Nickelodeon

They say if you stare at this logo for long enough, you can actually hear the barbershop quartet, no joke.

Nickelodeon (often referred to as Nick for short) is a cable channel dedicated to children's programming, owned by Paramount Global. The first of its kind, the network launched on April 1, 1979, and became a global juggernaut in the 1990s by showcasing their own live-action programming and in-house animated cartoons (dubbed as "Nicktoons") dedicated to families worldwide. The Nicktoon lineup include the likes of Rugrats, Doug, The Ren & Stimpy Show, Rocko's Modern Life, Hey Arnold, The Angry Beavers, SpongeBob SquarePants, Invader Zim, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Loud House, and countless others, alongside live-action programming such as The Adventures of Pete & Pete, All That!, Kenan & Kel, iCarly, and Hasbro's own Power Rangers. They are also the current owners of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Winx Club and Garfield franchises.

Nickelodeon later expanded to establish programming blocks outside of their main demographic, launching "Nick Jr." for pre-schoolers, "TeenNick" for teenagers, "Nick at Nite" for prime-time television, and "NickRewind" for older programming. Since 1988, Nickelodeon has held their own awards ceremony called the "Kids' Choice Awards", in which the likes of Dwayne Johnson, Josh Duhamel, Mark Wahlberg and John Cena have served as hosts and been slimed in the time-honored tradition of the brand. In 1995, their Nickelodeon Movies production company was launched, with sister studio Paramount Pictures distributing their films.

Relevant to this wiki, they are producing the Transformers: EarthSpark cartoon in conjunction with Entertainment One, released in 2022 on Paramount+. The series also airs on Nickelodeon in several international markets.

Social media posts

In December 2022, many of Nickelodeon's Instagram accounts promoted EarthSpark airing on Paramount+ by posting pictures of classic Nick characters as converting robots. Though many are traced from pre-existing Transformers art, they all lack the copyright indicia to suggest these were authorised by Hasbro, so they're kind of in a legal grey area since they have been otherwise okayed by the company that produces the current Transformers cartoon. We've mirrored them all here below, due to the impermanent nature of social media, and just because we think they're neat.

• 
  SpongeBob SquarePants
  (SpongeBob SquarePants)
• 
  Patrick Star
  (SpongeBob SquarePants)
• 
  Garfield
  (Garfield)
• 
  Zuko
  (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
• 
  Angelica Pickles
  (Rugrats)
• 
  Cosmo and Wanda
  (The Fairly OddParents)
• 
  Raphael
  (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)
• 
  Lana and Lola Loud
  (The Loud House)
• 
  Nigel Thornberry
  (The Wild Thornberrys)
• 
  Arnold
  (Hey Arnold!)
• 
  CatDog
  (CatDog)
• 
  Goddard
  (Jimmy Neutron)
• 
  GIR
  (Invader Zim)
• 
  Jenny Wakeman
  (My Life as a Teenage Robot)
• 
  Nate Wright
  (Big Nate)
• 
  Gwyn
  (Star Trek: Prodigy)

Notes

• To promote The Transformers: The Movie's theatrical release, the channel would promote it with a contest where prizes included a home sound system, copies of the soundtrack (and other Scotti Bros. Records releases) and a "drawing from the actual movie". For its home video release, they'd run the "Super Saturday Spring Training sweepstakes, where the prizes included a copy of either the movie or a copy of My Little Pony: The Movie. Ironically at this point, the channel was largely against the kind of violence that shows like the cartoon itself and G.I. Joe were promoting, so no word on whether or not they approved of Optimus Prime dying.
• Even before EarthSpark, Transformers has had a regular presence at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, via either promotions for upcoming films or nominations for different categories, though the franchise has yet to actually win any awards.
  • Transformers was nominated for "Favorite Movie" at the 2008 KCAs.
  • At the 2010 KCAs, Revenge of the Fallen was nominated for "Favorite Movie", while Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox were nominated for "Favorite Movie Actor" and "Favorite Movie Actress" respectively.
  • To promote Age of Extinction, Optimus Prime appeared via video at the 2014 KCAs and warned host Mark Wahlberg that he was in danger of being slimed by Jack Reynor. Ultimately, Optimus ended up turning the tables and sliming Reynor himself.
  • At the 2015 KCAs, Age of Extinction was nominated for "Favorite Movie", with Mark Wahlberg nominated for "Favorite Movie Actor". Angry Birds Transformers was also nominated for "Most Addicting Game".
  • Isabela Moner appeared at the 2017 KCAs to present one of the categories, as well as to premiere a preview clip of The Last Knight.

External links

• Official website
• Nickelodeon at Wikipedia