Nickelodeon Greenlights New Show "Jagger Eaton's Mega Life"

Nickelodeon, the number-one entertainment brand for kids and families, will introduce new series with football stars Cam Newton and Rob Gronkowski and broaden its mix of offerings as it deals with increased competition and changes in how children watch television programs, reports the Associated Press!

Newton, the Carolina Panthers quarterback and reigning NFL MVP, will host "All In" (formally titled "I Wanna Be"), a brand-new series where he will take kids on dream-fulfilling journeys. Gronkowski, of the New England Patriots, will be the face of "Crashletes", introducing popular clips of sports action. Nickelodeon presented its upcoming programming ideas to a meeting of advertisers at Nickelodeon Upfront 2016 on Wednesday 2nd March 2016.

Another new series, "Jagger Eaton's Mega Life," will follow the 15-year-old skateboard star as he meets people around the world. Nick is also looking to expand "The HALO Effect," Nickelodeon's pro-social docu-series that profiles young activists.

It's part of Nick's shift away from a heavy emphasis in animation to different formats, including a focus on real kids. One of the network's most popular new shows, "Paradise Run," is like a youthful version of "The Amazing Race," said Cyma Zarghami, President, Viacom Kids and Family Group.

This has been a rough stretch for Nick. The network's average viewership of nearly 2.5 million people in early 2011 was cut almost in half to 1.3 million in 2015, with an accompanying loss in advertising revenue. Riding high with "SpongeBob SquarePants," "Dora the Explorer" and "iCarly" at the beginning of the decade, Nick had little else when these shows began showing age.

At the same time, children started to migrated to tablets, smartphones and other ways to watch what they wanted when they wanted. Streaming services like Netflix have become a boon to parents, and they are increasing their production of family-oriented series. PBS also announced last month that it is launching a 24-hour network of kids' programming.

"Kids are growing up with a plethora of channels and outlets to choose from," said Billie Gold, vice president and director of program research at Carat USA.

Nick is making its programming available through various formats, and the network feels comfortable it has a full pipeline of shows for the first time in many years, Zarghami said. Whatever the means of distribution, it's most important to make shows people want to watch, she said.

"Hits are hits everywhere, and you can show a hit across multiple platforms and you'll find it floating to the top," she said.

The idea of broadening Nick to have programming of different forms in essence returns Nickelodeon to what it used to be, she said.

One advantage Nick may soon be able to press is that kids who grew up on the network are now nostalgic for it or are becoming parents themselves. In 2015, Nickelodeon launched "The Splat," a block of nostalgia-based programming online and on TV geared to millennials - an idea that some of the network's interns developed five years ago.

"We couldn't be in a stronger position at this particular moment," Zarghami said.

Nick has shown an ever-so-slight uptick in its ratings this year so far. Still, there's no underestimating the challenge it faces in appealing to a demographic that considers streaming something on a tablet just as natural as sitting in front of a TV.

"It's a tough road ahead as young eyeballs will most definitely continue to migrate to other platforms on their own time schedule," Gold said. "Nickelodeon still has a very strong kids' brand and its future likes in its ability to reach these viewers across these various platforms."

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Cyma Zarghami Reveals Some Of Nickelodeon's Upcoming Plans Ahead Of Nick Upfront 2016

Variety have unveiled a fantastic interview with Cyma Zarghami, President, Viacom Kids and Family Group! In the interview, Cyma talks about some of Nickelodeon's upcoming plans, including the networks upcoming Legends of the Hidden Temple and "Hey Arnold!" TV movies, and hints at some of the things Nick may unveil during Nickelodeon Upfront 2016 on Wednesday 2nd March 2016!

Cyma also reveals that Nickelodeon may have renamed I Wanna Be, a brand-new adventure docu-series hosted by Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, to the new title All In!:

Nickelodeon to Revive 'Legends of the Hidden Temple' as TV Movie (EXCLUSIVE)

When Viacom's Nickelodeon sketches its future for advertisers Wednesday afternoon, one of the elements it will touch upon will be its past.

