Nick Tries a ‘Nitely’ Novela

Chief Zarghami Seeks Lift to Primetime Numbers

By R. Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 2/6/2012 12:01:00 AM

The Nickelodeon Networks group is rolling the dice on the series strip format, hoping to get viewers hooked on daily runs of primetime original series.

Nick at Nite this summer will try to duplicate the ratings success of Nickelodeon’s weekday stripped sophomore series House of Anubis and TeenNick’s highschool drama Degrassi with a daily, telenovela- themed series airing weekdays into the fall.

Nickelodeon Networks president Cyma Zarghami said the daily series format offers a new way to build consistent viewership for Nickelodeon networks. She pointed to success the format has garnered internationally on mostly Spanish-language networks, including Nickelodeon Latin America.

“We‘ve watched what happens internationally enough to know that if something rises so far to the top in one market that its worth trying in another market,” she said. “It’s a format that’s had an incredible track record of success.”

Nick at Nite is partnering with producer Televisa for 80 episodes of Reach for a Star, a U.S. adaptation of the popular Mexican telenovela Alcanzar una Estrella.

Here in the U.S., TeenNick in July 2010 stripped popular drama series Degrassi over a six-week period and drew nearly 1 million viewers while posting triple-digit gains among the core 12-to-17 teen demo, according to network officials.

More recently, Nickelodeon last month launched season two of drama/mystery House of Anubis in a daily, serialized format. The series drew more than 2 million viewers over 26 episodes during its 2011 freshman season run.

“It’s event television the way sports is … you can’t miss it,” Zarghami said.

Zarghami hopes to bring viewers to Nick at Nite, which posted a 22% decline in total primetime viewers in 2011. She said the network’s early prime hours suffered from lower than expected performance by Nickelodeon’s lead-in programming.

Zarghami called Nickelodeon’s recent ratings decline a “mystery” but said the network is doing what it can to reverse the trend with new episodes of original shows such as iCarly, as well as the Feb. 4 debut of its live action music/comedy series How to Rock.

“During the first quarter we started to put new shows on the air with House of Anubis, iCarly, a new season of Victorious and the debut of How to Rock,” she said. “Once all the collection of momentum gathers for all the stuff that we’re putting on, the whole Nickelodeon day will start to move in the right direction and that will boost Nick at Nite as well.”