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.
The Top Ten
1 Rejecting Adventure Time

It still boggles my mind thinking that Adventure Time in some alternate universe could have been a Nicktoon. It's already pretty crazy looking at the Nicktoons logo in the bottom-left corner of the show's pilot. But in all seriousness, this was the worst decision that 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 such an immediate success that brought Cartoon Network back to relevance after the infamous CN Real and export era in the late 2000s. Meanwhile, Nick had to come up with their own terrible programming and floundered as a result. Had Nickelodeon actually seen the potential in Pen Ward's short, the company would definitely be in a better position than they currently are today, even if they have been recovering in recent years. At no point in T.V. history can I name a more dramatic shift in network status than when Nickelodeon rejected one of the greatest cartoons ever made and allowed it to fall right into their rival's lap.

2 Putting a huge emphasis on trashy sitcoms

It's no secret that Nickelodeon now is just putting out horrible sitcoms. And I'm talking shows like Sam & Cat, Wendell & Vinnie, Game Shakers, Marvin, Henry Danger, The Thundermans, Bella & 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 & Zoey 101?

Rejecting Adventure Time was a big mistake, but it wouldn't have had a big effect say that Nickelodeon actually tried to get other good animated content, but instead they just went to trashy sitcoms. By far the worst acting I've ever seen, painfully unfunny comedy, and just terrible shows altogether. I'm glad shows like The Loud house and SpongeBob still do take the number one and two spots on the ratings though.

Schneider's Bakery became a synonym of disposable entertainment. Other than Drake & Josh, and MAYBE, just maybe, iCarly as well; the rest were/are formulaic sitcoms that rely mainly on the incessant use of laugh tracks even for the stupidest jokes. Good thing Dan Schneider and Nickelodeon decided to part ways.

3 Cancelling good shows too soon

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, 100 Things to Do Before High School.

They're cancelling their good shows too soon even at the most unnecessary times, which shows us they're replacing them with garbage shows like Henry Danger, Game Shakers, Knight Squad, The Adventures of Kid Danger, which shows us they and Viacom are greedy these days, and not to forget they once hired Cyma Zarghami as president, which just ruined the whole network and it's love.

Nickelodeon has been losing viewers since the sudden cancellations of good shows.

The Loud House was the 1st good Nickelodeon show in years, but the original creator got fired, so now it' going downhill, so all that's left is SpongeBob SquarePants, which has gone bad after the 1st movie but better after the 2nd movie, and once they cancel that, oh boy Nickelodeon's outta business.

Though Stephen Hillenburg had ALS and died of it in November 27, 2018, so it's likely the show is ending and Nickelodeon is going out of business.

4 Over saturating franchises

I think that Nickelodeon should've been ok with Hillenburg leaving the show and canceling it, and a revival would premiere in 2015 when the show started getting good again, instead of keeping Spongebob on the year for 10 years (10, YEARS! ) of extremely low ratings!

At first the Loud House was really good. In the later seasons, it just got complicated. When the sisters got crushes and Ronny Ann moved. It just got dumber from there.

Check your T.V. 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 jeez I need some variety.

5 Airing SpongeBob SquarePants non-stop

When Nickelodeon had good cartoons besides SpongeBob SquarePants, SpongeBob wasn't their main focus of the channel. They had so many great classics like Rocket Power, Hey Arnold, Rugrats, or Fairly Odd Parents that kids could enjoy. But then after these shows ended and Stephen Hillenburg left after making the movie, Nickelodeon just started coming out with bad cartoons, and since Nick was starting to really hit rock bottom, SpongeBob became it's main show and it's only life support of Nick. To top it all off, SpongeBob itself came out with very annoying and terrible episodes, which Nickelodeon has been airing non-stop for hours. It looks like now in 2023, SpongeBob is no longer the way it used to be.

