Sinking ratings, is nostalgia not working?
 

The Nick show debuted in 2012 with 3.92 million strong. The whole season they averaged about 2.9 million. Season 2 closed out averaging about 2.5 million. Season 3, significantly less at about 1.9. Season 4 even less at about 1.7... and "Trans-Dimensional Turtles," almost a new series low at 1.53 million viewers. Ouch.

Was "Trans-Dimensional Turtles" a bad idea? Are they overestimating the value of Fred Wolf nostalgia, or is the Nick show simply overstaying its shelf life?

I kind of expect to see this sort of trend in many animated series. I'm sure ratings will fluctuate as the movies come out, but all these series seem to have a set shelf life. Perhaps we will see yet another new series around 2020.

The Nick show is just boring as heck... I've tried to like it but it seems pointless and in some cases, the jokes are gross and not very kid friendly.

But if anything, the Nick TMNT cartoon ratings took a sharp decline when the last movie came out. By that logic, the next one might just sink it.

I don't think Nickelodeon gives a damn about ratings anymore because the episodes are up on ITunes before they air.

Trans Dimensional Turtles was on Easter Day so most people were at church. It was on I Tunes before it aired. and Nick uploaded the episode on the website after it aired eastern time.

Don't know if you can blame it on that... a couple months before it on 1/31, "The War for Dimension X" only garnered 1.35. Double ouch.

venturing out of my safe area for a bit.

To me, it's just not that strong a show. and it's a shame because it has a potential to be.

The cast is amazing. the animation is great. The Music is superb.
But the show itself is just kind of....everywhere.

It can't decide if it wants to be brazenly serious, brazenly comedic, brazenly horror.

It forgets plot points. it throws out cool plot points that get forgotten about (aprils mother,anyone?) . Characters show up at random. There is NO REASON to have a Krang Prime if it's not a main character. why even bother having it?

Karai's all but been forgotten about. Shredder shows up when they remember he's in the show. Baxters been all but forgotten about.

this show is like its' being run by 5 different people and not one is on the same page.

And these super long breaks in between episodes isn't helping it either. by the time you get used to the show being back, it's gone again for two months.

This is the first turtle series I haven't seen episodes more than once. Me. one of the biggest turtle fans out there.

there's just not enough new ground covered. and the old ground that is revisited just isn't done well enough to capture my imagination. except leatherhead and Bebop and Rocksteady. those I think they got right. everything else, not so much.

this thing feels like it's run too much by committee rather than by fans with a plan.

The Nickelodeon cartoon was originally meant to coincide with the movie, but then the movie got delayed which resulted in the cartoon debuting two years before the movie. It is my belief that the cartoon we have now was probably intended as placeholder that would eventually be replaced by (or molded into) a show based on the movie to emphasise brand name synergy. It's a rather common practice, shows like these don't typically last more than two or three seasons.

If this is correct, then the show will most likely end next year to be replaced with a new show a couple of months later. You can tell by the somewhat wishy washy story that the show has probably outlived it's intended lifespan, which is why kids might not feel like watching the show anymore.

As for nostalgia, I guess there aren't that many adults who get excited about the Fred Wolf Turtles anymore and I don't think children are that interested in a cartoon that hasn't been on the air for twenty years.

I think the problem is that they aired it on Easter Sunday, airing when most families would be at church for Easter service.

Now, it was probably enough of a bad move to have it set on Sunday at 11 in general (when most Sunday services take place), but Easter was probably a really bad time to have a special crossover.

But it was also on I tunes before it aired.

Good point. Its hard to say I guess, I just hope we don't see the next series mirror the movies. I know people have different opinions on the movies, but I for one wouldn't be ecstatic. :ohwell:

Episodes have been out on iTunes before they aired dating back to S2. Ratings are falling and it has nothing to do with iTunes.

Actually ITunes didn't air Season 3 episodes before they aired on Nick, only Season 2 episodes and the ratings were falling then.

I think the other reason the ratings are falling is because of Nickelodeons bad scheduling.

I expect a lot of people record the episodes now and watch later.

Here's a thought: it's not that great of a show. If it wasn't "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", I wouldn't even watch the show. To me, the brand is all that the show has going for it.

I´m not interested in this show, don´t like it. This has been my opinion since the middle of the first season.

This thread is baffling. All cartoon shows decline in ratings after the first season, this happens in the history of anything.

Go look up the ratings for the 4kids series if its archived online anywhere, you'll see the same decline in ratings.

I wish I knew more about cartoon ratings... but looking at something like Nick's Avatar: The Last Airbender, that never dipped below 3.5 million viewers its entire run. TMNT is now struggling to stay above a single million viewers... on the surface, that seems pretty dire.

Avatar aired a decade ago. It began in 2005 and ended around 2008-2009, didn't it?

The whole media landscape is vastly different now than in the early 2000's. Now most kids watch episodes online, they don't even watch shows on TV anymore.

But even peeking at a recent show like "Sam and Cat" on Nick, that managed to stay afloat well above 3 million its whole run. Why would kids be more apt to not watch TMNT on TV but watch something like Sam and Cat on TV instead?

Seems pretty clear that the kiddies and audiences in general are just walking away from Nick TMNT.

Because young 10-13 year old boys and girls enjoy seeing scenes like this:

http://31.media.tumblr.com/654cf6b75...b7qqo1_500.gif

Well Sam And Cat wasn't exactly for the same target audience. Nick's TMNT is targeted towards 5-10 year old boys. Whereas S&C's target audience was preteen/teenage boys AND girls. Also, new episodes of S&C aired in prime time, while the new TMNT episodes air on Sunday mornings.

You were watching Sam & Cat. Weren't you.

