NBC Kids

NBC Kids is an American children's programming block that aired on NBC from July 7, 2012 to September 24, 2016. Telemundo also airs a version of the block under "MiTelemundo" brand, which was aired same as the main program, featuring a separate lineup of Spanish-dubbed programs from July 7, 2012 until December 31, 2017. The last show that was aired on the block was Noodle and Doodle at 12:30 p.m.[1] NBC Kids, which replaced the Qubo block (as a result of NBCUniversal dropping out of the joint venture, which also included Ion Media Networks), was programmed by the other Sprout preschool cable network, as they were both targeted at children ages 2 to 6.[2]

NBC Kids

Network	NBC (2012–2016) Telemundo (2012–2017) (produced by Sprout)
Launched	July 7, 2012 (2012-07-07)
Closed	September 24, 2016 (2016-09-24) (NBC) December 31, 2017 (2017-12-31) (Telemundo)
Country of origin	United States
Format	Saturday morning pre-school block
Running time	3 hours

The three-hour block featured educational entertainment series for younger children, which met programming requirements defined by the Federal Communications Commission's Children's Television Act.[3][4] All NBC Kids programs featured Descriptive Video Service on the second audio program channel for the visually impaired, with access depending on the local NBC affiliate.

NBC Kids was succeeded by Litton Entertainment's The More You Know which features live-action educational programming on October 8, 2016 on NBC and January 6, 2018 on Telemundo.[5]It was the conclusive Saturday morning block across the major American broadcast networks that primarily featured non-educational programming aimed at preschoolers.

History

On March 28, 2012, NBC announced that the three-hour children's programming time period allocated by the network on Saturday mornings would be taken over by Sprout (which had become a sister television property to NBC following parent company NBCUniversal's 2010 majority purchase by Comcast; NBC later took full ownership of the network, whose owners previously included Sesame Workshop and HIT Entertainment) and launch a new Saturday morning block called NBC Kids, which is aimed at preschoolers and grade school-aged children ages 2 to 6.[6][7] Sprout also produced a Spanish-language sister block for Telemundo known as MiTelemundo.

NBC Kids debuted on July 7, 2012, one week after the Qubo block ended its run on both NBC and Telemundo on June 30 (leaving Ion Television as the only network to retain a Qubo-branded children's block, as Ion Media Networks is now sole owner of the Qubo properties including the flagship Qubo Channel television service).[8]

On February 24, 2016 and March 1, 2016, NBCUniversal announced that NBC Kids would be discontinued and succeeded on October 8, 2016 on NBC and January 6, 2018 on Telemundo by The More You Know, a block produced by Litton Entertainment that would feature live-action documentary and lifestyle programs aimed at pre-teens and teenagers, similarly to a block also introduced by Litton for CBS co-owned CW the previous 2 years. The move came as part of a shift by broadcast television networks towards using their Saturday morning lineup solely to comply with the educational programming requirements and when Sprout changed its name into the pre-teen network, Universal Kids. NBC Kids aired for the final time on September 24, 2016 on NBC and December 31, 2017 on Telemundo; it was the last weekend morning block across the major U.S. commercial broadcast networks that featured programs for preschoolers. Such content has shifted towards cable networks and online video on demand services for cartoons and other youth-oriented live-action programming due to those platform's less-onerous regulations for children's content.

Programming

Former programming

NBC Kids

Title	Premiere date (NBC)	End date (NBC)	Premiere date (Telemundo)	End date (Telemundo)	Source(s)
Noodle and Doodle	July 7, 2012	September 24, 2016	December 8, 2012	December 30, 2017
Pajanimals		January 26, 2014
Poppy Cat		June 1, 2013
	October 4, 2014	September 27, 2015
Justin Time	July 7, 2012	September 28, 2014
LazyTown		March 27, 2016	December 8, 2012	September 24, 2016
The Wiggles		February 2, 2013
The Chica Show	February 2, 2013	September 24, 2016
Tree Fu Tom	June 8, 2013	January 2, 2016
Make Way for Noddy	October 12, 2013	March 30, 2014
Zou	April 5, 2014	September 28, 2014
Astroblast!	October 4, 2014	July 10, 2016
Earth to Luna!	April 4, 2015	January 31, 2016
Ruff-Ruff, Tweet and Dave	July 4, 2015	September 24, 2016
Clangers	October 3, 2015	March 27, 2016
Nina's World	January 2, 2016	September 24, 2016
Floogals	February 6, 2016
Terrific Trucks	July 16, 2016

MiTelemundo

Title	Premiere date	End date	Source(s)
Raggs	December 8, 2012	September 24, 2016
Jay Jay the Jet Plane		December 8, 2013

See also

Main article: List of programs broadcast by Universal Kids

References

1. "Telemundo anuncia nuevo bloque infantil "Mi Telemundo!"". Primera Hora. GFR Media LLC. October 24, 2012. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
2. Nellie Andreeva (March 28, 2012). "NBC Launches Preschool Saturday Block Programmed By Sprout". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
3. "FCC Form 398 "KidVid" Children's Television Programming Report, 2nd Quarter of 2013 for WTVA, Tupelo, Mississippi" (PDF). WTVA. WTVA, Inc. July 2, 2013. Retrieved September 7, 2013.
4. "NBC Will Launch NBC Kids, a New Saturday Morning Preschool Block Programmed by Sprout®, Saturday, July 7". MarketWatch. March 28, 2012. Retrieved March 29, 2012.
5. Malone, Michael (February 24, 2016). "NBC, Litton Partner on 'The More You Know' Block". Broadcasting & Cable. Retrieved February 25, 2016.
6. Jon Weisman (March 28, 2012). "NBC to launch Saturday kids block". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved March 27, 2015.
7. Lindsay Rubino (March 28, 2012). "NBC, With Assist From Sprout, to Launch Saturday Morning Preschool Block". Multichannel News. Retrieved March 27, 2015.
8. "NBC Will Launch NBC Kids, a New Saturday Morning Preschool Block Programmed by Sprout®, Saturday, July 7". MarketWatch. March 28, 2012. Retrieved March 27, 2015.