State of Nickelodeon Address (October 2015)

[TMC]

http://nickanddisneyreviewed.blogspo...n-address.html

What really sucked was the total bomb of Sam & Cat, which was a critical linchpin in Nick's programming and when it was knocked out it created a little bit of a panic. Nobody beyond those parties directly involved will ever know what happened, barring say Ariana Grande writing a tell-all book which granted given the way things are going might actually happen. If you look at the raw ratings it wasn't the stellar performer people strangely remember it now - it posted Disney Channel-like ratings often but many times it dipped into A.N.T. Farm territory (trust me that's low). Whatever, it's long gone, dead and buried and with it the legacy of teen comedies that goes back all the way to All That.

But it wasn't just the utter collapse of Sam & Cat that put the network in a bind. Unlike say a failed Apple or Lexus product launch a TV show is almost effortless to replace and refill; there's almost literally dozens of scriptwriters and veteran producers banging on your door with ready-to-film scripts. There's no shortage of talent, no months or years-long development lead and lag-times like that associated with consumer electronics or cars. You just scan what's available, pick a script, and start shooting. It might take a couple of months to actually finish the post-prod but so what, especially with Nick's non-regular premiere sched you can push things back and use reruns to create a seamless transition. Most networks actually keep shows already produced and ready to go waiting in the wings exactly in case this sort of thing happens (and then premiere them mid-season if their time doesn't come prior). Look at how quickly Henry Danger premiered after Sam & Cat's demise, for example.

So no, it's not just Sam & Cat, I think Nickelodeon looked at what was happening across the board and concluded that the tween-teen demo was pretty much dead. Hence their move to aim younger with stuff like Henry Danger, Nicky, Ricky, Dicky and Dawn, 100 Things to do Before High School (it tells you right in the title) and now with Game Shakers. Thundermans really is a holdover from the 2012-13 era before they thought the tween-teen demo was no longer viable. Even Bella and the Bulldogs is firmly in middle-school territory. Their animated shows - Harvey Beaks, Sanjay & Craig, Breadwinners, Alvin!!! And the Chipmunks - are dead square at the pre-tween/tween demo. The days of Nick catering to an all-age demo with adult appeal are done, dead, gone.