TeenNick

TEENICK was a teen-oriented television programming block that aired on Nickelodeon. The block launched on March 4, 2001[2] and lasted until February 1, 2009. TEENick aired on Sunday nights from 6 to 9 p.m. ET/PT. In 2005, it was rebroadcast on Saturday from 8 to 10 p.m. ET/PT (replacing the popular SNICK block that started in 1992). Saturday night editions were broadcast as "TEENick Saturday Night" until 2007 where it rebranded as "TEENick" for both broadcasts. The inaugural host was Nick Cannon, followed by Jason Everhart (a.k.a. "J. Boogie").

The N's "hand" logo, used from April 1, 2002 to October 4, 2007

The N's "atom" logo, used from October 5, 2007 to September 27, 2009. Note that the "n" in TeenNick's current logo closely resembles the "n" in the logo and the current logos for Nickelodeon.

TeenNick originally debuted on April 1, 2002 as a nighttime programming block on Noggin called The N. Similarly to the shared-time format of Nickelodeon (which had shared channel space with other cable channels since the channel's inception in 1979, including The Movie Channel, the Alpha Repertory Television Service, and its successor A&E), and Nick at Nite, Noggin and The N aired their respective programming over the same channel space and in a block format: The N ran from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. ET while Noggin ran from 6:00 a.m to 6:00 p.m.[3] ET seven nights a week. This was acknowledged in The N's daily sign-off message, which explained that The N would resume its programming at 6:00 p.m. ET later that day.

MTV Networks started developing the concept of The N in 2002. From its launch, The N targeted an older audience than Noggin (aiming at teenagers, compared to the channel's original pre-teen target audience and its later shift with the launch of The N to a preschooler audience) and was more entertainment-based in nature compared to Noggin's educational format.

In October 2006, Viacom bought the quiz website Quizilla,[4] and later integrated it with The N's internet properties.

TEENick and The N had a programming block called TEENick on The N. It aired on January 16, 2007, and until May 12, 2007, but then returned on March 1, 2008. The block included shows such as All That, The Amanda Show, Drake & Josh, Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, Unfabulous, Mr. Meaty, Zoey 101, H2O: Just Add Water, My Life as a Teenage Robot, and All Grown Up!. On August 3, 2009, TEENick was dropped from The N again.

On August 13, 2007, Nickelodeon announced that it would shut down sister channel Nick GAS on December 31, 2007, turning it into an online-only service on TurboNick, with The N becoming its own 24-hour channel that would take over Nick GAS's channel space. Noggin's final sign on was a sudden cut-in to a curriculum board for the British series 64 Zoo Lane. However, for reasons did not explained, Dish Network continued to carry Nick GAS on its usual channel slot, with The N continuing to timeshare with Noggin on the satellite provider until April 23, 2009, when Dish replaced Nick GAS with the Pacific Time Zone feed of Turner Broadcasting System's Cartoon Network. Dish Network began to carry The N and Noggin as separate channels on May 6, 2009.

On February 24, 2009, Nickelodeon announced that The N was to be rebranded as TeenNick to bring the channel in line with the Nickelodeon brand identity.[5] On June 18, 2009, Nickelodeon unveiled the new standardized logo for the channel, that would also be extended to the other Nickelodeon channels, intending to create a unified look that could better be conveyed across the services.[6]

The channel relaunched as TeenNick on September 28, 2009, at 6 a.m. ET, accompanied by the debut of the new logo (which was designed by New York City-based creative director/designer Eric Zim); former parent network Noggin was relaunched as Nick Jr. on that same date. Nick Cannon, who previously starred in the Nickelodeon series All That and The Nick Cannon Show (and was declared in publicity materials as the "Chairman of TeenNick"), had a presence on the channel, appearing in network promotions.[7] Nearly all of The N's existing program inventory was carried over to the relaunched channel, though most of the channel's original series (with the exception of The Best Years, Degrassi: The Next Generation,[8] and The Assistants) were not carried over.

On February 1, 2010, TeenNick began incorporating music videos into its morning and afternoon schedule on a regular basis, airing between certain programs – and effectively reducing commercial breaks within programs where a music video is to be aired afterward – from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. ET (this had been done periodically for some time prior to that date, usually airing between 6 and 8 a.m. ET, although not every day).