I liked how back in the early 2000s, SpongeBob wasn't Nickelodeon's only life support for cartoons because they literally had other great cartoons just like SpongeBob. Nowadays since Nick came out with bad cartoons like FanBoy & Chum Chum, Breadwinners, Sanjay & Craig, Bunsen Is A Beast, and came out with bad sitcoms like Sam & Cat, Henry Danger, Game Shakers, The New All That, etc. they just rely on SpongeBob now to hold Nick back together which is why that's all that ever airs on Nick. Especially these days whenever I check what's on Nick UK, SpongeBob just airs from 10AM to 8PM which is beginning to get slightly boring. On top of that, they just started to air episodes of The Patrick Star Show and Kamp Koral.

6 Canceling Invader Zim too early

This was... Kind of a mistake. I say kind of because Invader Zim did not 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 in around 2010. Granted, this show would go on to gain a massive following and be one of Nick's most beloved shows, bar none. Honestly I'd say that if not for Rugrats it'd be top two at this point, right behind SpongeBob. But, again, you have to keep in mind when this show came out and why it was cancelled. Invader Zim was ahead of its time. Too ahead of its time. I'm sure the show would thrive if it were aired now, considering the success of the comics and the upcoming movie, but 2002-2006 were not an apt time for it to be released.

I do agree with some of the reasons with Nickelodeon's reasons, that let's face it, Zim is perhaps the king of being a dark kid's show, but that was really about it aside from money issues. This cartoon was awesome, and I love that Jhonen put in the Bloody GIR Easter Egg (for more of you veteran fans, which I'm assuming most of us are) to poke fun at Nickelodeon's asinine way of thinking. I did like the movie, as it kept the comedy and style to heart, but the show is better.

7 Airing Nick Studio 10

This is their absolute worst sitcom ever. No wonder why it was cancelled in the exact same year it premiered.

This has to be the worst programming block of all time, interrupting their own shows with random things, but they will cut back to what you're watching, but the portion they played over, so you missed part of what you're watching. Universally, Nick Studio 10 was hated and lasted about a week. It disappeared and was brought back without interruptions, and gone again. The sad part about this is that they were trying to start a rivalry with Cartoon Network's Incredible Crew.

Unecessary interuptions in every single show. When I first saw this, I pissed myself.

8 Giving Disney the rights to Doug

Despite the show doing well Nickelodeon decided to cancel it after just 4 season, but what they big mistake they made was selling the rights to the show to Disney, Disney made huge changes to the show including most voice actors, and ran the show for 3 seasons on ABC's Saturday mornings, fans hated the Disney version of the show, and blamed Nickelodeon for ruining it.

To be honest Doug wasn't really that good to begin with I actually liked Disney's version of Doug despite the changes they made.

So? Disney Channel was one of the most expensive channels. Hey Arnold was better.

9 Mistreating Korra

Sure, Nickelodeon mistreated Korra (the first bie-sexual character on Nickelodeon). But us humans weren't too nice to Korra either! I mean, COME ON GUYS! Sure, TLOK isn't better than Avatar but at least give it a chance. Invader Zim wasn't that great when it first came out, remember? And then, suddenly, Invader Zim became one of Nickelodeon's best (not saying I don't like Invader Zim). Anyway, Centuarworld and Steven Universe are, like, the worst shows I've ever seen. And somehow they both got 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and TLOK got 89%. So, yeah.

The Spin-off the Avatar: the Last Airbender a great but flawed show, was mistreated by the network, it broadcasted on Saturday mornings(when people are asleep), but soon Nickelodeon decided to move it around the schedule, spread the episodes to weeks apart, and Korra was underfunded so they they had to use a cheaper animation studio to save money, Nickelodeon made Korra a chore to keep up with, and that's probably why people don't think it lived up or didn't like it compared to Avatar: the last Airbender. It could have been Amazing.

10 Disrespecting Stephen Hillenburg

Once upon a time the evil company named Nickelodeon wanted more money. So with Stephen Hillenburg out of the way (R.I.P Stephen Hillenburg) They decided to keep Spongebob going (Stephen Hillenburg cancelled it) and make it bad... But they needed more money so they made the BAD Kamp Koral and the TERRIBLE Patrick Star Show (spinoffs that Stephen Hillenburg didn't want).

