Network | CBS |
---|---|
Launched | September 16, 2000 September 14, 2002 (Nick on CBS) September 2004 (Nick Jr. on CBS) (revived) |
(Nick Jr. on CBS) (original)
Closed | September 7, 2002 September 2004 (Nick on CBS) September 9, 2006 (Nick Jr. on CBS) (revived) |
(Nick Jr. on CBS) (original)
Country of origin | United States |
Owner | Nickelodeon (Viacom) |
Formerly known as |
|
Format | Saturday morning children's program block |
Running time | 4 hours (2000–01) 3 hours (2001–06) |
Original Language(s) | English |
Nick on CBS (also known as Nick Jr. on CBS) was an American Saturday morning children's programming block that ran on CBS from September 16, 2000 to September 9, 2006. The block featured programming from Nickelodeon, which was a sister cable television property to CBS under Viacom for the majority of the block's run.
In June 2000, a few months after Viacom (which CBS founded in 1952 as television syndication distributor CBS Films, Inc., and later spun off in 1971 after the then-recently implemented Financial Interest and Syndication Rules barred networks from holding financial interest in syndicated programming content) completed its $37 billion merger with CBS Corporation, CBS reached an agreement with new corporate sister Nickelodeon to air programming from its Nick Jr. block beginning that September.
The new block, Nick Jr. on CBS debuted on September 16, 2000, replacing the Nelvana-produced animation block CBS Kidshow, which ended its run the week prior on September 9. For the first two years of the Nickelodeon agreement, the block exclusively aired preschool-targeted programming from Nick Jr., including interstitials from the Nickelodeon block's animated mascot, Face. On September 14, 2002, the block was rebranded from Nick Jr. on CBS to simply Nick on CBS; at that time, its programming content expanded to include live-action and animated Nickelodeon series aimed at children between 7 and 16 years of age, in addition to the Nick Jr. series.
As with the predecessor CBS Kidshow and Think CBS Kids blocks, all of the programs within the block complied with educational programming requirements defined by the Children's Television Act, although the educational content in some of the programs was tenuous in nature. It was partly for this reason why some of Nickelodeon's most popular programs (most notably, SpongeBob SquarePants – at the time the cable channel's most popular series) were not included as part of the CBS block, even during the more open-formatted Nick on CBS era. Rugrats also aired briefly in the spring of 2003, when it was added as a regular series within the block.