Nick on CBS

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Saturday Morning Cartoon Blocks on locally accessible tv affiliates were an iconic part of the tv experience for decades, and by the turn of the century the biggest brands of animation were the faces of said programming.

In 1995, Disney bought the American Broadcasting Company for the hefty cost of $19Billion and within two years revamped the channel’s Saturday Morning Cartoon block Disney’s 1 Saturday Morning, by 2001 becoming ABCKids.

The WB Network, which would later become the CW, launched Kids WB in 1995, featuring Hanna Barbera and later, Cartoon Network series.

One of the critical things neither Disney or WB did was centralize on the previously established names of cable based animation networks. The WB Network didn’t title their block Cartoon Network on WB, and there wasn’t ‘Toon Disney’ on ABC. But the iconic Eye Network chose exactly the opposite. This is Attack The Block: Episode 2: Nick On CBS.

The mid-90s featured massive mergers in the world of entertainment, with Disney outright buying ABC in 1995, and Turner Broadcasting merging with Warner Bros the following year.

Viacom, the owner of Nickelodeon Group, merged with the CBS Corporation for $37Billion in 2000, and the merger between the two companies is quite interesting. Viacom was originally a division of CBS starting back in 1952. The companies were required to split due to a federal law enacted in 1970 that blocked TV networks from owning syndication companies. So the then CBS Enterprises Inc was rebranded as Viacom. For 30 years, Viacom expanded by acquisition, most notably for this video, the 1985 takeover of Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, which owned The Movie Channel, later titled Showtime, MTV, and Nickelodeon.

That’s right if you caught that, even more interestingly, TimeWarner, which launched KidsWB and would own Cartoon Network a decade later once owned Nickelodeon. Warner-Amex would immediately be renamed MTV Networks.

The success of MTV Networks and the acquision of Paramount Pictures in the mid-90s would be two of the many pieces that built Viacom as one of the greatest titans of the entertainment industry.

So, in 1999, Viacom announced plans to merge with CBS, as the federal law that originally kept them apart was repealed. That federal law effectively stirred the path for many of the channels we have today, and without it, Cartoon Network, Nick, and hundreds of other channels may have been entirely different.

Viacom merged with the CBS Corporation for $37 Billion dollars in June of 2000.

Now that I’ve shed a little light on the subject, let’s get back to the topic of the video.

Nick on CBS launched with immediacy. Just three months after the $37Billion Dollar merger, the block was a reality.

Logically, there was clear reason for CBS simply using the Nickelodeon title, something the WB Network, nor Disney did with their Saturday Morning blocks: Nick had centralized on the child demographic since the late 1970s. By the turn of the century, Nickelodeon cartoons, whether elementary or beyond were central to the mindshare of the everyday family. From Blue’s Clues and Dora The Explorer to Spongebob, Hey Arnold and Rugrats, every age group had something to love. By 1997, the Nickelodeon cable channel’s Saturday Morning ratings outpaced even all other competitors.

Using the Nick name was the logical direction. So, in September of 2000, Nick Jr on CBS launched, and would air Saturdays from 8AM-12PM. The block aired exclusively Nick Jr. content, including Blue’s Clues, Little Bill, Dora The Explorer, Maggie The Ferocious Beast, Little Bear, Franklin, Maisy, and Kipper. The launch proved to be a huge success with ratings up an astounding 388% from the prior year. Nick Jr. on CBS beat out Disney’s 1 Saturday Morning and KidsWB.

2001 saw the first adjustment. The block would premiere an hour earlier, not to air more animation, but to air a Saturday morning news edition of CBS’s Early Show from 9AM-10:30AM. Could you imagine being a kid, enjoying some toons only to get interrupted by a news show for an hour and a half? It would’ve made a bit more sense if it were NickNews but it wasn’t. Not only did this fracture the content aired from 7AM through 9AM and 11AM through noon, but the Early Show would interrupt for the rest of the block’s existence.

From 2001 through 2002, the schedule was minimally adjusted with Kipper swapped for Bob the Builder, and Little Bear becoming the header for the block.

Nick Jr. on CBS clearly was a solid programming block with some of the highest quality pre-school to elementary aged cartoons unfortunately with a morning news show stuffed in the middle.

2003 would see a substantial change with maximum utilization of Nick Jr. and Nickelodeon animation. This was the high point of Nick on CBS.

Rugrats. The Wild Thornberrys. As Told By Ginger. Hey Arnold. Pelswick, and the then newest Nicktoon, ChalkZone were front and center alongside the returning Blue’s Clues and Dora.

This was the paramount experience for anyone, any age with any tv to publicly watch what had been blocked behind a paywall for so long: Nicktoons in the hands of anyone. The highest quality, the most watched, the greatest icons in the world of animation finally accessible to all.

But this monumental moment for public television wouldn’t last even two years. For half of 2004, the block generally remained unchanged except for the switch of The Wild Thornberrys for All Grown Up and Little Bill replaced with The Brothers Garcia. But what would strike down this block would be Federal restrictions announced the same year that tightened what could and couldn’t be allowed on public television during Saturday Mornings.

You’ll hear me mention this when I get to ABC Kids, and KidsWB. The restrictions, requiring more educational programming, essentially crumbled any potential for further growth of Nicktoons on the CBS Saturday Morning lineup.

Unsurprisingly, by September of 2004, less than two years after CBS opened the floodgates to allow for Nicktoons on the Saturday Morning programming block, Nick on CBS retreated to Nick Jr. on CBS.

The late 2004 through 2005 lineup of Dora, Little Bill, and Blue’s Clues alongside newcomers Backyardigans, Go Diego Go & LazyTown returned the educational and solid strength found in the lineup prior to the enveloping of Nicktoons from 2003-2004.

The final blow was Viacom’s split in 2005. Like a backwards game of Agario, the CBS Corp and MTV Networks essentially reversed the merger they had settled upon just 6 years prior.

The split swallowed more of Viacom under the CBS name, while Viacom became a smaller spin off company of the CBS Corporation, overseeing Paramount, MTV Networks, BET Networks and a few others.

Though the two are still the same company, their properties generally remain separated, and in January of 2006, CBS announced Nick Jr. on CBS would be replaced with a block made in partnership by DIC Entertainment.

Nick on CBS was officially over 6 years after it launched: September of 2006.

This block’s verdict:

Nick on CBS is a perfect example of how not only corporate but federal decisions can sway programming. The government’s move to push Viacom out of CBS and it’s own company in 1970 established a major media empire that brought about one of the most iconic animation brands in the world, and the merging and arguments of these billion dollar companies would separate the brands once again.

It clearly was a block with successful content surrounded with odd decisions and policies.