Nickelodeon is going to do a reboot of SpongeBob, even though Stephen STRICTLY FORBADE it. But they waited until Stephen died just to get working on it because with Stephen dead, he can't stop them from doing it! This is a seriously scumbag move! I'm not gonna bother watching Kamp Koral!

Yeah, they aren't letting his legacy have a good reputation. Bring back Rocko reruns, dammit!

The Contenders
11 Lack of Nick DVDs

They used to be juggernauts with those releases (remember The First 100 Episodes of SpongeBob?) now the DVD's have very little love put in at all, I mean, compare the Season 1 SpongeBob DVD's menus with Season 10's DVD menus.

It is a pain that they are releasing DVD-R which is basically official bootleg

12 Airing too much Jojo Siwa

On top of Nickelodeon going downhill, there's THIS girl from Dance Moms and most of her target audience are that of 8 year old girls. Of course, she's a positive role model for tween girls, I get that, but I find her extremely annoying.

So as if Nickelodeon wasn't already trash enough, they had to put HER on the channel thus making it even more cringe than it already was.
First of all, she's always screaming when she talks, like what is her deal? Is she on drugs or something?
Secondly, she's so childish which makes me dislike her even more. Her car literally has rainbows, unicorns, bows, the nickelodeon logo, sparkles, honest to God right now, she's so childish! And to be honest, if I were Justin Bieber I would've insulted it 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 that 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 I wanted to. I'd probably do that whenever JoJo comes on T.V. again.

13 Canceling good shows and keep the bad ones

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, 100 Things to Do Before High School.

They're cancelling their good shows too soon even at the most unnecessary times, which shows us they're replacing them with garbage shows like Henry Danger, Game Shakers, Knight Squad, The Adventures of Kid Danger, which shows us they and Viacom are greedy these days, and not to forget they once hired Cyma Zarghami as president, which just ruined the whole network and it's love.

Nickelodeon has been losing viewers since the sudden cancellations of good shows.

The Loud House was the 1st good Nickelodeon show in years, but the original creator got fired, so now it' going downhill, so all that's left is SpongeBob SquarePants, which has gone bad after the 1st movie but better after the 2nd movie, and once they cancel that, oh boy Nickelodeon's outta business.

Though Stephen Hillenburg had ALS and died of it in November 27, 2018, so it's likely the show is ending and Nickelodeon is going out of business.

14 Airing Fanboy and Chum Chum

Fanboy and chum chum shows no effort in any work. You can tell nobody cared about this show so they just slapped a bunch of cgi on no story or plot and aired it. This and school of rock are so extremely poor quality. For both shows I give a 2/10.

Honestly, if Nick did get the rights to Adventure Time, they would've treated the show like crap and it would've ended earlier. I am actually glad it was given to CN instead of Nick.

After rejecting Adventure Time, they greenlit this abomination of a show.
The characters were drunk and this taught kids to be drunk.
Thank goodness it ended, but it shouldn' have been made in the 1st place.

15 Closing Nickelodeon Studios in Orlando

It was so cool to have a Nickelodeon experience in the eastern part of the US. People living on the east didn't have to fly all the way to California to see shows being taped. It was such a very immersive experience. Getting to 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 were put into them). Then at the end, GAME LAB! Get to watch some lucky kid get slimed . Being able to actually watch your favorite Nick shows like Double Dare, Guts, Legends of the Hidden Temple, Clarissa Explains it All,etc. actually being taped (maybe even being part of the studio audience) is a really cool experience in and of itself. But then a little over 20 years ago, When Herb Scannell took the reins, the quality of the network's output began to gradually decline, with the focus being more on animation and the live action output transitioning to closed set sitcoms, thus moving production to California. This put Nickelodeon Studios in a bonafide death spiral.

16 Trying to be hip and cool with the kids

Some of the many things I tremble nick for is using memes tang died year s age and putting it in there shows and memes that are still alive but on life support they milk the in their shoes. Fortnite dances really, dabbing in 2018, and don't get me started with there "Hip" we'll be right back montages, they are disgusting and there cringe sitcoms oh lord help me

Nickelodeon was great back in the 90s/2000s, until Nickelodeon decides to make cringy shows with kids trying to relate to memes. Nick nowadays tries too hard to be hip and cool, but they fail because they just make it even more cringe by trying. This is why Nickelodeon started to suck in the 2010s.

