Nick News with Linda Ellerbee

Linda Ellerbee

Nick News has been hosted by Linda Ellerbee since the show's inception in 1992. Ellerbee was one of five candidates auditioned over the course of two weeks. She was chosen because her competitors were "too loud and obnoxious", claimed one of the show's set designers. According to Ellerbee: "I was honored when I was named the host of Nick News. The show will be about kids and their everyday lives." Ellerbee has never missed an episode due to illness. The show is officially known as Nick News with Linda Ellerbee. Throughout the years, Nick News has featured special guests of honor, such as Al Gore, Faith Hill, Rosie O'Donnell, Magic Johnson, Bill Clinton, and Dr. Phil.

Nick News was originally known as Nick News W/5 until the show's "who, what, when, where, and why" type format was dropped.

Nick News with Linda Ellerbee has been shown on Sunday nights at 8 p.m. and later 8:30 p.m. on Nickelodeon, and ran in reruns at various timeslots. Nick News was #1 in the ratings on Nickelodeon in 1992–1993, and has never gone below #6 in the ratings, making it one of the most consistently highly rated news shows on TV. The show was also shown in primetime on CBS on Saturdays from 1993 until 1996. From 1993 to 1997, the first-run syndicated version of the show—distributed by Viacom Enterprises (now CBS Television Distribution)—aired on local stations—both independent and network-affiliated—all over the United States of America. The show won two Peabody Awards, one in 1991 and one in 1994,[2] and Linda Ellerbee won a Personal Award in 1998 for her work on the show.[3]

The show also previously appeared early weekday mornings fully commercial-free as a part of the television cable industry's Cable in the Classroom initiative, which urged teachers from schools around the globe to tape episodes of Nick News and show them to their classes during school hours.

The show also aired on the Noggin channel in 1999.[4]

TeenNick aired two episodes of the show in reruns on both October 25, 2010 and February 15, 2011, and also aired once as part of their nightly block The Splat from November 5–6 (Election Day 2016 weekend).

Nick News is well known for many trademarks during its run on Nickelodeon, such as Ellerbee's signature tagline, "If you want to know, ask!"

After nearly 25 years on the air, an hour-long finale titled "Hello, I Must Be Going: 25 Years of Nick News with Linda Ellerbee” aired on Nickelodeon on December 15, 2015. The episode featured clips from older episodes of the series.[5] 411,000 people watched its original airing.[6] The final episode was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program, a category for which the series had been nominated 22 times, with nine wins across the series's 23-year history.

Revival

On June 23, 2020, it was announced that Nickelodeon will revive the series with an hour-long special hosted by Alicia Keys about children, race, and unity and meant to amplify the voices and experiences of black kids across the country in the wake of the large-scale protests that have rocked the United States in recent weeks following the killing of George Floyd. Keys will lead a series of conversations with special guests, including the co-founders of Black Lives Matter, Patrisse Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi; teen activist Marley Dias, founder of the #1000BlackGirlsBook campaign; 12-year-old singer and viral sensation, Keedron Bryant; Ibram X. Kendi, author of Antiracist Baby; Jade Fuller, Nya Collins, Zee Thomas, Kennedy Green, the Teens4Equality founders Emma Rose Smith and Mikayla Smith, social media star Tabitha Brown and her family; and family therapist, Dr. George James.[7]

In 1992, a then-11-year-old Meghan Markle was featured after her successful campaign to get a company to change a national television commercial she viewed as sexist.

In 1993, there was an episode on global warming entitled "Plan it for the Planet". On December 9, 2007, Nick News had shown another global warming special entitled "A Global Warning From the Kids of the World". Both specials looked at different regions of the Earth like Australia, Alaska, the Netherlands, the Philippines, California and Kenya, showing the changes in the climate and the effects of those changes. During the later part of the December 9, 2007, episode, Nobel Prize winner Al Gore talked to children about the problems that global warming is causing for ordinary people.

In 2002, Nick News celebrated its 10th anniversary with a show called "Happy Birthday, Nick News". It featured many flashbacks from the first 10 years of Nick News.

On June 18, 2002, Nickelodeon showed "Nick News Special Edition: My Family Is Different". This had one of the largest audiences in Nick News' history. The show featured regular children talking about different issues that have had a major effect on their personal lives, including hate crimes, child abuse and sexual harassment. During this episode, openly lesbian parent Rosie O'Donnell appeared on Nick News to talk with the children and Ellerbee about being different, with other well-known people as well. The show has also included children from households around the globe that oppose homosexual advocacy, as well as conservative commentator Jerry Falwell.

On October 12, 2008, an episode called "Nickelodeon's Kids Pick the President" featured children from across the United States asking political, economic and health care questions of Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, as part of a way for children to choose. Obama was chosen as the winner in that year's Kids Pick the President poll.[8]

• Nick News with Linda Ellerbee on IMDb
• Nick News with Linda Ellerbee at TV.com