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23-533: In August 1999, PBS and Nelvana teamed up to create the network's first-ever animated weekend programming block. It was created to boost viewership of the preschool audience on weekends, specifically on Saturday mornings when that attention was shifted elsewhere; many PBS stations devoted their Saturday morning schedules to general audience programming, including crafting or do-it-yourself shows, meanwhile commercial networks had extensive lineups for Saturday morning cartoons. A proposed series called Junior Kroll and Company

46-530: A drastic revamp. Elliot Moose and Corduroy were both dropped from the lineup entirely, thus shortening the block to two hours. The four remaining series ( Timothy Goes to School , Marvin the Tap-Dancing Horse , Seven Little Monsters , and George Shrinks ) were instead seen on the hour and half-hour. Timothy Goes to School and Marvin the Tap-Dancing Horse both ended production by late 2001. The second season ended on February 23, 2002. Following

69-476: A new logo with three circles with different colors (orange for Nick, green for the word "On", and blue for CBS) alongside bumpers and promos animated by Primal Screen. As with its predecessor Think CBS Kids and CBS Kidshow blocks, all of the programs within the block complied with educational programming (E/I) requirements defined by the Children's Television Act , although the educational content in some of

92-613: A three-year programming partnership with DIC Entertainment to produce a new children's program block for the three-hour Saturday morning timeslot featuring new and older series from its program library, to begin airing in Fall 2006. The block was replaced by DIC's block, initially branded as the KOL Secret Slumber Party , on September 16, 2006. Following the announcement of the second merger between CBS Corporation and Viacom , former CBS Corporation CEO Joseph Ianniello

115-464: The Bookworm Bunch became the second preschool-oriented Saturday morning block on broadcast television after Nick Jr. on CBS , which premiered two weeks before. Although PBS intended on the block to be broadcast on Saturdays, some stations opted to air it other days, particularly Sundays when there was less competition from other networks. During the block's first season, all the shows (with

138-587: The Children's Television Act . Although the block was intended to air on Saturday mornings, some CBS affiliates deferred certain programs aired within the block to Sunday mornings, or (in the case of affiliates in the Western United States) Saturday afternoons due to breaking news or severe weather coverage, or regional or select national sports broadcasts (especially in the case of college football and basketball tournaments) scheduled in earlier Saturday timeslots as makegoods to comply with

161-556: The FCC 's E/I requirements, as they would still have to air the mandated 3 hours of content considered educational or informational; although such content would not have to be supplied directly by the network, it has been CBS policy to provide the necessary programming so that the block would still need to air the E/I content. All of the programs aired within the block featured content compliant with educational programming requirements as mandated by

184-750: The Nick Jr. block until September 7, 2002, when it began airing mainline programming from Nickelodeon. On September 18, 2004, it switched back to its previous format. On April 14, 2000, a few months after Viacom (in timeline, which CBS founded in 1952 as television syndication distributor CBS Television Film Sales, and later spun off in 1971) completed its $ 37 billion merger with CBS Corporation (the original Westinghouse Electric Corporation ), CBS reached an agreement with new corporate cousin Nickelodeon to air programming from its Nick Jr. programming block beginning that September. On September 16, 2000,

207-621: The PBS Kids Channel until September 5, 2004, when it was dropped altogether. Around this time, there were many new additions coming to the PBS weekend lineup (like Thomas & Friends and Bob the Builder ) and the new PBS Kids Go! block debuted in 2004, all of which effectively replaced the Bookworm Bunch . Meanwhile, many PBS stations continued airing reruns of the individual standalone series (including Seven Little Monsters until

230-415: The Tap-Dancing Horse as part of its daily programming, the now-defunct Canadian dub of BBC Kids aired reruns of George Shrinks until its closure on December 31, 2018, and the now-defunct PBS Kids Sprout aired reruns of Seven Little Monsters until July 2006. The United Kingdom channel Tiny Pop aired reruns of Timothy Goes to School until 2017. Music videos aired at the end of each program before

253-480: The block in early 2001; as with Nickelodeon's Nick Jr. block at the time, it would be limited to four minutes per-hour. On September 14, 2002, the block was rebranded as Nick on CBS , and its programming content expanded to animated Nickelodeon series aimed at children between the ages of 2 and 12, in addition to two returning Nick Jr. series Blue's Clues and Dora the Explorer . The rebranding also introduced

