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NEW YORK, March 8: Nickelodeon will add three new animated series to its 2008 schedule—The Umizumiz, Bubble Guppies and Making Fiends—and has unveiled iCarly, a new live-action comedy series that will incorporate user-generated content. Nickelodeon has green-lit 13 episodes of iCarly, with production to begin in late March for launch in September. It features a lead character named Carly, played by Miranda Cosgrove (Drake & Josh), who hosts her own homegrown web show. The show converges the television screen and the web for kids. During the course of the series, Carly will give viewers a specific assignment that relates to the context of a particular show. Kids are directed to a website to post their own original content, which may be either scripted into a future iCarly episode or become part of Carly's webcast online. iCarly joins the numerous convergent entertainment experiences launched by Nickelodeon over the past few months, including Nickelodeon’s ME:TV, the first-ever live TV programming block featuring original kid-generated content; Nicktropolis, Nickelodeon's kid-targeted virtual world; and TurboNick 2.0, Nick's broadband video platform which gives kids the opportunity to control their individual entertainment. "Hit-maker Dan Schneider has created a cutting edge TV show that integrates the web with the tube in a totally unique way," commented Marjorie Cohn, the EVP of development and original programming at Nickelodeon. "We have a rich history of putting kids in control with convergent programming like the Kids' Choice Awards, SpongeBob's 'Best Day Ever' and ME:TV; iCarly takes that kid empowerment strategy one step further." Nickelodeon has also announced the three new animated series, as well as renewals on the freshman shows The Naked Brothers Band and Just Jordan. With the previously announced new series Tak and the Power of JuJu, Back to the Barnyard and Ni Hao, Kai-lan, plus new episodes of returning shows like SpongeBob SquarePants, Nickelodeon will premiere more than 700 new episodes of new and returning series throughout the 2007-08 season. "Our goal is always to give preschoolers, kids and tweens the very best programming in television, and to combine fresh new creative ideas with enduring hits that kids love," said Tom Ascheim, the EVP and GM of Nickelodeon Television. "SpongeBob is number-one with kids and Dora is tops with preschoolers, so we're going to give them more, as well as new episodes of their favorite live-action and animated shows. And we are very excited about the new shows that will be joining the lineup this year." The Umizumiz an interactive preschool series set in a global urban city featuring a mix of animation, photography, origami patterns and preschool punk music. Bubble Guppies is an interactive, animated variety show for preschoolers set in a 3-D, CGI-animated underwater classroom. And Making Fiends is an offbeat animated tale about two unlikely friends, Vendetta and Charlotte, which was first developed as a series of shorts for the TurboNick broadband platform. The network has picked up 13 additional episodes each of TEENick freshman hits The Naked Brothers Band and Just Jordan, along with 13 episodes of Zoey 101. In addition, there are 13 new episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants and 20 episodes of the animated hit The Fairly OddParents. On Nick Jr., preschoolers can look forward to a fifth season of Dora the Explorer, which includes 14 new episodes and three hour-long television movies.
