Nickelodeon announces new shows, pilots

TMC

2012-08-05 05:58:30 UTC

NICKELODEON GREENLIGHTS 14 NEW LIVE-ACTION AND ANIMATED SERIES, TV
MOVIES AND PILOTS
NEW YORK (August 3, 2012) - Nickelodeon announced today that it has
greenlit over a dozen new live-action, animation and TV movie projects
- featuring top creative talent in front of and behind the camera,
iconic characters from its most popular series and an animated talking
snake - that will begin rolling out this fall and into 2013.
The slate includes a new Nick at Nite series Wendell and Vinnie and
two Nick spin-off comedy pilots, Sam & Cat and Gibby, featuring
beloved characters from hit series iCarly and Victorious. The network
has also greenlit the pilot Instant Mom for Nick at Nite, while Nick
TV movies Swindle and Nicky Deuce will be commencing production later
this year. The CG-animated series Monsters vs. Aliens and 2D-series
Sanjay & Craig have also been greenlit with both productions based at
Nickelodeon's Animation Studio in Burbank, Calif.. In addition, Nick
preschool has added a new animated series Monty and Norville and a
pilot Blaze and the Monster Machines.
LIVE-ACTION
Wendell and Vinnie (Nick at Nite series) - iCarly's Jerry Trainor
stars as Vinnie, a lovable, goofball uncle who becomes the guardian to
his buttoned-up 12-year-old nephew Wendell (Buddy Handleson, Shake It
Up). Nicole Sullivan (The King of Queens, The Penguins of Madagascar)
also stars as Vinnie's high-strung older sister Wilma. The comedy
series, greenlit for 20 episodes, was written by Jay Kogen (Frasier,
George Lopez) and will be executive produced by Aaron Kaplan (GCB,
Terra Nova).
You Gotta See This (Nickelodeon series) - Nickelodeon combines the
best of the web, behind-the-scenes footage, celebrity interviews,
pranks and bloopers in its new series You Gotta See This, premiering
this fall. Hosted by Chris O'Neal and Noah Crawford (stars of How to
Rock), the half-hour series rolls all the must-see clips of the week
into one hilarious package. Nickelodeon is currently in production on
this 20-episode series in Los Angeles.
Swindle (Nickelodeon movie/working title) - With daring heists, crazy
disguises, pie fights and sumo wrestlers, the network greenlights
Swindle, an original TV movie featuring an impressive ensemble cast of
Nickelodeon stars. When an evil collector cons Griffin out of a
million dollar baseball card that could have saved his best friend's
home, he unites a ragtag group of his classmates who need to work as a
team to take down the swindler. Swindle is based on a popular
children's book by Gordon Korman. Production will commence this fall
in Vancouver, Canada.
Nicky Deuce (Nickelodeon movie/working title) - Based on a popular
children's book by The Sopranos' Steve Schirripa and Charles Fleming,
Nicky Deuce stars iCarly's Noah Munck as Nicholas Borelli II, a nerdy,
over-protected teen who transforms into the title character. Nicholas
gets caught in the adventure of a lifetime when he spends the summer
with an uncle he never knew he had. Production on this original TV
movie will commence this summer in Montreal, Canada.
Sam & Cat (Nickelodeon pilot/working title) - In the comedic spin-off
Sam & Cat, from iCarly and Victorious creator Dan Schneider, feisty
Sam Puckett (Jennette McCurdy) and daffy Cat Valentine (Ariana Grande)
become best buddies and unlikely roommates. They love their freedom
and independence, but quickly realize that fun and adventure do not
come cheap. Rather than get traditional after-school jobs, Sam and Cat
become teen entrepreneurs by starting their own babysitting business.
Gibby (Nickelodeon pilot/working title) - Noah Munck reprises his role
as Gibby in the spin-off from iCarly creator Dan Schneider. In the
comedy pilot, Gibby takes a job at The Bixby, a recreational center
where kids of all ages hang out, socialize, play sports and take
unique classes. Gibby becomes a mentor to four quirky
middle-schoolers, helping them break out of their shells and embrace
life in true "Gibbehhh" style.
The Haunted Hathaways (Nickelodeon pilot/working title) -- Life in The
Big Easy gets a little more complicated and way more spirited when the
Hathaway siblings move into a house occupied by a family of ghosts.
The pilot is written by Robert Peacock, who served as writer/producer
on several series over the last decade including Reba, The Jeff
Foxworthy Show and Coupling.
The Thundermans (Nickelodeon pilot/working title) - Written by Jed
Spingarn, The Thundermans follows 13-year-old Phoebe Thunderman, who
just wants to be normal, but that's impossible when she comes from a
family of superheroes. While most superheroes are lucky to have one
power, Phoebe happens to have 12. So much for normal! A longtime
producer for Nickelodeon, Spingarn most recently served as
co-executive producer of the hit series Big Time Rush and prior to
that, produced on Nickelodeon's The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy
Genius and Johnny Bravo.
Instant Mom (Nick at Nite pilot/working title) - Instant Mom centers
on a 25-year-old party girl who trades in Cosmos for carpools when she
marries an older man with kids. The project is executive produced by
Aaron Kaplan (GCB, Terra Nova) with Warren Bell (Ellen, According to
Jim, What I Like About You) and Jessica Butler (According to Jim, In
Plain Sight) serving as writers/executive producers.
ANIMATION
Nickelodeon, the top producer of television animation in the U.S., is
in production on three new series and two new pilots.
Sanjay & Craig (Nickelodeon series) - A classic tale of boy meets
snake, this 20-episode, 2D-animated series follows two best buds who
dedicate their lives to becoming the coolest, most rebellious dudes in
the neighborhood. Sanjay & Craig is created by Jim Dirschberger, Jay
Howell and Andreas Trolf, and executive produced by Nick alumni Will
McRobb and Chris Viscardi (The Adventures of Pete & Pete, Alvin and
the Chipmunks).
Monsters vs. Aliens (Nickelodeon series) - An extension of the
blockbuster movie, the all-new CG-animated television series features
the lovable monsters and a whole new group of nefarious aliens living
and working together at Area 50-something. Greenlit for 26 episodes,
the series will be executive produced by Bob Schooley, Mark McCorkle
and Brett Haaland (The Penguins of Madagascar).
Monty and Norville (Nickelodeon preschool series/working title) -
Monty and Norville follows the adventures of a five-year-old troll
named Monty and his dragon friend Norville. With the help of viewers
at home, Monty can use his magic stick to make incredible things
happen as long as he uses the right words. The new animated 26-episode
series, created by Adam Peltzman (head writer, Blue's Clues, The
Backyardigans), will introduce a literacy curriculum to Nickelodeon's
preschool audience.
Bad Seeds (Nickelodeon pilot) - From SpongeBob SquarePants alumnus and
Chowder creator Carl Greenblatt, Bad Seeds is about a good bird
running with the bad crowd... and having a great time!
Blaze and the Monster Machines (Nickelodeon preschool pilot/working
title) - Blaze and the Monster Machines is a CG-animated, interactive
program about an eight-year-old boy named AJ and his incredible
monster truck Blaze. AJ, Blaze and their friend Maddie fight their
arch nemesis Crusher along with a fleet of other trucks. The series
features a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) curriculum
and is created by Jeff Borkin (head writer, Team Umizoomi, Little
Einsteins) and Ellen Martin (producer, Bubble Guppies, The
Backyardigans).

