Nick News
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| Nick News | |
|---|---|
| File:Nicknews.jpg Nick News logo | |
| Created by | Linda Ellerbee |
| Starring | Linda Ellerbee |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of episodes | 200+ |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | Nickelodeon |
| Release | 1992 – Present |
Nick News with Linda Ellerbee is an educational children's and teenagers' television show on Nickelodeon that has been shown since 1992. Nick News takes the form of a highly rated and recognized news program for children and teenagers alike, discussing important political and economic issues in a format intended for both children and adults. The show is famous for allowing normal teenagers to speak out on their own personal opinions on a number of past and current worldwide issues and topics, including events such as Black History Month, where Linda Ellerbee, who is the host, invited African-American teenagers in to discuss Black History Month.
Linda Ellerbee
Nick News has been hosted by Linda Ellerbee since the show's inception in 1992. Ellerbee was one of five people who were to be tried out as the host of Nick News. After two weeks of deciding, the producers of the show called Ellerbee's home to inform her that she was to be the new host of Nick News. She was chosen because her competitors were "too loud and obnoxious", claimed one of the show's set designers. According to Ellerbee: "I was honored when I was named the host of Nick News. The show will be about kids and their everyday lives." Ellerbee has never missed an episode due to illness in the show's 16+ year history. The show is officially known as Nick News with Linda Ellerbee. Throughout the years, Nick News has featured special guests of honor, such as Al Gore, Bill Cosby, Rosie O'Donnell, Magic Johnson, Bill Clinton and Dr. Phil.
History
Nick News was originally known as Nick News: W5 in 1992 until the show's "who, what, when, where, and why" type format was dropped.
Nick News with Linda Ellerbee has been shown on Sunday nights at 8 p.m. and later 8:30 p.m. on Nickelodeon and mostly ran in reruns (except some new shows that were involved with current events). Nick News was #1 in the ratings on Nickelodeon in 1992-1993, and has never gone below #6 in the ratings, making it one of the most consistently highly-rated news shows on TV. The show was also shown in prime time CBS on Saturdays from 1993 until 1996. Nick News is currently showing new episodes periodically, usually at a reasonable time slot around 9 p.m.
The show also appears early weekday mornings fully commercial-free as a part of the television cable industry's Cable in the Classroom initiative, which urges teachers from schools around the globe to tape programs of Nick News and then later show them to their class during school hours.
Nick News is well known for many trademarks during its run on Nickelodeon. The show is really most famous for Ellerbee's signature tagline, "If you want to know, ask!"
Notable episodes
In 1993, there was an episode on global warming entitled "Plan it for the Planet". On December 9, 2007, Nick News had shown another global warming special entitled "A Global Warning From the Kids of the World". Both specials looked at different regions of the Earth like Australia, Alaska, Holland, the Philippines, California and Kenya, showing the changes in the climate and the effects of those changes. During the later part of the December 9, 2007, episode, Nobel Prize winner Al Gore appeared to talk to children about the problems that global warming is causing to ordinary people.
In 2002, Nick News celebrated its ten year anniversary with a show called "Happy Birthday, Nick News". It featured many flashbacks from the first ten years of Nick News.
On June 18, 2002, Nickelodeon showed "Nick News Special Edition: My Family Is Different". This had one of the largest audiences in Nick News' history. The show featured regular children talking about the variety of issues that have had a major affect on their personal lives, including hate crimes, child abuse and sexual harassment. During this episode, openly lesbian parent Rosie O'Donnell appeared on Nick News to talk with the children and Ellerbee about being different, with other well-known people as well. The show has also included children from households around the globe that oppose equal rights for lesbian families, as well as conservative commentator Jerry Falwell.
On October 12, 2008, an episode called "Nickelodeon's Kids Pick the President" featured children from across the United States asking political, economic and health care questions of Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, as part of a way for children to choose. Obama was chosen as the winner in that year's Kids Pick the President poll [1].
Reception
While many people considered the show to be a great success, most viewers tended to tune out whenever the show came on. There is an equal amount of people who consider the show to be great and people who consider the show to have been extremely boring. This is probably due to the fact that most of Nickelodeon's viewers at the time were young and primarily interested in the channel's cartoons. Overall the show was praised by the older generation, yet most of the viewers (ages 13 and under) considered the show a waste of time. (Perhaps exacerbating this perception was the fact that the show was usually placed in a time slot at the end of Nickelodeon's broadcast day, segueing into Nick at Nite, a programming block that is targeted at adults.) Yet there was a near equal amount of viewers who considered the show to be a great way for people of their age to learn about world events.