"This year, we're doing away with the traditional award show tropes," says Paul Medford, vp unscripted, current series, at Nickelodeon.
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| Kids' Choice Awards 2025 stage | Courtesy of Nickelodeon |
The KCA stage is set for slime, slime and more slime!
This year’s
Kids' Choice Awards will feature 5,000 gallons of the signature green goo — in addition to adding a second color to the mix. That’s more than the show has used in recent memory. There also will be a “slime lounge” as part of the set for the ceremony, which takes place Saturday, June 21 at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica.
That’s according to Paul Medford, Vice President (VP) unscripted, current series, at Nickelodeon, who gave
The Hollywood Reporter the first look at the set design for the show, which shakes things up from years past.
“This year, we’re doing away with the traditional award show tropes, and we’re throwing the biggest party in a slime warehouse,” Medford told THR, giving credit to production designer Alana Billingsley. He notes that the stage will be in the middle of the venue, to make the audience members feel like “they really are going to be part of the action.”
Below, Medford shared with THR's Kimberly Nordyke more of what fans can expect from the 2025 Kids Choice Awards.
What is new about this year’s design?
This year, we’re doing away with the traditional award show tropes, and we’re throwing the biggest party in a slime warehouse. Slime is referenced everywhere, and the goal has been to transform the Barker Hanger into this fantasy warehouse; they brought in over 80 industrial slime storage containers to create everything from the walls to the slime lounge. The most inspiring idea came out of some early conversations where we were trying to create something that feels like a party in progress. So, in order to do that, we’ve rearranged the audience to surround the room — the whole thing is 360 degrees. All the action happens in front of a live audience from every angle.
Can you talk a little more about putting the stage in the middle versus at one end of the venue, as most awards shows traditionally do? It seems like it will feel maybe more intimate that way. Is that part of the intention?
That is absolutely intentional. The primary feature of this year’s set is this centralized pool, which is sort of animated by bubbling fountains of slime, and slime is triggered from over 25 unique pieces around the room. But yeah, the idea is that we focus everything into the center as if it really was a party because we feel like it’s the summer, the kids are out of school, and it makes sense for this to be the celebration as opposed to the regular award ceremony, to the point where we’re even going to have music running throughout all the acceptance speeches. The music is never really going to stop for the whole 90 minutes.
So the music won’t be actually playing people off if their speech runs too long.
Exactly. We’ll have the usual award announced, the winner walks up to music, but under this acceptance speech, the party is still going. So we’re never going to stop the music.
I have attended the show for the past few years, and I think that’ll be really fun for the kids because there’s already so much energy and excitement inside that venue, and this will just ramp up that element.
Another thing that’s going to be great is there’s an LED screen that’s going to run around the room 360 degrees. So no matter where you stand in the room, you can see all the action on the screens. Typically, there’s a screen at one end, or a couple of screens raised high, but in this situation, it’s going to go 360 around the room.
When you and your team set out to design these sets, what are the key things that you think about?
This particular year, the most important thing was the party, and to create the elements in the room that felt like a party, so we have a slime lounge. It’s not VIP. Anyone can go there, but it’s definitely a lounge, like what you would find at any party in a warehouse. Then, we created the central piece, as well as a performance stage. So we have all the elements of an award show, but we put them all in the middle so that people can see them from no matter where they are. And this way all the audience can be on camera at the same time at the party. It’s not a “them and us” situation; everybody’s in it at once.
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| Kids' Choice Awards 2025 stage |
Tell me more about the slime lounge and what exactly that is.
If you go to a nightclub, there’s always the VIP room where there’s some comfortable seating, and sometimes there’s a velvet rope. We won’t have the velvet rope, but there’ll be some comfortable screen-style seating which also has the magical element that you can disappear through, almost like a portal, and come out somewhere else in the room, or not in the room. And anybody who’s there can go take part in that. If you go to a nightclub, there’s always the VIP room where there’s some comfortable seating, and sometimes there’s a velvet rope. We won’t have the velvet rope, but there’ll be some comfortable screen-style seating, which also has the magical element that you can disappear in or through, like a portal, and come out somewhere else in the room — or not in the room. There will be a piece where SeanDoesMagic — he’s one of our favorite people and is performing in the show — disappears through the slime lounge seats and ends up at Mall of America [in Minneapolis]. And anybody who’s there can go take part in that.
What other slime elements do you have this year?
One of the other great things is our chandelier. We have a huge inflatable chandelier, which we’re going to use as our mega slimer. So the slime comes from many different directions: We’ll be sliming the stage, we’ll be sliming the room, and the kids, of course. And then one other thing is this wonderful DJ spot that we have where also from the DJ booth you can get slimed. We have a huge mosh pit as well.
So it sounds like nobody’s safe from the slime this year.
Not this year.
Can you share how much slime you’ll be using?
I can tell you that it’s more than last year and the year before. This year, it’s 5,000 gallons.
Did you collaborate with Tyla, who’s hosting this year, to get feedback?
Oh, 100%. She’s amazing and she’s been very keen to do this show, and of course she’s a fantastic music artist. So she’s been giving us all the ideas that she wants to include in the show, and of course, we’ve been including them.
Obviously, celebrities always seem really game to get slimed. I know you probably don’t want to ruin the surprise of who’s getting slimed this year, but what can you tease?
What I can tease is that, the
King of Comedy [honoree Jack Black] might get slimed. I can say that our Icon [recipient, to be announced] this year might slime somebody, and the slime may not be green. Other than that, the thing about getting slimed is one, it’s an honor, and two, it works best when it’s a surprise.
So you mentioned it might not be green. I know that previously for the Kids' Choice Sports Awards, Nickelodeon created a gold-colored slime. [The show also used rainbow-colored slime in 2024 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of SpongeBob SquarePants.]
I can tell you that you can expect to see some blue slime this year.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
We’ve filled this room with decor that only kids might dream up — the dozens and dozens of pool inflatables, different shapes and sizes, rigged around the child’s imagination. If they were going to throw a party, we’re throwing it from their point of view.
So you really have to put yourself into the mindset of a child basically when you’re designing this.
Yes, and I have to give full credit to our production designer, Alana Billingsley, who really has designed the most fantastic, functional, yet intricate, yet interesting, yet exciting, yet surprising set. And it’s the first time we’ve done it like this; normally it’s a cross arch and the audience sits and watches the action. For the first time they really are going to be part of the action.
The
2025 Kids Choice Awards ceremony will air live at 8 p.m. ET/PT on June 21 from Barker Hangar in Santa Monica on Nickelodeon, TeenNick, Nicktoons, the Nick Jr. channel, MTV2 and CMT, and will rollout onto Nickelodeon channels around the world soon after. Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga and Kendrick Lamar
lead the nominees.
Stream a Mountain of Entertainment, including your Nickelodeon favorites on Paramount+! Try it FREE at ParamountPlus.com!
Originally published: June 18, 2025 at 23:03 BST.
