Top 10 Worst Mistakes that Nickelodeon Has Ever Made
Nickelodeon might be a huge children's TV network but it is not perfect at all. I still love it.
It still boggles my mind that Adventure Time, in some alternate universe, could have been a Nicktoon. It's already pretty crazy seeing the Nicktoons logo in the bottom-left corner of the show's pilot.
But seriously, this was the worst decision the network ever made. Passing up on Adventure Time and letting their chief rival, Cartoon Network, greenlight it legitimately set the studio back five years.
Adventure Time was an immediate success, bringing Cartoon Network back to relevance after the infamous CN Real and export era of the late 2000s. Meanwhile, Nick had to come up with their own terrible programming and floundered as a result.
Had Nickelodeon seen the potential in Pen Ward's short, the company would be in a much better position today, even if they have been recovering in recent years.
I can't name a more dramatic shift in network status in TV history than when Nickelodeon rejected one of the greatest cartoons ever made and allowed it to fall into their rival's lap.
It's no secret that Nickelodeon is now putting out horrible sitcoms. I'm talking shows like Sam & Cat, Wendell & Vinnie, Game Shakers, Marvin, Henry Danger, The Thundermans, Bella and the Bulldogs, the new All That, Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn, Danger Force, Knight Squad, and now That Girl Lay Lay.
What happened to all the good Nickelodeon sitcoms like iCarly, Drake & Josh, and Zoey 101?
Rejecting Adventure Time was a big mistake. However, it wouldn't have mattered if Nickelodeon had tried to get other good animated content. Instead, they focused on trashy sitcoms with the worst acting, painfully unfunny comedy, and just terrible shows altogether.
At least shows like The Loud House and SpongeBob SquarePants still take the top two spots in the ratings.
Invader Zim, Catscratch, Taina, The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Rugrats, Rocket Power, Danny Phantom, Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, The Penguins of Madagascar, House of Anubis, The Legend of Korra, Harvey Beaks, WITS Academy, and 100 Things to Do Before High School.
They're canceling their good shows too soon, even at the most unnecessary times. This shows us they're replacing them with garbage shows like Henry Danger, Game Shakers, Knight Squad, and The Adventures of Kid Danger, which proves that they and Viacom are greedy these days. Let's not forget they once hired Cyma Zarghami as president, which just ruined the whole network and its love.
Nickelodeon has been losing viewers since the sudden cancellations of good shows.
The Loud House was the first good Nickelodeon show in years, but the original creator got fired, so now it's going downhill. All that's left is SpongeBob SquarePants, which went bad after the first movie but improved after the second. Once they cancel that, Nickelodeon will be out of business.
Stephen Hillenburg had ALS and died from it on November 27, 2018, so it's likely the show will end and Nickelodeon will go out of business.
Nickelodeon should have been okay with Hillenburg leaving the show and canceling it. A revival could have premiered in 2015, when the show started improving, rather than keeping SpongeBob on air for ten years (10 years!) of extremely low ratings.
Check your TV guide on Nick and tell me how many times The Loud House comes on. I'm not hating on the show - I love it - but I need some variety.
It mostly started with SpongeBob, and now they're doing the same with The Loud House.
When Nickelodeon had other good cartoons besides SpongeBob SquarePants, it wasn't the main focus of the channel. They had so many great classics like Rocket Power, Hey Arnold!, Rugrats, and The Fairly OddParents for kids to enjoy.
After these shows ended and Stephen Hillenburg left after making the movie, Nickelodeon started releasing poor-quality cartoons. Since they were hitting rock bottom, SpongeBob became their main show and the channel's lifeline.
To top it off, SpongeBob itself began airing very annoying and terrible episodes non-stop for hours. Now, in 2023, SpongeBob is no longer what it used to be.
This was kind of a mistake. I say kind of because Invader Zim didn't get good ratings when it first aired. It was too expensive to keep on the network, even when they tried to give it a small test revival on Nicktoons around 2010.
This show went on to gain a massive following and became one of Nick's most beloved shows. Honestly, I'd say that if not for Rugrats, it would be in the top two, right behind SpongeBob. But again, you have to keep in mind when this show came out and why it was canceled. Invader Zim was ahead of its time. Too ahead of its time.
