Why do people not watch Nickelodeon nowadays?

[ssjup81]

I haven't watched the network regularly in years, so take what I think about this as you will.

I grew up with 80s Nickelodeon and 90s Nickelodeon, but I felt that by the mid-90s, the quality of it started to go downhill. To me, earlier Nickelodeon had more variety of programming. Sure early Nick showed Pinwheel like a million times a day, but it picked up steam.

Anyway, I liked the fact that Nickelodeon in the 80s had something that could maybe appeal to everyone. Parents and kids, like say Livewire. It was a talk show...for kids, but even my father watched this for musical guests. He actually still has an ep on Beta that had REM on it. There were shows imported from other countries, and Pinwheel did feature cartoons from different places as well.

We had Count Duckula (UK), Mysterious Cities of Gold (Japan), Danger Mouse (UK), etc. There was Turkey TV, Mr. Wizard's World! Seriously, the show was educational and fun and wasn't part of Nick Jr.'s block. It was part of Nickelodeon. I know it made me want to go through the house to try and find the materials needed to do the experiments featured on the show. They showed some old classics, like Dennis the Menace and Lassie, which seemed to resonate decently with kids as well.

I dunno, it just felt like the network, not counting the very beginning, had more of a balance of programming. Mornings for kids (like Pinwheel, Mapletown, Elephant Show, etc.), afternoons for older kids and teens (You Can't Do That on Television, Double Dare, Noozles, Livewire, etc.), nights for adults (with the addition of Nick@Nite).

The 90s was okay too, but it seemed to start tapering off, imo, by the mid-90s. The shows that the 80s Nick had were starting to stop being broadcast, Nick Jr. was taking up a larger block (early Nick. Jr., from what I recall seemed to air up until 12:00 and 12:00 - 8:00 was Nickelodeon [9:00 on Sundays in the early 90s because of Looney Tunes])... The teen shows maybe were cheesy in the 90s...but they weren't...annoying like they are now and I think the main prob Nick has is that it's "tween central" being run by a talking sponge. Seems the "teen" shows of the past had some realism to them, but now, it has me scratching my head thinking, "Do kids really relate to and act like this now-a-days?"

So...my scattered thoughts aside, I just feel earlier Nickelodeon and 90s Nickelodeon, to an extent had more variety and the live-action shows they did have (80s) could appeal to an adult audience and a child audience (Out of Control comes to mind). The comedy shows were more witty (Debatable...but maybe the 1981 eps of YCDTOTV would fall under this category, as the show got more...silly as it went on to cater to an American audience), and we had shows like Roundhouse that dealt with improv comedy, which was quite creative, and imo, All That dumbed the humor down for kids and the spinoffs after that seemed to fall victim to that as well.

Welcome Freshman was a silly show, but it was still relatable.

Sorry, I'm just rambling now...

Edit: Oh, forgot to add this in. Or...I'm just too darn old to like the station anymore and viewing 80s/90s Nickelodeon through rose-colored glasses. lol Nah, partially....but still feel that it had more variety and balance back then where adults could enjoy the programs too.

I recall a couple of years ago, where my mother was trying to watch some children's programs that her grand-nieces/nephews were into. She said it was painful to watch. She said she actually could get into the stuff I watched when I was young (minus Ren & Stimpy and even I got sick of that after a while....she did love Count Duckula though) and just felt the shows were....stupid and dumbed down (in her opinion). I wonder if others feel this way as well...