Nick Jr. (2014-present)

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Nick Jr. (2014-present)
This channel isn't just for us anymore, it's just a rerun farm full of PAW Patrol and Rubble & Crew, The teacher's pets of the channel.
Genre: Children programming
Running Time: 6 hours 30 minutes a day (block on Nickelodeon)
24 hours a day (channel)
Country: United States
Release Date: January 4, 1988; 36 years ago (as block)
September 28, 2009; 14 years ago (as channel)
Distributed by: Paramount Global

Nick Jr. is an American preschool TV network. It is a version of Nickelodeon for younger children.

Why It's Not The Smart Place To Play And Isn't Just For Us Anymore

  1. Nowadays, many of the shows made throughout the 2010s are oftentimes derivative of other preschool shows from other networks such as PBS Kids, Disney Junior, HBO Family, and even Discovery Kids Latin America. This factor shows the people who come up with the concepts for these shows oftentimes don't have anything new to the table. One of the more famous examples is Deer Squad, which is fundamentally just a Chinese PAW Patrol clone.
  2. The network used to be extremely obsessed with toyetic preschool shows (mostly from Hasbro and Spin Master), foreign (mostly Canadian) CGI or flash animated shows until they cancelled everyone of them except for PAW Patrol and Blaze And The Monster Machines, leaving most of the episodes to either be finished airing or unfinished with unaired episodes. Thankfully Nick Jr. doesn't really make toyetic preschool shows anymore, with the only recent exception being Rubble & Crew which is a spinoff of PAW Patrol.
  3. Speaking of that, they milk PAW Patrol, and its spinoff Rubble & Crew, way too much and are the network's pets (no pun intended). They also milked other shows like Blue's Clues and Peppa Pig as well, although not as much.
    • It's even to the point where they dedicated an entire month of a marathon of PAW Patrol and Rubble and Crew on both the channel and the block in August 2024, called "Pawsome August". Thankfully, on the channel, the 24/7 marathons stopped on August 12, 2024 when Peppa Pig and Bubble Guppies started to air again.
  4. Butterbean's Cafe and Shimmer and Shine, while fine, or even Mia and Me and Sunny Day, while mediocre, are good examples of shows that try very hard to appeal to the little girls watching.
  5. Bad/mediocre (or at least annoying) shows that aired on the network such as Nella the Princess Knight, Sunny Day, Trulli Tales, Rainbow Rangers, Little Charmers, Hey Duggee, Tickety Toc, Peppa Pig, Ryan's Mystery Playdate, Baby Shark's Big Show! and Deer Squad.
  6. The network has been a dumping ground for shows with low ratings, similar to Nicktoons. Hell, they even did this to shows with little to no merchandise, and even shows that were originally doing well but got screwed over anyways.
    • Ever since the summer of 2023 (especially when the extremely infamous Nickelodeon gigaleak happened), this channel (and block) is now almost nothing but PAW Patrol and Rubble & Crew reruns, leaving every other show on the block dumped on the Nick Jr. Channel. Notable examples of shows include Peppa Pig, Blaze and the Monster Machines, Santiago of the Seas, Baby Shark's Big Show!, and even Blue's Clues & You!.
    • Bossy Bear, a show that was already doing quite decently on Nickelodeon with a fair amount of ratings, obviously got screwed over to the channel to dump the final season 1 episodes before vanishing from TV, with no sign of coming back anytime soon, unless a season 2 is made which likely will never happen considering Nickelodeon's state.
    • Sunny Day had gotten removed from the channel right before the second half of season 2 could air, with its remaining episodes put on Amazon Prime Video.
    • Nella the Princess Knight had three of its remaining episodes unaired in the US after it was pulled from the channel in December 2019, before resurfacing on Paramount+ in July 2021.
    • Ricky Zoom had only aired its' first season on Nick Jr.
  7. The network tries extremely hard to appeal to the younger viewers, with Ryan's Mystery Playdate and Baby Shark's Big Show! being the worst offenders or this.
  8. There was a four-hour block on the channel called NickMom, which was controversial from the start and was also developed for "never-to-be-understood reasons" dating back to 2011. First, Nick Jr. only had an Eastern Time Zone feed, which meant that it would start earlier in the western United States. It was also controversial because of its adult programming which, alongside the fact that it relied on reruns of other shows aside from NickMom originals, including those on TeenNick, it eventually turned itself into a Nick@Nite clone but on the Nick Jr channel instead. The block only lasted three whole years before shutting down in 2015.
  9. Even when Nick Jr. declined in quality a bit when it became a network, it became a bit mediocre in 2012 when Moose and Zee left. It's decline began in 2014 when the toyetic shows started premiering on the channel. It got slightly worse in 2019 when classic Blue's Clues got removed from the Channel. But, now in 2023 ever since the gigaleak happened, 85% of the channel is now reduced to PAW Patrol and Rubble & Crew reruns, though this only occurs in the United States and not in other countries for the time being.
  10. Speaking of the revamped splat branding, they were just too lazy to bring back the "Father and Son" logo and the "Just for Me" jingle.
  11. Reruns of more obscure and cancelled shows like Oobi, The Upside Down Show and Jack's Big Music Show (which aired back when the channel was called Noggin) were buried in graveyard slots. After the network rebranded in 2012, The Upside Down Show was removed, while Jack only aired sporadically before it was removed completely. The same went for Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! until it was removed in April 2014 following the contract expiration. Contrary to popular belief, Nick did not own that show, as it was owned by Starz/Lionsgate, but still.