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276-535: The block. Sometime in early 2004, the block had a relaunch, making additions such as live-action shows, such as The Brothers García . The older-skewing Nickelodeon series were discontinued from the block and the return of Nick Jr. on CBS premiered on September 18, 2004, refocusing the block back exclusively toward preschool-oriented series. On September 17, 2005, the block added Go, Diego, Go! and began incorporating interstitial hosted segments featuring Piper O'Possum. On December 31, 2005, Viacom formally split under

299-518: The credits. These music videos were essentially montages of scenes from all of the shows with musical accompaniment. Each of the songs was performed by American musical artist Nancy Cassidy, appearing on three albums released between 1986 and 1992 by Klutz (purchased by Nelvana in April 2000). The first season (2000–2001) of the Bookworm Bunch block ran for three hours, and the second season (2001–2002) ran for two hours. The most successful series from

322-509: The end of 2004, George Shrinks until 2009, and The Berenstain Bears which continues to air reruns on a limited number of PBS stations as of 2023). After PBS dropped the Bookworm Bunch block, some of the series were picked up by other commercial networks. U.S. cable channel Discovery Kids aired reruns of Timothy Goes to School from 2004 until 2006, the now-defunct Qubo aired reruns of Elliot Moose , Timothy Goes to School , and Marvin

345-592: The exception of the first 15-minute Corduroy episode) were shown either 15 or 45 minutes past the hour, in an effort to discourage " channel-flipping " to other competing children's cartoons. Another 15-minute Corduroy episode then ended the block, making its total runtime three hours. The Bookworm Bunch proved to be extremely popular in its first season, and weekend viewership increased dramatically. The first season ended on February 24, 2001, with reruns continuing until October 27, 2001. The second and final season premiered on November 3, 2001, and with this premiere came

368-515: The new three-hour block, known as Nick Jr. on CBS , premiered, replacing CBS Kidshow , produced by Canada-based animation studio Nelvana , which ended its run the week prior on September 9. For the first two years of the Viacom agreement, the block exclusively aired preschool-oriented programming from Nick Jr.; the block launched without commercial advertising, only airing promos, interstitial segments, and PSAs. Viacom began selling advertising during

391-462: The programs was tenuous in nature. It was partly for this reason why some of Nickelodeon's most popular programs (most notably SpongeBob SquarePants , then the cable channel's most popular series) were mainly not included as part of the CBS block, especially during the more open-formatted Nick on CBS era. However, Rugrats aired briefly in 2003, when it was added as a short-lived regular series within

414-481: The same half-hour time slot. This did not last long as PBS eventually aired two 15-minute episodes of The Berenstain Bears back-to-back beginning September 15, 2003. George Shrinks was given its own half-hour timeslot, in which it also proved to be extremely popular. Given the success of these shows, many PBS stations carried them on their weekday schedule. Reruns of the second season of the Bookworm Bunch block continued airing on weekends on select PBS stations and

437-410: The second season of the block, two shows were picked up as separate, standalone series. This included new episodes of Seven Little Monsters and George Shrinks beginning January 6, 2003, in addition to a brand-new revival of The Berenstain Bears . The new episodes of Seven Little Monsters were 15 minutes, instead of the original 30 minutes, and were aired immediately after The Berenstain Bears in

460-521: The shared control of National Amusements (owned by the late Sumner Redstone ), with CBS and all related broadcasting, television production and distribution properties as well as some non-production entities becoming part of the standalone company CBS Corporation , while Nickelodeon and its parent subsidiary MTV Networks became part of a new company under the Viacom name. Less than a month later on January 19, 2006, CBS announced that it would enter into

483-435: The weekend Bookworm Bunch block were stripped to five days a week, and joined Berenstain Bears as standalone programs. Nickelodeon on CBS Nick on CBS (also known as Nickelodeon on CBS ) was an American Saturday morning children's programming block featuring programming from Nick Jr. and Nickelodeon that ran on CBS from September 16, 2000 to September 9, 2006. It initially aired programming from

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506-465: Was part of original plans for the new block, but that idea was eventually shelved and replaced by Marvin the Tap-Dancing Horse . This and the other five series were all based on a children's book, a theme that was inspired by a PBS-commissioned study from the University of Kansas that demonstrated the idea that children can learn to read from television programs. Upon its launch on September 30, 2000,

529-518: Was receptive to the possibility of the return of Nickelodeon children's programming to CBS. However, CBS is currently under contract with Hearst Media Production Group to carry the CBS WKND E/I programming block until the end of the 2025–26 television season, meaning any new children's programming block wouldn't air on CBS until late 2026 at the earliest. Any return of Nickelodeon programming to CBS would bump up against stations' compliance with

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