Can Ninja Turtles save Nickelodeon?
This Saturday, some classic heroes are going back in action. Nickelodeon is reviving the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And hoping the heros-in-a-half-shell can help save the flagging network.
These new turtles aren’t the TMNT of my youth. They’re cooler. Hipper. And Nickelodeon is betting they’ll still have some of that “turtle power” that made them such an ’80s and ’90s mainstay.
Turns out the network needs a little rescuing.
“About this time last year, Nickelodeon fell off the proverbial cliff,” says Todd Juenger, a media analyst at Sanford Bernstein, “Nickelodeon, which has been the No. 1 kids network for 13 years, is now, at best, the No. 2 network and is neck and neck for No. 3 with the Cartoon Network.”
But not everyone thinks the turtles will have the appeal they used to. “It could catch on, but it’s unlikely,” says Porter Bibb, from Mediatech Capital Partners. “It could be seen as a retread.”
Mom and dad singing along probably won’t help the cool factor.
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