Twenty-five years ago, Brian Robbins was an aspiring young producer, scouring the country for talent.
He assembled a troupe of teens for a sketch comedy show, All That, which became all that and more for Nickelodeon. The goofy show helped usher in a period of peak imagination for the children's channel along with Rugrats, and then, Blues Clues, and SpongeBob SquarePants. Now, Robbins is back at the Viacom cable network in a much different role — and in a much different world.
As president of Nickelodeon, Robbins is trying to rescue the beloved operation from becoming a casualty of the streaming wars. Three weeks ago, Viacom announced that Robbins soon will be segueing into a larger role as president of kids and family entertainment for the soon-to-be merged ViacomCBS. Robbins is tasked with not only turning Nickelodeon around, but also helping the entire company craft a comprehensive strategy to survive, and thrive, in the hypercompetitive streaming era.
The challenges are daunting. Back in the 1990s, Nickelodeon's competition was Cartoon Network, PBS and Disney Channel. Now, the network is struggling to fend off incursions from Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and Disney+, the just-launched streaming service that secured 10 million customers in its first day. Disney has enlisted Mickey Mouse, Marge Simpson and Woody, the Toy Story cowboy, for its family-friendly, $6.99-a-month streaming service. WarnerMedia grabbed Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch for its forthcoming HBO Max service, and Apple TV+ is hoping to gain altitude with Snoopy in Space.
The children's network has lost nearly 60% of its audience since 2010, according to Nielsen ratings data. And in Viacom's recently ended fiscal year, Nickelodeon's viewership among its core audience of children ages 2 to 11 slumped 28% compared to fiscal 2018, according to Bernstein & Co.
"Nickelodeon is in a tough spot because of the switch to online viewing, and then you have the launch of Disney+," said Derek Baine, longtime cable TV analyst with S&P Global Market Intelligence. "It's not a good time to be a cable network."
That's why Robbins hesitated when Viacom Chief Executive Bob Bakish approached him last year about becoming Nickelodeon president.
At the time, Robbins was happy working at Paramount Pictures on Melrose Avenue, where he was in charge of Paramount Players, a unit that mines MTV and Nickelodeon for film projects. Nickelodeon's problems seemed enormous. Even his 5-year-old daughter watched as much content on YouTube as television. (Although she is a big fan of Paw Patrol on Nickelodeon.)
"I knew that there were enormous headwinds confronting television," Robbins said. "But then my wife asked me the question that I like to ask everybody, which is: 'Why not?'"
Nostalgia also played a role. It was his first TV show, All That, the kids version of Saturday Night Live, that Robbins produced for Nickelodeon, beginning in 1994, that helped launch his producing career. (The show also was comedian Kenan Thompson's breakout hit.)
"It's a big responsibility that I don't take lightly because the brand is so beloved and treasured," Robbins said. "We really needed to get back to having a culture of creativity because Nickelodeon was always such a creative place," Robbins said. "When the digital disruption took place, I'm not sure people knew how to react. I think it took a toll on people and people lost confidence."
Geraldine Laybourne, who served as Nickelodeon's first president from 1984 to 1996, said the problem stemmed from Viacom's reliance on "businessmen," not creative executives, to run its operations. "There was a lot of pressure put on the channels to be cash cows," Laybourne said. "I'm thrilled that they finally hired a creative person to head Nickelodeon. And because Brian is such a skilled producer, who has produced on so many different levels, I would certainly bet on him."
Although it's too early to evaluate the success of his efforts, Robbins scored a major coup last summer when he landed a project with A-list director Ron Howard and his Imagine Entertainment.
Howard said that he and producing partner Brian Grazer hadn't had opportunities in children's programming until the last year when they expanded their company with a kids and family entertainment division. Until now, Howard said, Imagine's financiers weren't too interested in developing kid-centric TV shows (even though that's how Howard got his start).
"It's fun to figure out what concepts will work and then test them on my grandchildren to see what sparks their interest," Howard said, adding that he has enjoyed the collaboration with Nickelodeon. The producers of Oscar-nominated Apollo 13 are now developing a live-action series set in space in collaboration with showrunner Daniel Knauf (Carnivale and The Blacklist).
"You got the sense from the first conversation that Brian Robbins and his team really wanted to take big creative swings," Howard said. "He's giving Nickelodeon a big energy boost."
Weekend on 12/05/2019