Nickelodeon had its “best day ever” on Nov. 10. The kids-TV kingpin's all-day SpongeBob SquarePants marathon, culminating in a new installment and the network premiere of the theatrical about many people's favorite sponge, ranked as the channel's most-watched and highest-rated total programming day in its history, according to network officials.
During its total-day period — 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. (ET/PT) — on Nov. 10, Nick averaged a 1.9 household rating and 4.4 million total viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research data. Over that span, Nick averaged a 7.6 rating among kids 2 to 11, translating into 2.5 million of those viewers, and a 7.5 with kids 6 to 11 and 1.5 million of those watchers.
The “Best Day Ever” episode — in which SpongeBob's pursuit of the perfect day takes turns and twists that alter its meaning — at 7:30 p.m. that night averaged a 12.0 rating, translating into 4.0 million kids 2-to-11 watchers, a 12.8 rating, with 2.6 million kids 6 to 11 and 6.7 million total viewers.
The 8 p.m. network premiere of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, the Paramount Pictures/Nickelodeon Movies feature, averaged a 13.3 rating with 4.4 million viewers among kids 2-to-11, a 14.6 rating with 2.9 million kids 6 to 11 and 7.3 million total viewers.
An encore of the film the next morning at 10 a.m. also scored big, delivering 6.2 million total viewers, an 11.0 rating among kids 2 to 11 (3.6 million) and an 11.5 rating among kids 6 to 11 (2.3 million), according to Nielsen data.
There were also some pretty good days for SpongeBob on other platforms as well. Beginning on Oct. 5 and leading up to the “Best Day Ever” event, Nickelodeon invited kids to vote for their 10 favorite SpongeBob viewing moments by looking at multiple episodes at www.nick.com/bestdayever as a means to determine the order of the 24-hour marathon before the new special episode. The dedicated site generated almost 5 million streams and 3.2 million votes, making it the property's most successful online campaign to date, according to Nick officials.
Additionally, a “SpongeBob Best Day Ever” game went live on Nov. 9 and in just three days, generated 1.3 million game plays and more than 867,000 unique visitors. An attendant full-length music video ranked second on Web site TurboNick the week of Nov. 6 to 12, generating more than 1.4 million streams, with 471,000 unique visitors.
The “Best Day Ever” promotion video on TurboNick ranked within the top 10 videos on the broadband player during the same time period, counting 370,000 streams, according to Omniture SiteCatalyst.
All told, during the week of Nov. 6 to 12, Nick.com rang up a 35% increase in unique visitors and a 16% rise in page views, versus year-ago levels, while TurboNick scored a 327% surge in streams.
