Nickelodeon Launches Intergalactic Shorts Program

[Ghostbuster]

Nickelodeon today announced the launch of the Intergalactic Shorts Program, which aims to nurture new talent, with a focus on comedy content for six to 11s that could turn into long-form programming.

The venture is being lead by Ramsey Naito, Nickelodeon’s EVP of Animation Production and Development, along with newly-hired producer Conrad Vernon, who will act as the program’s executive producer, accompanied by Derek Evanick (Harvey Beaks) and Diana Lafyatis (Adventure Time) who serve as part of the program’s creative braintrust.

The group will be responsible for selecting domestic projects, with global pitches handled by Nina Hahn, SVP of International Production and Development at Nickelodeon.

The target demo for content submitted to the Intergalactic Shorts Program is Kids 6-11, with a secondary focus on content appealing to Adults 18-49 [in keeping with Nick’s co-viewing strategy], as well.

Accepted shorts will come from artists, designers, writers, directors, comedians and more, essentially anyone with an idea strong enough to warrant backing by the network, from around the world. Once accepted, the creators will be provided with the artistic and production support teams necessary to execute their vision and deliver a fully-finished animated short.

These shorts will have opportunities to air on different platforms and be developed for potential long-form animated series.

 

[kanc]

In my opinion, I don't see the point of having Nick shorts. It had been sitting it for years and never got picked up. I think it's just a waste.
Even nickandmore also expressed his opinion on that

 

[Ghostbuster]

Hopefully this program will be different. A few series have been commissioned from the former Animated Shorts Program. In the U.S., The Loud House and Welcome to the Wayne hailed from the program, whilst Nick Africa picked up MooseBox for a full series.

 

[Leviathan]

This is basically their ploy to get naive young cartoonists to sign away the rights to their ideas so they can't take them to Nick's competitors.

None of these will make it to series. And on the unlikely chance that one does, it will be swiftly cancelled for not getting Spongebob ratings.

 

[Elijah Abrams]

This is basically their ploy to get naive young cartoonists to sign away the rights to their ideas so they can't take them to Nick's competitors.

None of these will make it to series. And on the unlikely chance that one does, it will be swiftly cancelled for not getting Spongebob ratings.

Except that we are no longer in the era where Nick was ruled by Cyma Zarghami.

 

[SG-17]

Are they going to show these on television in a format similar to Oh Yeah! Cartoons, Random! Cartoons, and What a Cartoon! ?

Also, why the focus on comedy? Action programming is important too.

 

[AdrenalineRush1996]

Except that we are no longer in the era where Nick was ruled by Cyma Zarghami.

But we are in the era where Nick does SpongeBob spinoffs.

 

[Red Arrow]

This is ridiculous. Just greenlight The Ballad of Bea and Cad or some other great pilot you already have, Nick!

 

[Dudley]

In my opinion, I don't see the point of having Nick shorts. It had been sitting it for years and never got picked up. I think it's just a waste.
Even nickandmore also expressed his opinion on that

It gives creators show-runner experience. Plus, you get paid while producing the short, so it’s a nice paying job even if it’s for a few months, and could lead to other job opportunities. You might also be able to shops the pilot around to other networks after a certain period.


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[RainbowCupcake]

The target demo for content submitted to the Intergalactic Shorts Program is Kids 6-11, with a secondary focus on content appealing to Adults 18-49 [in keeping with Nick’s co-viewing strategy], as well.

I'm confused. Nickelodeon is a kid's channel. Why are they scouting out adult animation as well? As far as I know, there is no adult animation currently airing on Nick@Nite. I understand that adults can gain plenty of enjoyment out of cartoons that air on kid's channels (I'm one of them), but the decision seems odd. Anyways, I digress.

To echo everyone else, this will not go anywhere. Out of the three main children's animation channels (Nick, CN, DC/XD) many have agreed that Nick is definitely the worst for reasons such as not taking risks in their programming and how poorly they treat their content creators. Any new cartoon gets booted to Nicktoons (with rare exceptions like TLH) because they're not doing as well as The Sponge like Nick wants. The network is truly afraid to try new things, so it surprises me that they would even put in some sort of effort to start up this shorts program.