what if the lack of teen spaces both in media and irl, the importance of educational media/lesser known animation and the shift of secondary networks from differing brands to clones were all related topics?

the LONG OVERDUE THREAD ON NOGGIN THE N AND NICKTOONS NETWORK

in 1999, noggin was launched when viacom and sesame workshop agreed to join forces on a kids "thinking" channel. noggin took insight from parents teachers and kids to combine fun and entertainment with learning.

to tie in to the educational idea, the network had a logo of a thinking head with interchangeable tops representing big ideas. built around it was branding that made sure to encourage education without reminding kids of school.

one of noggin's earliest principles was audience participation and interaction. there were many shows, initiatives & research made with schools and kids for funding, sweepstakes and more, building a sense of trust between the network and the public.

initially the network was structured akin to modern nick: preschool in the morning, 6-11 during the day, adults at night. shows included old CTW shows, retro sitcoms, nick jr reruns and the phred in your head show, a kablam esque soup of programming and hosted content.

2002 is where things shake up. SW sold its stake in Noggin LLC to Nick, ending the CTW reruns but remained an active partner in the Noggin network. it refocused on preschoolers and teenagers, the later gaining a new nighttime block called The N + nicktoons but more on that later

despite skewing older, the N was also quite adamant about the learning aspects. on its first day of broadcast, it brought degrassi TNG to the US. the show prioritized cautionary tales and life lessons over what other teen dramas did, making it a prime fit for the N.

both sides would grow and evolve over the course of the early 2000s. noggin had nick jr reruns, play with me sesame, music segments, and of course, these guys:

the n would fill the schedule with whatever they could grab, including TNBC reruns, animated series o'grady, censored daria, and of course degrassi. notably, two episodes of the show were deemed inappropriate and were initially unaired in the US. so much for "it goes there"

2004-2007 was another big win for these networks. nicktoons launched its film festival featuring animation from all over the world and rebranded the following year to double down on the underrated animation approach, including helping kickstart animation collective in NYC

noggin premiered two originals, the upside down show and Jack's big music show, two underrated gems. moose & zee provided interactivity with games and music videos. the curriculum boards were introduced, explaining in detail the educational value of each show

the N eventually relied less on reruns and more on its original series, including black-led miniseries miracle boys, instant star, o'grady and south of nowhere, featuring a prominent bisexual character that the network encouraged parents to discuss with their teens about

noggin and the N were a network devoted to enjoyable education and fun spaces for their audiences and nicktoons network loved bringing in weird and experimental animated shorts and shows.

and the thing is, none of what they were doing was (hell, is) being done anywhere else

in 2007 there was... a shift. sesame workshop started to become less involved with both networks. the n changed its logo and became 24 hour, noggin began being specifically referred to as "Nick's noggin", and the bylines on shows changed from noggin LLC to the standard viacom.

exclusives across all three networks started to just straight up evaporate, they relied much more on nick reruns, and it almost seemed as though something was changing. and sure enough, in 2009, they all rebranded because something something business

i think nicktoons was the first of them to start getting... weird. suddenly much more shows were moved to it, which seemed all exclusive and cool as a kid but was a sign of what was to come. among newer originals were ads for football, rob dyrdek and *checks notes* skechers shoes

as nick got more involved with the N, it also got creatively involved with degrassi as opposed to just airing it and (un)coincidentally the show was less cautionary and more obsessed with drama, suspense and ratings, which only got worse when the N became teennick.

there were episodes guest starring nick celebs, an arc around a girl killing some dude with a fucking brick, at least two arcs about muslim kids wanting to live like the white kids, an arc about a pedo where the kid involved is somehow the one to blame and a movie in hollywood

inexplicably, teennick launched the 90s are all that, a block aimed at... grown adults. this was a big hit for them with tons of positive press and praise. in true viacom fashion I think u can imagine what happened next even if ur not sure but we'll come back to it later

the nick jr channel was pretty faithful to noggin until about 2012, where by that point the original slate from the 2000s was pretty much wiped clean and the following year saw... a new era.

now that we know the context of these networks, when we look at the current state of them it's not a pretty sight. teennick is basically the dan Schneider network (a choice that really speaks volumes knowing what we know now) and caters either to 6-11s or the 90s crowd.

the nicksplat block takes up 110% of teennick's attention and it's probably where nick's obsession with nostalgia came from. there was a point where they attempted to return to teen content at nights (pushing back the block) but adults complained and the shows vanished by winter

nicktoons has become not only nick 2, rerunning all the shows plain nick should be airing in the first place, but also notorious for being a glorified graveyard slot for whatever show nick wants to bury, including live action shows. ollie's pack will probably be next

nick jr is a special case because the channel fills the same purpose as nicktoons but the preschool division itself is like, the complete antithesis to noggin. educational value is on a "when we feel like it" basis and most shows are just 80s esque toy commercials

every single 6-11 toyetic show on nick since 2010 has appeared on the nick jr channel at one point (TMNT, winx, harajuku, mysticons), as if to prioritize the merch over the appropriateness of the content itself. TMNT also been lumped with preschool many times for merch purposes

the nick jr channel and block still use curriculum boards but the points are minimal and vague (entrepreneurship?) likely bc there clearly isnt much to say. my (un)favorite is the peppa pig one where every bullet is a lie and she's off-model

it can be argued that the modern boards *are* proving educational value, just simpler.

or at least it could be argued, if wallykazam didn't exist

im not trying to like obsess about the operations of a corporation because I know why they did what they did

money

but like, bummer huh? 3 brands not only profitable but also doing like, legitimately really good things for their audiences and someone decides "yeah no thanks"

and bc i KNOW someone is going to mention her, no it is not entirely cyma's decision. nickelodeon's never really been Not Greedy so noggin would've ended up like this a lot earlier if not for SW and tom aschiem who now goes for more teen content at CN make of that what u will

now its 2020 where foreign animation gives the big 3 a heart attack, sesame workshop is doing original shows, music videos & all that stuff with hbo/corus, and finding teen media that doesnt follow the riverdale formula AND like actual spaces where teens can be teens is hard

2021*
actually speaking of corus, treehouse has felt more like a noggin in recent years. it airs both nick stuff and sesame workshop stuff, including interstitial shorts and the co-produced esme and roy. they even have their own "made by nick jr" bump