http://www.toonzone.net/forums/showthread.php?289168-Nickelodeon-is-investigating-ratings-in-September-with-Nielsen&p=4029548#post4029548

There are two new articles about Nickelodeon ratings I thought were of
note. The first is from Adweek, with a lot of questions being asked by
analysts about Nickelodeon's performance. The other is from The Wrap,
with more of CEO's Philippe Dauman's comments.

Earnings and Ratings Down, Viacom Declares Victory in DirecTV Spat
Analyst: when will you start firing people?:
http://www.adweek.com/news/television/earnings-and-ratings-down-viacom-declares-victory-directv-spat-142523

Viacom Chief Philippe Dauman on Ratings Slide: 'We Have a Culture of
Accountability':
http://www.thewrap.com/media/article/viacom-chief-philippe-dauman-ratings-slide-we-have-culture-accountability-50636

TMC

2012-08-06 09:19:41 UTC

Permalink

http://www.toonzone.net/forums/showthread.php?289168-Nickelodeon-is-i...
There are two new articles about Nickelodeon ratings I thought were of
note. The first is from Adweek, with a lot of questions being asked by
analysts about Nickelodeon's performance. The other is from The Wrap,
with more of CEO's Philippe Dauman's comments.
Earnings and Ratings Down, Viacom Declares Victory in DirecTV Spat
Analyst: when will you start firing people?:http://www.adweek.com/news/television/earnings-and-ratings-down-viaco...
Viacom Chief Philippe Dauman on Ratings Slide: 'We Have a Culture of
Accountability':http://www.thewrap.com/media/article/viacom-chief-philippe-dauman-rat...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0972534/board/flat/201518783?d=202780435&p=2#202780435
Analyst questions were blunt—one bank representative essentially asked
Dauman when he would start firing the people in charge of the flagging
networks.

Should have happened already.

Dauman then pointed the finger at the programming folks.

That's just one part of the problem.

A scheduler can't create a 26 week schedule of iCarly if Nick/
Schneider's Bakery and it's programmers (I'm going to assume
programming here means "people who greenlit and make shows happen)
weren't farsighted or big enough to enable them to run Victorious and
iCarly at the same time.

The following is all based from the start of 2010.

