| Nick News | |
|---|---|
Intertitle |
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| Format | News program |
| Created by | Linda Ellerbee |
| Presented by | Linda Ellerbee |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 19 |
| No. of episodes | 250+ |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Linda Ellerbee Rolfe Tessem |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Lucky Ducky Productions[1] Nickelodeon Productions |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Nickelodeon |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV) |
| Original run | May 1, 1992 – present |
| External links | |
| Website | |
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 social, 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.
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Nick News has been hosted by Linda Ellerbee since the show's inception in 1992. Ellerbee was one of five candidates auditioned over the course of two weeks. 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. 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, Faith Hill, Rosie O'Donnell, Magic Johnson, Bill Clinton and Dr. Phil.
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 ran in reruns at various time slots. 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 on CBS on Saturdays from 1993 until 1996. From 1995 to 1999, the first-run syndicated version of the show--distributed by Paramount Domestic Television (now CBS Television Distribution)--aired on local stations--both independent and network-affiliated--all over the United States of America.
The show also previously appeared 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 currently showing new episodes periodically on Sunday nights at 9 p.m. usually on a bi-monthly basis, with the 22-minute long episodes running commercial-free (commercial advertisements and promos for Nickelodeon programming fill the gap between the end of the program and the start of a Nick at Nite show); however since June 2010, when Nickelodeon ceded one hour of its broadcast day on Sundays to Nick at Nite, Nick News currently airs during what is technically part of Nick at Nite's broadcast slot (though promos for the show advertise it as airing on Nickelodeon, and no Nickelodeon or Nick at Nite logo bug is seen during the program). TeenNick aired an one episode of the show on October 25, 2010. Then the show returned on February 15, 2011.
Nick News is well known for many trademarks during its run on Nickelodeon, such as Ellerbee's signature tagline, "If you want to know, ask!"
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, the Netherlands, 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.[2]