramount Pictures’ 2019 Dora and the Lost City of Gold theatrical release, with this new version for Paramount+ targeting the tween demo.
During today’s event, Robbins also underscored the opportunities and anticipation surrounding recently announced titles for Nickelodeon like a live-action Monster High musical movie and animated series in partnership with Mattel; a Baby Shark feature-length film in development for 2023, co-produced by Nickelodeon Animation and The Pinkfong Company; and a theatrical PAW Patrol movie sequel — a Spin Master Entertainment production in association with Nickelodeon Animation, with distribution by Paramount Pictures — complemented with the first-ever PAW Patrol television series spinoff.
In addition to Paramount+’s new kids and family programming, Robbins remarked during the Investors Event on the service’s opportunity with the substantial and influential Y/A audience, given the performance of the new, young-adult-focused iCarly and Awesomeness Studio’s success as producers of top Y/A franchises. These live-action movie projects include sports scifi Fantasy Football starring Marsai Martin, high school comedy Honor Society starring Angourie Rice, and an adaptation of Becca Fitzpatrick’s New York Times best-selling supernatural romance novels Hush Hush.