As part of a presentation to promote its upcoming slate of programs, the kids-content media empire (comprising several cable networks and more) will unveil a live-action TV movie inspired by its mid-1990s game show "Legends of the Hidden Temple," as well as a two-part TV movie based on "Hey Arnold!," one of its best-known animated series that ran between 1996 and 2004. The company will also talk up a slate that includes what its top executive calls "happy reality" programs, like "All In," an adventure docu-series led by Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton, and "Crashletes," a half-hour series that will feature crazy viral sports clips. The programs downplay mean-spirited competition in favor of showing people having fun.

"There's a tremendous amount of attention on kids these days. What that says is there's a tremendous amount of opportunity – not unlike what is going on in the grownup space," said Cyma Zarghami, president of Viacom's cable networks aimed at kids and families, in an interview. "There is just more content everywhere."

A lot of adults are relying on Nickelodeon's kiddie fare. Viacom has been under intense pressure in recent months, as several of its flagship networks like MTV and Comedy Central grapple with viewership declines and investors question the strategy pursued by the corporation's management. At Nickelodeon, however, ratings have improved. The network has seen its audience between the ages of 2 and 11 rise 4% in the first quarter of the year, according to analysis from Bernstein Research's Todd Juenger, while Nick Jr.'s audience in that demographic has risen 57%. In doing so, the analyst said, the networks have taken share from competitors. Even so, Nickelodeon's subscriber base and ad revenue shrank somewhat in both 2015 and 2016, according to data from market-research firm SNL Kagan, even as the subscriber fees it gains from distributors rose in both years.

"The company is under a lot of scrutiny, but I don't think Nickelodeon is under any scrutiny at all," said Zarghami a veteran programmer who joined the network as a clerk in 1986 and rose steadily through the ranks. "We have done a tremendous amount of work to build our ecosystem."

Nickelodeon is in a different position than it was last year at this time, when Time Warner's Cartoon Network was making ratings strides. Zarghami’s networks will vie with media outlets owned by Disney, Time Warner and NBCUniversal for approximately $800 million in advance commitments from advertisers as part of a process known as the upfront market, when U.S. TV networks try to sell the bulk of their ad inventory for the coming season. The task has grown more difficult for kids' outlets in recent years, as the rising generation of young viewers see little distinction between watching Nick series like "Bubble Guppies" on-demand and watching them on the network that launched it.

To lure those viewers, Zarghami and her executive team have put more focus on creating content – and not just for TV. "Game Shakers," a series that debuted in 2015, centers on two young female entrepreneurs who devise apps, and makes their fictional creations available for real-life download via iTunes and other venues. The Nick and Nick Jr. apps have been downloaded onto 27 million devices, the company said, and Nick digital properties get 100 million views per month from kids.

Zarghami cites the pre-school audience as a primary factor in Nick's recent ratings wins. "The pre-school audience does a tremendous amount of work to lift the 2-to-11 audience," she said. "Alvinnn," a new take on "Alvin and the Chipmunks" and perennial favorite "SpongeBob Squarepants" have helped attract audiences, but Zarghami also pointed to series including "Blaze and the Monster Machines," "PAW Patrol" and "Henry Danger" as successes.

The recent emphasis on reviving old Nick favorites was borne out of an idea from interns more than five years ago, she recounted. The interns thought the old programs would work well online, but Nick execs thought they might work well on TV, and put a block of the shows on Teen Nick at night. As original fans of 1990s fare adopted social media, she said, "Interest in the Nick library was becoming louder and louder and louder." Now executives hope to revive select concepts that will charm older fans but also spark new interest from their children.

In "Hidden Temple," three siblings must conquer a series of obstacles to remain alive, mirroring the theme of the original game show. The TV movie, slated to appear in the fourth quarter of 2016, will nod to other elements from the original show, including Olmec, a talking head who knows the secrets behind the temple; the Steps of Knowledge, the entrance to the temple and launching pad for the mission; and cameos from a green monkey, red jaguar and silver snakes, among others. Isabela Moner, known from her role on Nick's "100 Things to Do Before High School," will star.The TV movie is directed by Joe Menendez and written by Jonny Umansky, Zach Hyatt, and Alex Reid. The "Arnold" movies are slated to appear in 2017.

Zarghami declined to reveal more of Nickelodeon's programming slate, but hinted at a growing interesting in sports-themed programming and live events. The goal, she said, is to turn viewers into fans, who want to keep talking about shows even after an episode ends. "Once you can convert a viewer into a fan, you can have an ongoing conversation with them," she said. Nickelodeon will spark that chatter later this week.

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