  12. Strangely, Paramount (or any other home entertainment company) never published any home media releases of the following shows: Abby Hatcher, Corn & Peg, Deer Squad, Face's Music Party, Kiri & Lou, The Tiny Chef Show or Bossy Bear, at least in North America.
    • As of May 2024, DVDs of Nick Jr. shows rarely are ever released, especially after the Rubble & Crew: Construction Crew to the Rescue! DVD. Episode compilation DVDs were also non-existent after the Nick Jr. Holiday Bonanza DVD was released in November 2022. This could be due to Paramount Global's focus on streaming, but that reason is unconfirmed.
    • Speaking of streaming, most of the listed shows have been removed from Paramount+ permanently, making them even harder to find, as the shows cost money on other streaming services. If DVDs of these shows were released before they were written-off, then we wouldn't be complaining about it, and none of this would've ever happened.
      • It's a miracle that the existing Blue's Clues & You! and Rugrats (2021) DVDs are still in stock as of today, despite both shows being written off from Paramount+. And they cost much cheaper than the episodes do on other streaming services, so you're in luck.
    • Speaking of their DVDs, since 2018 or so, they've been extremely lazy with their DVD menus on most of their DVDs, they put the exact same background as the DVD's cover on the main menu with no differences other than the text and/or the logo.
    • Despite never having DVDs, Abby Hatcher is milked to have fake DVDs made by a non-existent fan-made TV channel called "Filmora TV". No only is it made by the fake channel, But it also has a DVD watermark in the center. How bad could this get?
  13. Hypocrisy: Despite what they say about their channel being so-called "educational", the channel has also previously aired non-preschool/educational shows such as Kuu Kuu Harajuku, Harvey Beaks, The Loud House, Mysticons, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Regal Academy, Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, Alvinnn!!! and the Chipmunks (to be fair, it aired on Nick Jr. in some countries before airing in the USA), The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage!, the SpongeBob SquarePants spin-off Kamp Koral, and Monster High (2022). None of these shows teach any educational value whatsoever (aside from the morals in some of them), and they were probably only added there just because Nick Jr. could find an excuse to appeal to older viewers following the aftermath of NickMom shutting down.
  14. Much like Nickelodeon and Nicktoons, they've unnecessarily purged far too many shows from reruns, both old and new, especially since the gigaleak. Granted, the reason for this could've been due to the rights to the shows expiring or due to allegations against the creators of the shows, but still, removing shows for these reasons were very unnecessary. In fact, this practice is so terrible that it made Warner Bros. Discovery's content purge look amazing by comparison. Examples of shows that stopped airing reruns on the Nick Jr. channel include:
    1. Jack's Big Music Show
    2. Maisy
    3. Maggie and the Ferocious Beast
    4. Franklin and its spinoff Franklin and Friends
    5. Oobi
    6. Blue's Clues
    7. Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends
    8. Ni-Hao, Kai Lan
    9. Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!
    10. Wonder Pets!
    11. Oswald
    12. Gullah Gullah Island
    13. Toot & Puddle
    14. LazyTown
    15. The Backyardigans
    16. Go, Diego, Go!
    17. Dora the Explorer
    18. Max & Ruby
    19. The Upside Down Show
    20. Olivia
    21. Dino Dan
    22. Pinky Dinky Doo
    23. Yo Gabba Gabba!
    24. The Fresh Beat Band
    25. Little Bill (due to Bill Cosby's sexual assaults targeting woman)
    26. Mike the Knight
    27. Tickety Toc
    28. Peter Rabbit
    29. Lalaloopsy (due to a lawsuit between Viacom and MGA Entertainment)
    30. Julius Jr.
    31. Wallykazam!
    32. Zack & Quack
    33. Hey Duggee
    34. Miffy's Adventures Big and Small
    35. Rusty Rivets
    36. Face's Music Party (no signs of the show coming back or getting a renewal)
    37. Bossy Bear
    38. Santiago of the Seas
    39. Blue's Clues & You!
  15. Speaking of shows getting removed from the channel, it's one of the reasons why the channel viewership has declined.
  16. Despite Janice Burgess having been one of the vital parts of the network's growth, they did nothing to pay tribute to her when she died on March 2, 2024. No social media posts, no reruns of The Backyardigans (a show she created), no bumper to commemorate her involvement with the network, not even so much as a tiny acknowledgement about it. While it could be understandable that they didn't want to do this so they don't upset or scare the children who watch the network, they could've at least made reruns of The Backyardigans, or tried figuring out what to do about her death outside the network.
  17. What's worse about the schedule is that there are currently only seven shows on the Nick Jr. schedule as of September 2024, which are PAW Patrol, Rubble & Crew, Team Umizoomi, Bubble Guppies, Peppa Pig, DORA (the CGI reboot), and Gabby's Dollhouse. While it's more content than Nicktoons, the main Nickelodeon network and even TeenNick, it still shows that Nick Jr.'s catalog went downhill.
  18. Shows like Baby Shark's Big Show! are a great example of how far TV has fallen since the pandemic.
  19. It is now getting smashed to the ground by it's No. 1 rival Disney Junior, which is a network that's doing really well now, with both its shows and its schedule.