Honestly most of these mistakes have equal fault in my mind, but this one makes me cringe the most, so let's go with this one so I can start commenting on the others.

17 Moving the Fairly OddParents to Nicktoons

When Fairly OddParents was an the main channel it was getting a consist amount of viewers nothing to major, but when Nickelodeon moved it to Nicktoons, that was basically giving it a Early death, because when it happened the shows ratings plummeted, it was a bad business choice because even though modern Fairly Oddparents sucks it would still get more views with it being on the Main channel than on Nicktoons.

They moved it to Nicktoons and the last episode aired on July 26, 2017, and now that the creator Butch Hartman's retired from Nickelodeon, the show's cancelled.

They should really bring this back! It was a really good show! But when a certain person came in season ten, KILL ME! Also I think sparky should've stayed!

18 Creating Breadwinners

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 straight off of YouTube! Bad Idea!

19 Changing the logo

The logo change wasn't really that much of a problem. The problem was that they got rid of the splat for good, and replaced it with a generic text logo!
The splat logo represents what Nickelodeon once was; a channel that used to be king among others, a place where children could have fun! The text logo is just sterile and boring, especially for a cartoon channel!

TBH, the splat logo actually had some originality and creativity, cause it made it look like it was a place where kids could have fun. But the new logo just makes everything look boring and on top of that; BAD SHOWS.

How come nickelodeon changed the good 1990s and 2000s logos? The old nick logos has so much creativity and nick replaced it with this logo that lacks creativity.

20 Firing most of the team from SpongeBob SquarePants after the movie.

It doesn't matter anymore now that the original creator Stephen Hillenburg's dead. He had ALS and we remember the show sucked without him after the 1st movie, and we've learned without the original creator, it should end.
Well goodbye SpongeBob.
R.I.P.

They didn't get fired, they left because the show was going to end there.

You mean the great creative writers left and the shows quality kept fallin. (R.I.P Stephen Hillenburg)

21 Adding Chloe to The Fairly Oddparents

She's such an uninteresting Mary Sue- one of the trademarks of Mary Sues is a flaw that's for the sake of thinking you didn't create a Mary Sue and the flaw doesn't actually affect them, which is her perfectionism. She doesn't even need fairies, her life is perfect.

She's the reason the show got cancelled. I hope she burns in hell.

This reminds me of when they added Ladona and Bud Compson to Arthur. I'm SO glad they were gone after that.

22 Interrupting shows with random garbage

Bruce Banner (Marvel), watches Power Rangers in Nickelodeon.
Power Rangers: (Gets interrupted by Nick Studio 10 or should I say " Nick Stupid 10") ( Shows a
Bruce Banner: (Gets angry and turns into a Hulk)
Hulk: ( Burst through the walls and out of the Avengers headquarters, finds Nickelodeon studio and beats up the whole Nick Studio 10 creators and teams and wrecks and destroys the whole Nick Studio 10 completely.
Hulk: Nick did it? Now Hulk did it

Nick Studio 10 interrupted shows on Nickelodeon with garbage, and those shows include SpongeBob SquarePants, the Fairly OddParents, and others, and they interrupted scenes from them with random garbage.

WHY would kids want that? In fact they don't, and Nick Studio 10 deliberately did that and annoyed Nick fans.

Not to mention the fart in a jar song was atrocious and that the show encouraged animal abuse and was vulgar and messy.

All fingers point to Nick Studio 10.

23 Canceling Ren & Stimpy

The adult version of this show totally ruined it. Ren and Stimpy were just fine roomies. They didn't need to be lovers. It was so tasteless and gross. Not real big of old show either, but that adult version that didn't air on Nick alongside calling the actual series's DVD release "The (Almost) Complete Series" because of that is bad.

Ren & Stimpy should've been on Nick @ Nite. It's not really for for kids.

So it was one of the worst cartoons anyway.

24 Saying Timmy Turner is 10 when he looks 8
25 Airing Tiny Toons
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