TeenNick

For the now-defunct programming block, see TEENick (block).

Country	United States The Netherlands
Headquarters	New York City
Programming
Language(s)	English
Ownership
Owner	Classic Viacom (2002-2005) Viacom (2005-present) (operated by MTV Networks)

TeenNick is an American television network, as the title suggests, for teenagers, owned by the MTV Networks subsidiary of Viacom. The channel was originally known as The N from its April 1, 2002 launch until September 28, 2009.

Sister channel Noggin was relaunched as Nick Jr. at the same time as The N's relaunch as TeenNick; like with Nick Jr., TeenNick's name was taken from a former program block on parent channel Nickelodeon, which aired from 2000 to 2009 (though the program block's name was spelled as "TEENick"). As the channel's name suggests, TeenNick is primarily aimed at the 13-19 year old age demographic, and features a mix of originally-produced, off-network syndicated and Nickelodeon-produced programming.

The channel features a mix of children/teen shows which are aimed at children to early teen, which almost nothing unsuitable for children's viewing, such as iCarly (TV-G shows), which is targeted for middle school age children, and shows aimed at teen/adult, which feature suggestive dialogue (sex references) and language, such as Degrassi (TV-PG/TV-14 shows) and That '70s Show. (TV-14)

History

As The N (2002-2009)

2002 Logo

The "hand" logo used from April 1, 2002 to October 4, 2007

When TeenNick originally debuted as The N on April 1, 2002, The N ran from 6:00 p.m.–6:00 a.m. (Eastern)/5:00 p.m.–5:00 a.m. (Central Time), sharing time and channel space with Noggin, which had started as a service of Viacom (through Nickelodeon) and the Children's Television Workshop as a mix of a channel meant to show Sesame Workshop and Nick Jr.'s archived programming.

The fact that The N shared channel space with Noggin (now Nick Jr.) made it very similar to parent network Nickelodeon as it has shared channel space with another channel during the nighttime hours for most of its existence; ARTS (Alpha Repertory Television Service) aired on the channel nightly from April 12, 1981 to January 31, 1984; A&E (a merger of ARTS and struggling NBC-owned network The Entertainment Channel) replaced ARTS from February 1, 1984 to January 1985 when A&E became its own 24-hour channel. From January to June 30, 1985, Nickelodeon went into a test card after it signed off for the night. Since July 1, 1985, Nickelodeon has run Nick at Nite (a nighttime program block commonly considered to be an individual channel sharing Nickelodeon's channel space) during the evening and overnight hours.

By 2002 however, as Viacom showcased its own programming and made clear that they wanted Noggin to compete with longtime CTW partner PBS Kids, CTW, by then known as Sesame Workshop, decided to reduce their interest in the network due to several factors, including the network's prime time ratings with "retro programming" to appeal to both baby boomers and young children not being as high as Viacom or Sesame Workshop expected them to be. With this move, MTV Networks was free to launch the concept of The N. In October 2006, Viacom bought the quiz website Quizilla. It then became a part of The N "network."

File:The N new.png

The "atom" logo used from October 5, 2007 to September 28, 2009.

In August 2007, MTV Networks announced the discontinuation of The N's sister network Nickelodeon Games and Sports for Kids, which had removed all their original programming and become an automated loop of only a few of Nickelodeon's lower-profile archived game shows. MTV Networks decided to retain the satellite space and split Noggin and The N into two separate channels on December 31, 2007, with The N taking the place of Nick GAS . The last program to air on the timeshare version of The N was the Degrassi episode "Don't You Want Me?, Part 2". Sara Bareilles' music video for "Love Song" then closed out the last five minutes of The N on Noggin, and after one last appearance of The N's logo, Noggin took over their network space full-time for the first time since 2002 with an episode of 64 Zoo Lane, while over on Nick GAS, The N reappeared and took over Nick GAS' channel space full-time with the pilot episode of Instant Star at 6:00 a.m. (Eastern)/5:00 a.m. (Central).