By the time iCarly ends they'll have aired about 43 episodes from 2010
to the ending. Also consider the dire quality and filler nature of all
the blooper/april fools ones. 43 episodes in three and a bit years,
from Jan 2010 with iSaved Your Life (biggest live action show in Nick
history) to early 2013 with iGoodbye.

Victorious should have 50 or so. BTR will have a similar amount.
Bucket & Skinner (only 18 aired), True Jackson (30) and The Troop
(28), How To Rock (26 scheduled) and Fred the Show (24) are pretty
much the only other live action shows I could find. 8 shows, 269
episodes.

To compare, NCIS will have aired about 74 episodes. House has aired 57
(and consider is has ended so it won't have any episodes air at the
end of the year).

Dexter will have 36. Even Californication, a show which didn't any at
all in 2010 and is a 'mini-series' style still managed 24 episodes.

Now I'll compare it's competitors.

Anyone want to guess how many Good Luck Charlie has?

That show started in April 2010. It aired 68 plus a movie, plus the
Lemonade Mouth movie with Bridget as the lead and might air it's
upcoming season before iCarly ends. The difference is an entire season
worth of content. 10 hours of actual show content. Miranda would have
made another 4.8 million dollars if they'd filmed the same amount on
iCarly.

Shake It Up (a show with a 13 year old lead, that probably wouldn't
have been filmed yet when iSaved Your Life aired) first aired in
November 2010. 49 episodes.

A.N.T. Farm (12 year old lead). May 2011. 33 episodes scheduled up to
August, will probably have aired 45 when iCarly is done.

Sonny With A Chance + So Random has 55 from 2010.

WOWP (ended Jan this year) had 57 or so.

Austin/Ally, Jessie, Suite Life and Jonas LA take that up to roughly
371 from 9 (10 if you add So Random) shows. So 102 episodes more than
Nick's series listed above.

Disney XD with Pair of Kings, I'm In the Band, Kickin It and Lab Rats
is another 150 episodes. Does Nick have it's own version of that?
Sure, there's probably stuff like Degrassi, Avatar and Nick's game
shows and stuff like Supah Ninjas, but I think you can see the overall
picture is heavily stacked in favour of Disney, and Disney will
already be looking for new stars while Nick is scrambling to
greenlight spin-offs from existing stars because the execs are so risk
averse they can't risk new shows flopping if the premise is bad.

Nick just isn't as serious as it should be. They rested on iCarly's
laurels, didn't seem alarmed when Victorious wasn't a mega smash hit
like they were probably hoping then didn't get alarmed when iCarly
slipped so badly that Victorious (which I don't believe had much
upward movement in it's ratings) actually beat iCarly.

It's not been serious about creating new episodes of it's best shows.

It hasn't been serious about improving the quality of it's big shows.
I don't even mean the Seddie arc, at least they had a reason for that,
hoping the online fandom translated to ratings. I mean absolute crap
like letting the April Fools episodes, the Breakfast Club rip-off and
the blooper episodes slide as being 'actual' episodes. They let
Miranda waltz off on a tour before they'd finished filming.

Nick hasn't been serious about promoting new talent across the board
both in on-screen talent and writing/production. Nick doesn't do the
Disney thing and find the next star, it mostly promotes from within.
That's a decent strategy for a smaller network, but they haven't
followed through on it lately. They haven't had many shows where very
young kids, say 8+ can grow up learning like Miranda did with D&J and
graduate into a lead role as a 13 or 14 year old.

It hasn't been proactive about creating new shows.

If I was in charge, Aria Wallace (the girl that played Mandy) would
have been part of a 2 or 3 season show ending now in time for her to
join with Noah as the leads of a new show.

Reed Alexander would have done something more than the handful of
guest appearances on iCarly. He's an unusual actor, but he's good
enough to play a role if they had anyone with enough creativity to
write for his style.

Ashley Argota and Erin Sanders not getting a joint series or
individual series and being relegated to sidekicks is criminal. With
the Aria example, her as Erin's sister could be the 2/3 year
experience Aria might need to become a lead now.

The execs at Viacom aren't free of blame either. They've let the
steering wheel go. Why didn't anyone notice the lack of new content?
Why wasn't someone aggressively pushing for Nick's execs to take the
success of iCarly and it's mammoth ratings and really take the fight
to Disney (before it got setup with Jessie and GLC and the raft of new
young talent)? Did Viacom tighten the purse strings too much?

Everyone rested on the success of Spongebob and iCarly and it's coming
back to haunt them.

Another analyst accused Dauman of changing his story on Nick's ratings
woes—first ratings were down because of Nielsen, then it was a one-
time-thing, now it's cyclical, the analyst said. "If the ratings
declines do continue," he asked, "do you think you'll be able to
continue repurchasing stock at this rate?"

I'm not the only one who can see the BS excuses. If I can see it these
sharp economists sure as hell can see through the flimsy defence and
excuses.

Heads should have rolled already.