Nickelodeon is not afraid to address the fact that their current lineup ain't exactly getting kids to change the channel from Chumptoon Network, if not also Disney Channel.
To move the network forward, they think, they need to bring back some classic hits from the past.
Actor-turned-producer Brian Robbins (ex-Head of The Class) was recently named as Nick's new President. Robbins' body of work behind the camera for Nick and the WB (i.e. Smallville) speaks for itself. Word is coming down the pike in drips & drabs that Robbins is green-lighting more revivals at the network. As previously documented, there are plans to bring back Clarissa Explains it All, which introduced America to Melissa Joan Hart, and there's a new version of Double Dare already on the air. That's only the beginning.
For starters, the network announced plans to bring back their sketch comedy series, All That, and have signed alumnus Kenan Thompson (who graduated to Saturday Night Live) to serve as executive producer for the revival. Robbins was the showrunner for the original. I'm reading that Rugrats is being brought back, but if Chumptoon Network's mishandling of recent reboots of their own (i.e. Powerpuff Girls, Ben 10) is any indication, Robbins and his staff would be wise to make sure the new series has the feel, if not the look, of the original.
October brings the return of Are You Afraid of The Dark?, nearly 20 years after the original series ended. A new generation Midnight Society is being formed.
Here's the trailer for the new Dark:
The topper is Nick acquiring the former Fox series, Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, which had 2 runs on Fox with Jeff Foxworthy at the helm (2007-9, 2015), plus a 2 year syndicated run (2009-11). However, Foxworthy is not being brought in. Instead, wrestler-actor John Cena has been signed to host and act as executive producer. Cena, who has hosted a couple of Kids Choice Awards and made a couple of movies for Nick, in addition to working on Rise of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, was most recently in the movie, "Bumblebee", but being a game show host is new to him.
The whole idea is to pull in new viewers, and bring back older ones who will remember the old series. That's always a risk in this era. Best of luck, 'cause Nick's gonna need it.
3 comments:
A "new" version of All That was tried once before. I never saw it, but it didn't last very long. Perhaps with original cast member Kenan Thompson serving as executive producer, this one could fare better.
I wasn't a fan of the original Rugrats, so I'm not excited about a reboot in the slightest.
The main Nickelodeon project that I'm waiting for is the Rocko's Modern Life reunion special "Static Cling", which was originally projected to air sometime last year and last I checked, a premiere date still hasn't been announced yet.
I agree that Nick needs help right now (currently SpongeBob, Rise of the TMNT and The Loud House are the ONLY animated shows Nick is airing right now; there's also that The Casagrandes thing that they've been pitching for about a year now, but that really does not look good at all to me), but I'm legitimately beginning to tire of all these reboots and revivals, both on Nick and otherwise. It's a shame that these networks and studios are trying so hard to ramp up the nostalgia factor rather than investing in new, original ideas that could become cult classics in their own right 10+ years in the future.
Who exactly benefits from these reboots? As we've seen, old fans will chase after producers, cast and crew with pitchforks if anything is changed, and reboots truly ride on the younger viewers who will fund them; if the kiddos don't like the show, then it's a Dead Show Walking. Why go through the stress of trying to please 2 different demographics when they could just as easily make a new product and only worry about the kids? Nick needs to focus on getting newer, original content instead of constantly trying to reheat older stuff that makes it harder to find a following.
The simplest answer I can think of is that they're creatively bankrupt. With just three animated series on Nick airing with any regularity, they've had the same programming problem for more than 2 decades, playing a hot show into the ground, which Chumptoon Network has copied.
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