Relaunch as TeenNick (2009-present)

The channel relaunched as TeenNick on September 28, 2009 at 6 a.m. ET/5 a.m. CT. The channel's logo, which is part of a universal branding effort across all four Nickelodeon channels, was revealed at a launch party for the channel on June 18, 2009. Nickelodeon personality Nick Cannon (declared in publicity materials as the "Chairman of TeenNick") has a presence on the channel, along with new programming exclusive to the channel.

Nearly all of the programming airing on The N was carried over to the new channel, including the channel's flagship show Degrassi: The Next Generation, however most of The N's original series, with the exception of The Best Years, Degrassi: TNG and The Assistants (the latter being the only first-run series produced by The N that was picked up for an additional season by TeenNick; Degrassi: TNG is produced by Canadian television network CTV though The N/TeenNick claims itself as one of the show's production companies), were not carried over to the relaunched TeenNick channel.

On February 1, 2010, TeenNick began incorporating music videos onto its morning and afternoon schedule on a regular basis, with videos airing between 6 a.m.-3 p.m. ET (this had been done periodically for some time prior to that date, usually airing between 6-8 a.m. ET, though not every day); when music videos are scheduled, all programs will end two to three minutes earlier than usual.

Despite the name and logo rebranding, some electronic program guide providers confusingly identify TeenNick as The N and display the 2007-2009 logo as The N as that of TeenNick. Nick Jr. has a similar problem as the former Noggin logo and name is still used by some EPG providers to identify that channel. As of July 2011, the channel airs its shows in the letterbox widescreen format.

Programming

Main article: List of programs broadcast by TeenNick

Most of the programming which had been on The N remained on TeenNick with some slight changes for both scheduling purposes and possible new future programming, including the re-acquisition of partial cable rights to the early 2000s sitcom One on One (which had previously aired on The N) and a shift of Full House, which had formerly aired on Nick at Nite and began to air on the channel in August 2009, shortly before the conversion from The N to TeenNick. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, a longtime mainstay of The N moved to Disney XD and ABC Family in September 2009 upon the expiration of Viacom's carriage of the series. As of Summer 2010 it has since been removed from Disney XD but remains on ABC Family. On April 20, 2011, TeenNick announced on their Facebook and blog that they would start showing Buffy the Vampire Slayer in May.

Several Nickelodeon sitcoms air on TeenNick, such as True Jackson, VP, and iCarly, however they air in different timeslots than on Nick (ex., iCarly airs seven days a week on Nickelodeon, though it only airs on TeenNick in an hour-long block once a week on Sunday afternoons). The majority of TeenNick's weekday afternoon and weekend daytime schedule consists of reruns of current and former Nickelodeon series. While much of TeenNick's programming consists of original series from Nickelodeon, TeenNick also produces its own original programming; currently, only two original series air on the channel, both half-hour teen dramas: Degrassi: The Next Generation, which has aired uninterrupted by the channel since 2002 as The N and Gigantic, which debuted in October 2010.

Today, TeenNick's schedule largely consists of Nickelodeon original programs with fewer acquired programs airing on the channel than there were prior to the rebrand to TeenNick; though TeenNick still has more relaxed programming standards than the rest of the Nickelodeon channels (save for Nick at Nite, whose program standards are similar to TeenNick's, and differ from Nickelodeon, with whom Nick at Nite shares channel space), fewer series featuring profanity or sexual content air on TeenNick than they did prior to the rebrand due to the prevalence of Nickelodeon series on the schedule.

On July 25, 2011 TeenNick launched their first programming block entitled The '90s Are All That. The block will air many popular series from the 90s that aired on Nickelodeon such as Kenan and Kel, All That, and more. The block will run weeknights from 12 AM to 4 AM EST. The block was created because of many requests from fans on sites such as Facebook and YouTube. The block airs old Nick bumpers and well as its own promos.

See also

• TEENick (block)
• Nickelodeon

External links

• Official website