Despite the rebranding, some electronic program guide (EPG) providers identify TeenNick as The N and display its 2007–2009 logo as that of TeenNick's current logo (Nick Jr. has a similar issue, as the former Noggin logo and name is still used by some EPG providers to identify that channel). In July 2011, TeenNick began carrying programs originally filmed for high definition broadcast in a letterboxed format, due to the absence of an HD simulcast feed of the channel. After Nicktoons and Nick Jr. launched HD services in 2013, TeenNick was the only Nickelodeon-branded network without an HD simulcast network until September 2016; this remains limited to IPTV providers and some cable company mobile and digital media player apps, such as that of the companies under the Spectrum branding.

In its original programming era, TeenNick had somewhat lightened programming content standards than the rest of the Nickelodeon channels, though over time, TeenNick only had series picked up with less mature content (e.g. profanity or suggestive dialogue) airing as part of its schedule during the 2010s to date, compared to its program inventory prior to the 2009 rebrand (largely due to the increased prevalence of Nickelodeon original series on the schedule)–with shows incorporating such content primarily being limited to certain nighttime slots, though as mentioned above, Degrassi faced aggressive content policing from TeenNick (including episode removals), despite being produced for another broadcaster in another country, Canada's CTV and Much. By 2019, TeenNick de facto shared the same content standards as other Nickelodeon networks.

Most of the programs that had been airing on The N remained on TeenNick, with some slight changes for scheduling purposes and possible new future programming, including the re-acquisition of partial cable rights to the early 2000s sitcom, One on One (which had previously aired on The N), and a shift of Full House, which had formerly aired on Nick at Nite and began to air on the channel in August 2009, shortly before the conversion from The N to TeenNick. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, a longtime mainstay of The N, moved to TBS, Disney XD, and ABC Family (now Freeform) in September 2009 upon the expiration of Viacom's rights to the series. On April 20, 2011, TeenNick announced that it had acquired the rights to air Buffy the Vampire Slayer starting that May, though this was short-lived and it returned to FX (and later, Pivot) within a matter of months.[9]

The amount of original programming on TeenNick fell precipitously over the 2010s, in stark contrast to its former identity as The N. The last original program exclusive to the network, the music countdown show TeenNick Top 10, was cancelled in 2018, commiserate with Viacom's new 'six prime networks' strategy effectively cutting out all but Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. from airing original children's series on their network spaces. TeenNick has produced one original series since their rebrand, the half-hour teen drama Gigantic, which ran from October 2010 to April 22, 2011. First-run episodes of series airing on TeenNick since then have been primarily in the form of Nickelodeon series that are burned off due to low ratings on the flagship channel, such as, in the recent past; Hollywood Heights, House of Anubis, Bucket & Skinner's Epic Adventures, and, most recently, Star Falls. Also, Alien Dawn, and foreign shows from overseas Nickelodeon networks which receive a minimum American run to fulfill contracts, such as Life with Boys, Dance Academy, H2O: Just Add Water, and Alien Surf Girls. As TeenNick has a high definition feed with very limited distribution, and is nearly exclusive to higher-cost digital cable tiers, ratings for those shows traditionally have a drastic fall with a move to TeenNick, along with the network producing few promotions mentioning the transplanted programming.

On July 15, 2019, the network began to be programmed in primetime with a mix of content from MTV, including repeats of Teen Wolf and My Super Sweet Sixteen, and series which originated as YouTube Originals from recent Viacom acquisition AwesomenessTV (a company founded by Nickelodeon president Brian Robbins and frequent co-collaborator Joe Davola). Season three of Hunter Street (which airs on weeknights over a month), originally meant for Nickelodeon, began to air on the channel on July 29, 2019. By the winter of 2019, regular Nickelodeon repeats had returned to the primetime lineup.

NickRewind is TeenNick's late-night programming block dedicated to Nickelodeon's most popular programs, mainly from the 1990s. Originally launched on July 25, 2011 as The '90s Are All That, NickRewind operates in much the same way as Nick at Nite, serving as a separate identity for the overnight programming on Nickelodeon. The only major difference between the two nighttime blocks is that NickRewind appears to have more flexible hours, as it had most recently been reduced to as little as two hours early in the morning in July of 2019 for AwesomenessTV and MTV content. The big change only lasted several days, as the programs were quickly dropped and the block regained most of its hours back. In addition to this, NickRewind appears to be treated as an actual block as it is not considered its own network in Nielsen ratings due to the similar target demographic in contrast to TeenNick.[10]

After rebranding as The Splat in 2015, the block expanded to include programming from the 1980s and early-mid 2000s.[11]