I'm sure it would thrive if it aired now, given the success of the comics and the upcoming movie. But 2002-2006 was not a suitable time for it to be released.
This was the worst programming block of all time. They interrupted their own shows with random clips but then cut back to the show, skipping over the portion that was missed. Universally hated, Nick Studio 10 lasted about a week before it disappeared. It was later brought back without interruptions, but quickly disappeared again.
The sad part is they were trying to start a rivalry with Cartoon Network's Incredible Crew.
Despite the show's success, Nickelodeon decided to cancel it after just four seasons. The big mistake was selling the rights to Disney, which made significant changes, including replacing most of the voice actors. Disney then ran the show for three seasons on ABC's Saturday mornings. Fans hated the Disney version and blamed Nickelodeon for ruining it.
I really wish that Nickelodeon's Doug lasted longer than it did.
Nickelodeon should've made a season finale instead of selling Doug.
Sure, Nickelodeon mistreated Korra (the first bisexual character on Nickelodeon). But we weren't too nice to Korra either! Come on, people!
Sure, The Legend of Korra isn't better than Avatar, but at least give it a chance. Remember that Invader Zim wasn't great when it first came out, and then it became one of Nickelodeon's best shows.
Anyway, Centaurworld and Steven Universe are the worst shows I've ever seen. Somehow, they both got 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, while The Legend of Korra got 89%. So, yeah.
Once upon a time, the company Nickelodeon wanted more money. With Stephen Hillenburg out of the way (R.I.P. Stephen Hillenburg), they decided to continue Spongebob despite Stephen Hillenburg's intention to cancel it and made it worse. However, they needed more money, so they created the subpar Kamp Koral and the terrible Patrick Star Show - spinoffs that Stephen Hillenburg did not want.
Nickelodeon is going to reboot SpongeBob, even though Stephen Hillenburg strictly forbade it. They waited until he passed away to start working on it because, with Stephen dead, he couldn't stop them. It's a seriously scumbag move, and I'm not going to bother watching Kamp Koral!
They used to be juggernauts with those releases. Remember The First 100 Episodes of SpongeBob? Now the DVDs have very little effort put into them. Compare the menus of the Season 1 SpongeBob DVDs with those of Season 10.
It is frustrating that they are releasing DVD-Rs, which are basically official bootlegs.
Nickelodeon was already bad enough, but putting HER on the channel made it even cringier.
First, she's always screaming when she talks. What's her deal? Is she on drugs or something?
Second, she's so childish, which makes her even more annoying. Her car is decorated with rainbows, unicorns, bows, the Nickelodeon logo, and sparkles. Honest to God, she's so childish!
If I were Justin Bieber, I would've insulted her car too.
Ugh! I want to scream whenever this girl comes on. I wish she would stop being so loud! Girl, use your normal voice. We can hear you just fine! And that glitter - sheesh, you're 15! She once admitted she dresses like a 12-year-old. I was offended because twelve-year-olds are way more mature than she'll ever be! They don't dress like that! I wish I could rip my ears out whenever she appears on TV again.
Me: It's sad they canceled Rugrats. Oh, well. At least we still have Avatar.
Nickelodeon: We're canceling Avatar.
Me: Oh, never mind. Good thing we still have Invader Zim.
Nickelodeon: We're canceling that too.
Me: Oh... Good thing there's Danny Phantom.
Nickelodeon: Canceled.
Me: OH COME ON! Good thing there's still Spongebob, Fairly Odd Parents, and The Loud House.
Nickelodeon: Chloe and Sparky are now part of FOP. Stephen Hillenburg is dead, so time to make terrible sitcoms, and we fired Chris Savino, so TLH will be bad.
Me: I give up.
Fanboy and Chum Chum shows no effort in any of its work. You can tell nobody cared about this show. They just slapped together CGI with no story or plot and aired it. This, along with School of Rock, is of extremely poor quality. I give both shows a 2/10.
After rejecting Adventure Time, they greenlit this abomination of a show. The characters seemed drunk, and this taught kids to act drunk. Thank goodness it ended, but it shouldn't have been made in the first place.
