http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art.../505250320/1178 Published Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Nickelodeon Cuts Out
A shift at Nickelodeon during the past several years from game shows
to animation and narrative programming has diminished the need to
use the two Universal sound stages that totaled 33,000 square feet.
Universal Orlando
By MIKE SCHNEIDER
The Associated Press
ORLANDO -- The slime has stopped at Universal Orlando.
Cable network Nickelodeon has plans to abandon a television
production operation at the theme park resort at the end of June. At
the same time, the park has shuttered the Nickelodeon Game Lab, an
attraction based on a former Nickelodeon game show that ended with a
contestant on the receiving end of a bucket of green goo.
Fewer than 10 people will be laid off from the Nickelodeon
production unit, which has been at Universal Studios since the
Florida theme park opened in 1990. Nickelodeon culled an audience
for its shows from the millions of tourists who visit Universal's
two theme parks each year, but Nickelodeon has had a diminishing
presence at the resort in recent years.
A change over the past several years at Nickelodeon from game shows
in front of large audiences to animation and narrative programming
had diminished the need to use the two Universal sound stages that
totaled 33,000 square feet.
The decision had nothing to do with the recent merger of Universal
with NBC, a rival network to CBS, which, like Nickelodeon, is owned
by Viacom Inc., Howard Smith,
senior vice president of Nickelodeon/Paramount Recreation in New
York, said Tuesday.
"The studio was designed many years ago to accommodate the type of
programming that we don't do much anymore," Smith said. "We just
found that we weren't using the facility. That's the bottom line."
A partnership between the two
entertainment companies will continue, allowing the theme park
resort to create rides, such as Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast, and
use popular characters such as SpongeBob SquarePants from
Nickelodeon, said Universal spokesman Tom Schroder.
The last television show to film in Orlando was "Splat," which ended
last summer. Other Nickelodeon shows that have filmed in Orlando
during the past 15 years include "Double Dare," "Guts" and "Legends
of the Hidden Temple."
In its heyday in the 1990s, the Orlando unit was home to millions of
dollars worth of production, Smith said.
The Game Lab attraction at Universal Studios closed at the end of
April because it relied in large part on having game shows filmed
there, Universal and Nickelodeon officials said.
"It didn't have a purpose anymore," Smith said.
Despite Nickelodeon leaving the sound stages at Universal, the
network plans to increase its presence in Orlando with the opening
of a Nickelodeon-themed hotel in Orlando's tourist corridor over
Memorial Day weekend. The hotel, a joint venture between Nickelodeon
and Holiday Inn, has rooms decked out with characters
from "SpongeBob SquarePants," "The Fairly OddParents" and "Rugrats."