NEW YORK, March 8 PRNewswire — Joining previously announced new series Tak and the Power of JuJu, Back to the Barnyard and Ni Hao, Kai-lan premiering this fall, Nickelodeon today announced it is adding three new animated series to its 2008 schedule: The Umizumiz, Bubble Guppies and Making Fiends. The number-one network for kids also announced new season pickups of breakout freshman hit The Naked Brothers Band and Just Jordan, as well as new episodes of top-ranked SpongeBob SquarePants, tween favorites Zoey 101 and The Fairly OddParents, and top preschool series Dora the Explorer. In total, Nickelodeon will premiere more than 700 new episodes of new and returning series throughout the 2007-08 season."Our goal is always to give preschoolers, kids and tweens the very best programming in television, and to combine fresh new creative ideas with enduring hits that kids love," said Tom Ascheim, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Nickelodeon Television. "SpongeBob is number-one with kids and Dora is tops with preschoolers, so we're going to give them more, as well as new episodes of their favorite live-action and animated shows. And we are very excited about the new shows that will be joining the lineup this year."For the upcoming 2007-08 season, Nickelodeon Preschool will add to its lineup The Umizumiz, an interactive series set in a global urban city brought to life in a fusion of animation, photography, origami patterns and preschool punk music; and Bubble Guppies, an interactive, animated variety show for preschoolers set in a vibrant 3D, CGI-animated underwater classroom. Nickelodeon will also add Making Fiends to its schedule, an offbeat and outrageous animated tale about two unlikely friends, Vendetta and Charlotte.The network has also picked up 13 additional episodes each of TEENick freshman hits The Naked Brothers Band, featuring new heartthrobs Nat and Alex Wolf, and Just Jordan starring teen standup Lil' JJ, along with 13 episodes of the TEENick favorite Zoey 101, starring Jamie Lynn Spears.Joining a 2007-08 animation slate featuring previously announced series Mighty B, Tak and the Power of JuJu, Back to the Barnyard and the newly launched El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera, are 13 additional episodes of the number-one kid series SpongeBob SquarePants and 20 episodes of the animated hit The Fairly OddParents. On Nick Jr., preschoolers can look forward to an all-new fifth season of perennial favorite Dora the Explorer, which includes 14 new episodes and three hour-long television movies.New series for the Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. 2008 season include:Making FiendsDeveloped from Nickelodeon's TurboNick broadband platform, where it appeared as a series of shorts, Making Fiends is an offbeat, flash animated series centering on two girls, Charlotte and Vendetta. Each episode explores the struggle between these two polar opposites. Vendetta makes fiends to instill fear over their dreary town of Clamburg and despises cheerful Charlotte for always foiling her most brilliant and fiendish plans. Meanwhile, Charlotte loves her new town, is oblivious to the danger that Vendetta poses to her and thinks that all of Vendetta's fiends are rather cute. Making Fiends was created by Amy Winfrey and is based on her popular Making Fiends online films. Winfrey won a student academy award in 2000 for her short The Bad Plant. Her other original work includes the films Big Bunny and Muffin Films. Winfrey was also an animator on South Park. Supervising producer Dave Wasson was the creator of the Cartoon Network series Time Squad, executive producer and director of the Disney series The Buzz on Maggie and creator of the Emmy Award-winning Oh Yeah! Cartoons short for Nickelodeon, "Max and his Special Problem."The UmizumizPremiering in 2008 on Noggin, The Umizumiz is a new animated interactive series for preschoolers about a miniature urban repair squad that solves everyday preschool problems in Metro City with help from the viewers at home. The Umizumiz features an adventure math curriculum that includes foundational skills like counting, estimating, patterns and measuring which engages preschoolers by exploring math in real life contexts. Viewers will hop inside the Zipmobile with the Umizumiz and sing along to spirited, catchy, "preschool punk" take-away songs. The Umizumiz was created by Soo Kim and Michael Smith and is co-created and executive produced by Jennifer Twomey.Bubble GuppiesBubble Guppies is a new interactive, animated variety show for preschoolers set in a vibrant 3D, CGI-animated underwater classroom. Bubble Guppies has an emergent curriculum: ideas that emerge from preschoolers' own discoveries. Each episode will delve into a preschool topic from a variety of angles as the cast and viewers at home explore the swaying kelp forests, fantastical coral reefs, and undersea gardens of their aquarium-inspired surroundings. Bubble Guppies is created by Robert Scull, who also serves as executive producer on Nick Jr.'s The Backyardigans, and Jonny Belt, supervising art director and co-executive producer of The Backyardigans. Scull and Belt also developed the series along with Janice Burgess, creator of The Backyardigans.Nickelodeon, in its 28th year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, online, recreation, books, magazines and feature films. Nickelodeon's U.S. television network is seen in almost 92 million households and has been the number-one- rated basic cable network for almost 12 consecutive years. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA, VIA..