Let it sink in that Nickelodeon rejected Adventure Time for this awful show.
It was so cool to have a Nickelodeon experience in the eastern part of the U.S. People living on the East Coast didn't have to fly all the way to California to see shows being taped. It was such an immersive experience. You could tour the facilities and look down on production happening in the sound stages below. Back then, Nick shows were worth watching, and a lot of creativity was put into them.
At the end, there was GAME LAB! You could watch some lucky kid get slimed. Watching your favorite Nick shows like Double Dare, Guts, Legends of the Hidden Temple, and Clarissa Explains It All being taped (or even being part of the studio audience) was an amazing experience.
But over 20 years ago, when Herb Scannell took the reins, the quality of the network's output began to gradually decline. They focused more on animation, and the live-action output transitioned to closed-set sitcoms, moving production to California. This put Nickelodeon Studios in a bona fide death spiral.
Some of the things I dislike about Nickelodeon include their use of memes that died years ago, inserting them into their shows. They also use dying memes in their programming. Fortnite dances? Dabbing in 2018? And don't get me started on their "hip" 'We'll Be Right Back' montages - they're disgusting. And their cringe sitcoms? Oh lord, help me.
Nickelodeon was fantastic in the '90s and 2000s until they decided to create cringy shows with kids trying to relate to memes. Nowadays, Nickelodeon tries too hard to be hip and cool, but they fail and only make things cringier. This is why Nickelodeon started to decline in the 2010s.
UGH. This was Nickelodeon's worst yet. It's a stupid show. I've never seen it, but I know I hate it.
They imported this show directly from YouTube. Bad idea!
When The Fairly OddParents was on the main channel, it consistently attracted viewers. But when Nickelodeon moved it to Nicktoons, it basically marked its early death as ratings plummeted.
It was a poor business decision because even though modern Fairly OddParents isn't great, it would still have more viewers on the main channel than on Nicktoons.
They moved The Fairly OddParents to Nicktoons. The last episode aired on July 26, 2017. Now that the creator, Butch Hartman, has retired from Nickelodeon, the show is canceled.
The logo change wasn't a significant issue itself. The real problem was that they permanently removed the splat and replaced it with a generic text logo. The splat logo represented what Nickelodeon once was - a leading channel where children could have fun. The text logo is sterile and boring, particularly for a cartoon channel.
TBH, the splat logo actually had originality and creativity because it made it look like a place where kids could have fun. But the new logo just makes everything look boring, and on top of that, the shows are bad.
You mean the great creative writers left, and the show's quality kept falling. (R.I.P. Stephen Hillenburg.)
She's such an uninteresting Mary Sue. One of the trademarks of Mary Sues is having a flaw to suggest they aren't a Mary Sue, but the flaw doesn't actually impact them. Chloe's flaw is perfectionism, but she doesn't need fairies because her life is perfect.
This reminds me of when they added Ladonna and Bud Compson to Arthur. I'm so glad they were gone after that.
She's the worst character added to The Fairly OddParents, and Timmy had a fairly odd dog.
Bruce Banner (Marvel) watches Power Rangers on Nickelodeon.
Power Rangers: (Gets interrupted by Nick Studio 10, or should I say "Nick Stupid 10")
Bruce Banner: (Gets angry and turns into the Hulk)
Hulk: (Bursts through the walls of Avengers headquarters, finds Nickelodeon studio, and beats up the Nick Studio 10 creators and team, completely wrecking and destroying them)
Hulk: "Nick did it? Now Hulk did it."
Nick Studio 10 interrupted shows on Nickelodeon with garbage, including SpongeBob SquarePants, The Fairly OddParents, and others. They cut into these shows with random junk.
Why would kids want that? They don't. Nick Studio 10 deliberately annoyed Nick fans.
Not to mention, the fart in a jar song was atrocious. The show also encouraged animal abuse and was vulgar and messy.
The adult version of this show completely ruined it. Ren and Stimpy were just fine as roommates and didn't need to be portrayed as lovers. It was tasteless and gross. Although I wasn't a huge fan of the original show, the adult version that didn't air on Nickelodeon and calling the actual series' DVD release "The (Almost) Complete Series" is just bad.