Why was Sesame Street Unpaved shown late weekend nights?

[mikealan]

Do you know WHY Noggin wants SSU and TEC to play on late Friday and Saturday nights?

I know why. It's because nobody likes THEM.

 

[ssetta]

Okay, I understand you are new to Noggin, and have only known about it for a few months. But Noggin has been on for almost 4 years now. And the 65 shows they have are the same ones they've been airing for the past 4 years. I would be happy (well, actually sad) to explain why they moved them to the wee hours on the weekend.

Noggin first signed on in Feb. 1999, with endless hours of vintage programming, and no stupid shows of their own. I remember they had SSU 5 times a day, and TEC about the same, maybe more. Not only that, but they were shown non-stop. I remember SSU was on at 6 PM, and during prime time, they had 2 SSUs back-to-back, and then 2 more during the wee hours. Not too bad, huh? But then, 5 months later, they started this "Phred on Your Head" show, and they did away with the one at 6 PM, and it was only shown during the late night and wee hours, but it was still on 4 times a night. And after a few months, they extended all their programming for older kids, and did away with the 2 episodes in prime time, and from then on, it was only on during the wee hours. But it was still on 3 times a night (1 am, 2 am, 4 am). And TEC and 3-2-1 Contact were on in between. Then after about a year, they did away with one, and it was decreased from 3 airings to 2 airings a night. That's not very much compared to what they used to have, is it? And then, last April, when they re-vamped the channel into 2, "Noggin/The N", it was only on ONCE each night, at 5 am, and twice on weekends, 3:30 and 5 am. It stayed there for a few months, and then it got pushed to weekends only at 3:30 am, where it is now. I am very upset to say that the next thing they will do is completely take it off the schedule!

But I do know the exact reason for this. See, the channel isn't really Noggin anymore. It's only Noggin during the day, which is for preschoolers, and from 6 PM on, it's called "The N" which is for older kids, and young teenagers. And what she said is that SSU doesn't go with either of those, and isn't really for anyone anymore. I mean, it WAS for preschoolers 25 years ago. But she just doesn't understand! It's for us classic SS fans! That's who it's for! I have been very upset since I found out in July. I even tried a petition to keep it on, but we have all decided that it won't work, because it currently only has 135 signatures on it, and Noggin/The N is in 26 million homes. And she said that they're not really gearing their channel for us. The purpose of Noggin was so that CTW/Sesame Workshop could get into cable, and make some shows of their own, but not necessarily just keep re-running old shows all the time. That's what happens with ALL cable networks when they're new. I even suggested a CTW channel, but that's completely unrealistic, right? It's actually Jeffrey Gray who told me all this. But I don't LIKE it. It makes me sad.

 

[beaker]

All this is so confusing...

Wasnt there a Kermit channel at one point? I never had anyone explain that one to me. So Odyssey, Kermit channel, Noggin...ack, so confused.

Fact is, if the world were fair...we would have:

JHC owning itself and being very financially sound
A 24 hour JHC channel, as well as a CTW channel.

 

[Phillip]

For prosperity, here is Noggin's original schedule...

http://www.muppetcentral.com/news/1999/020299.shtml

While Odyssey (currently Hallmark) was available in the US until August 2001, Kermit Channel was available in some markets like Asia and other countries. Several members of our forum had the Kermit Channel before it went off the air and was rebranded as Hallmark Channel.

 

[Jeffrey Gray]

I will explain what ssetta said in shorter form: Noggin doesn't want to put SSU in normal hours because nobody watched it when it was airing in normal hours, but they want to keep it on for the fans, and since not many people are even awake late at night, so they don't have to worry about ratings, they show it late at night, to please us without taking up space a more popular program could occupy. A very wise decision, IMO...

 

[pezbalubah]

That's something I've been meaning to ask about for a while on here... the Kermit Channel. I remember a few years ago one of my high school teachers who was a big Muppet fan (he wore a Kermit tie often) brought in an article about the Kermit Channel. Supposdly the Kermit Channel had more "adult oriented" entertainment and had skits about Miss Piggy thinking Kermit was bi-sexual.

 

[beaker]

Originally posted by Jeffrey Gray
I will explain what ssetta said in shorter form: Noggin doesn't want to put SSU in normal hours because nobody watched it when it was airing in normal hours, but they want to keep it on for the fans

Well that's good it is still on. Sadly CTW/SW will not extend the full courtesy to grown up fans with merchandising.

I realize CTW/SW really does not want a grown up audience of people who grew up on it...they make zero effort to appease to people over the age of 2 when it comes to Sesame(be it products, etc) Unless youre a parent, they dont care.

Sony Wonder in Japan however...well thats another story,
If *ONLY* we could somehow import that cool stuff!

 

[ssetta]

Well, even someone at Sesame Workshop told me they think the whole idea of re-vamping Noggin into 2 different networks was a bad idea. Because that "N" wipes out a lot of CTW's programming. She was the one who originally said she thinks there should be a CTW channel. But I don't know how popular that would be. However, they are coming out with new digital cable channels all the time. Our cable company adds at least 1 new one every couple of months.

 

[mikealan]

Guys, we wish that SS from 1969-present would be on video and DVD. We'd better make the petition that they would be on video and DVD. Would that work?

 

[ScottMonster]

Originally posted by mikealan
Guys, we wish that SS from 1969-present would be on video and DVD. We'd better make the petition that they would be on video and DVD. Would that work?

I believe there WAS some sort of petition started for that purpose a while ago, but I think the most signatures it got (including mine)was something like just under two hundred and that's nowhere near the amount needed for a petition like this to have effect. 10,000 or more signatures and things might be different -- then again maybe not given that most of those would be from an audience that's totally invisible to Sesame Workshop. Whoever wrote above that SW dosen't seem to care about their adult audience is right and I think that just MIGHT have something to do with the fact that Sesame Street is and always has been a show intended for preschoolers.