Earlier Nick at Nite for Family Viewing
By Brian Stelter
New York Times
June 7, 2009
Nickelodeon is moving its teenage and adult fare an hour earlier in the evening — but not because of any earlier bedtime for its young viewers. Instead, it is the network’s attempt to encourage children and parents to watch television together.
“Malcolm in the Middle” reruns will be part of Nick at Nite starting in July.
The network is expected to announce on Monday that the start time for Nick at Nite, its night-time schedule of reruns, is moving to 8 p.m., encompassing all three hours of prime time.
At the same time, the network is adding repeats of “Malcolm in the Middle” to the schedule.
Cyma Zarghami, president of Nickelodeon, said the line between Nick at Nite and the younger Nickelodeon audience — which occupy the same channel but are rated and sold as separate entities — would “start to be a little blurrier.” That is to reflect the company’s research that children and parents “want to spend more time together.”
A generation of sitcoms and animated films have proved that shows intended for children can be equally appealing to parents. “We hear adults talk about ‘iCarly’ all the time,” Ms. Zarghami said, referring to the show about a teenager who has her own show on the Web.
Beginning on July 5, “Malcolm” will join reruns of “George Lopez,” “Home Improvement” and “The Nanny.” Reruns of another sitcom, “Everybody Hates Chris,” start in September.
As one of the highest-rated channels on cable, Nickelodeon has sought to cast itself as a home for modern families. Nick at Nite, with its diet of classic TV, originally started at 8 p.m., but as the children’s programming business grew, Nickelodeon pushed the start time back to 8:30 and then 9.
