A decade ago, it was Rugrats, All That and The Secret World of Alex Mack, plus the Nick at Nite lineup of Bewitched and I Love Lucy.
Today, it’s SpongeBob SquarePants, Zoey 101 and The Fairly OddParents, while Nick at Nite is scoring with Full House, among other sitcom fare.
Either way, Nickelodeon has been atop basic cable’s total-programming-day charts for 10 consecutive years, according to network officials.
Nick moved past TBS, USA Network and ESPN in the second quarter of 1995, averaging a 1.4 mark in household ratings, a 0.7 among persons two-plus and a 2.4 among kids 2-11.
In the second quarter of this year (March 28-June 26), Nick, in concert with Nick at Nite, averaged a 1.6 household rating on a 24-hour basis, a 0.8 among persons two-plus (1.8 million viewers) and a 2.8 among kids (900,000 of those watchers), according to a Nick analysis of Nielsen Media Research data. (Nick at Nite, from a Nielsen perspective, was separated from Nick in the second quarter of 2004.)
Nickelodeon was followed by Turner Network Television, which averaged a 1.3 household rating, and Cartoon Network, which earned a 1.2 mark. With total viewers,Nickelodeon and Nick at Nite outpaced all basic-cable competitors by 29%.
“Maintaining a No. 1 position for 10 years is a testament to the people working at Nickelodeon who are the architects of the brand and who have made the whole greater than the sum of its parts, as well as the amazing show creators that have given kids so many great characters and stories over the years,” Nickelodeon Television president Cyma Zarghami said in a prepared statement.