Redeeming Qualities

  1. There are still some good shows from these eras such as:
  2. The 2023 logo looks quite decent, and is an improvement over the 2009 one.
  3. Despite Nick Jr.'s decline over the years, some people may get childhood memories from watching the channel.
  4. Although the old shows such as Max & Ruby, the classic Blue's Clues, Dora the Explorer, The Backyardigans and Oobi have unfortunately been pulled from American television, you can still stream them on Paramount+, so that's just as good as that.
    1. Even shows Nickelodeon lost rights to can be streamed on other streaming services as well.
  5. The channel was way better before 2014, and to a lesser extent, the summer of 2023.
  6. The toyetic era thankfully disappeared after 2019, so no more toyetic shows can be aired, but this still doesn't excuse what Nick Jr. did.
  7. Thankfully, Nick Jr. brought back Team Umizoomi reruns briefly during the summertime, but that still didn't make Nick Jr. any better.
    1. Plus, they brought the show back again in September 2024, but it's still not going to improve the channel.
  8. Their promos and bumpers as of 2023 are still great, and sometimes even hilarious.
  9. The current rebrand is alright, but the same can't be said about the schedule going along with it.

List of Shows From the Toyetic Era

  1. PAW Patrol (2013-present)
  2. Wallykazam! (2014-2017)
  3. Blaze and the Monster Machines (2014-present)
  4. Shimmer and Shine (2015-2020)
  5. Rusty Rivets (2016-2020)
  6. Nella the Princess Knight (2017-2019)
  7. Sunny Day (2017-2019) (Although the second half did not air)
  8. Top Wing (2017-2020)
  9. Thomas and Friends: Big World: Big Adventures! (2018-2020)
  10. Rainbow Rangers (2018-2021)
  11. Abby Hatcher (2019-2022)
  12. Ricky Zoom (2019-2021)

Trivia

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Videos

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