I didn't really like it. Though I absolutely LOVED Victorious. That was a good show. ICarly wasn't bad either. But S&C was definitely the worst of the three shows.

It is because there are a lot more peolle nowdays who watch shows online on their pc than on TV. Thanks to the internet we dont need to watch it at the timre it plays on tv. When 2003 and 1987 shows aired you couldnt find the episodes on the internet. Nowdays evry new episode of a show(any show not just TMNT) can be watched for free on the internet at the same day that it plays on TV. I am sure Nick cares more about the sales of episodes on Itunes than the ratings on TV. That because they dont make any money from high ratings/people who watch it on tv but they make lot of money from the people who buy it from Itunes. Do you understand it? It is and will always be the best action adventure show ever. Nothing can beat tmnt

I have to watch the episodes online, my TV doesn't have Nickelodeon :tsad:
But I'm sure the movies might put up a bit of interest

Again, the ratings actually went down -- and fairly significantly -- when the last movie came out. Whether that's coincidence or not, I'm not sure... but it's a pretty fair indicator that new movies won't help.

Good question. But you have to remember that most people regularly watching TMNT aren't kids. It's adults and young adults and that means a lot of them are busy. Me, personally, have just enough time to see the ep before I have to head out...some people, not so much. That's where streaming and watching online come from. Like Vicky pointed out, ITunes is a big one that people use.

Where as with that Sam and Cat thing- the people who watch that regularly are 13 and younger...most 13 and under kids don't say 'darn I'm so busy today I'll just stream or catch it on ITunes'.

So, those shows get those views.

But, anyway...the show's sucess- like a bunch of cartoons- relies heavily on toy sales rather that views. :)

Heh..oops, didn't realize this was basically already covered. Sorry, folks

Would you guys say that there are more adults watching the Nick series more than kids, despite how many kids have the merchandise for it?

Not remotely.

I think a lot of you forget how quickly kids interest in shows fade. The Nick show started in 2012...its now 2016. A kid who was 10 in 2012 is now 14 years old...a teenager. He's in the phase where cartoons are "uncool" and wants to grow up.

A kid who was 8 back in 2012 is now 12 years old in 2016. Maybe the 12 year old doesn't want to watch cartoons anymore.

Some of you forget how quickly kids tastes change and how quickly they grow up nowadays. Likewise most kids today are distracted by social media, minecraft, youtube, etc....that our generation didn't have when we were younger.

Are we forgetting that ratings for kids' animation in general is dropping? Imagine the gradual decline seen on this show, but for almost every other show (the same trend applies to Adventure Time, Gravity Falls, the sort). This is mostly either due to children "growing up" and none that take their place because they feel "grown up" already (highly unlikely), or most people watch them digitally/illegally.
That's pretty much the case for every animated kids' show right now, and TMNT isn't the exception. Teen Titans Go is the only exception as far as I know.

I'm imagining like an army of millions of 9 year olds getting on Pirate Bay and torrenting episodes of Nickelodeon TMNT... and it being completely ridiculous. Because that's not happening.

Most kids shows are easily found just by typing it into google. We're not in 2005 anymore, every TV show is on the internet streaming. You don't even need to torrent anymore.

There is an army of pitates that torrenting all tv shows. It dosent matter if most of hem are kids or adults but there are many people who prefer to download a episode from pirate bay and watch it any time they wat than to watch it when it airs on tv.

I can't possibly ^^^THIS^^^ this more.

Nick f*cked up with the constant breaks, sh*t advertising, and no one knowing when the show is on. Not to mention not even increasing the budget as the show went along.

Except most of what that guy says isn't true. There are no forgotten plots. Karai isn't forgotten about. Its almost like some people don't get the concept of recurring villains, they don't have to be in every single episode.

Likewise most of the updates to old characters have been very creative and surprising.

This IS what's happening. Bay is killing TMNT, by both diluting and polluting the brand.

Outside of that, The nostalgia window is closing. I think people are sick of re-treads in general, tbh.

I still feel that the inconsistent times and the breaks have a lot to do with it, along with the fact that people view a lot of media online these days, where ratings aren't accounted for.

I know I mentioned this before. Didn't you all say that sometimes they would change the time of the program or when it goes into a break, they don't just air the 2k12 show in that slot? To me that's just unusual. I used Rugrats as an example before.

Back then, during its first run, Rugrats was "canceled", so to speak, and they just constantly played reruns. During its hiatus, it garnered its popularity, hence new eps were made. Even though Rugrats didn't have any new episodes at that time, it still kept its primary time slot. I knew that if I tuned in on that day at that time, Rugrats would be on, regardless if it was a rerun or not. I don't think this show does that (you guys have to tell me). One time you guys said they pre-empted this show for frickin' Full House! Geez....

How can people tune in for the show if it's not shown at a consistent time all the time or every week? I know for me, if I was watching this show (or any show) as a kid, and they kept changing up how it was shown, I would just stop watching due to forgetting when it comes on since it changes and isn't consistent.

The show also isn't promoted much, right? You guys have to inform me of this one. If it's not being properly promoted, how can people tune in to watch it?

Other problem...many people can just watch the show (along with other things) online now. It's not like how it was years ago where your only choice was to either watch it when it aired or just hope for a rerun of what you missed on TV.

Other issue...people are losing interest, but that goes for any show over a course of time, but I feel that a lot of factors aid to why this show's ratings have dropped.

If nostalgia really is the issue then why not create new characters and new storylines instead of reusing old ones, like they created Dogpound and Fishface and they were new and cool (then they mutated Dogpound but that's not the point).

Also random place to point this out but did anyone realize that Mr. Murakami is a reference to the Murakami - Wolf - Swenson thing?