Nick at Nite: Why it's still around and won't be going away anytime soon (THREAD)

Nick at Nite needs no introduction, it's what Nickelodeon turns into night for the parents of kids who are sleeping.

Nick at Nite originally focused more on classic TV, but in its later/recent years became a general entertainment network.

Nick at Nite at one point had dozens of shows airing in one night, but now it's only 3 to 4, so many ask:

Why is Nick at Nite still around? Why don't they make Nickelodeon 24/7? Why don't they replace it with NickRewind?

The reasons: Advertisers and ratings

1) Advertisers:

Especially in a time where cable is in decline, networks need that advertisement money, especially the big cable networks.

Since kids aren't up late, that's when advertisements for alcohol, hygiene products, etc. (aka stuff not for kids)

Cartoon Network has a similar predicament, which is why they have Adult Swim to air more mature advertisements.

Disney Channel is a commercial-free network, so it doesn't need ad money and runs 24 hours a day.

Friends and Mom are very popular among the target demographic these advertisers want to reach, which is why kids programming won't work.

Bud Light doesn't want to promote their beer during reruns of Rugrats, even if a mix of kids/adults watch them, its not their target.

If you expanded the regular Nick lineup and put reruns of SpongeBob, The Loud House, Henry Danger, etc. overnight, you lose lots of potential advertisers.

The only interested advertisers you'll get are for kids, and they're all asleep, so who are you advertising for?

2) Ratings

Even if Nick at Nite airs the same few shows every night, it's still bringing in good ratings.

Look at reruns of Friends, they average in 500K-800K a night, that's amazing for reruns, look how many viewers it gains every episode

Even Mom gets pretty good ratings as well, it's recent season on Nick at Nite brings in 300K to 500K viewers (keep in mind that this is at 2AM)

Lots of these ratings are like Adult Swim, sure N@N has less variety and effort, but hey, it still works.

Even if advertisers weren't an issue, reruns of NickRewind shows Doug, Rugrats, Rocko, etc. or current Nick shows, The Loud House, SpongeBob, ALVINNN, wouldn't have the same affect.

It's mostly kids who watch these shows and around this time, they're asleep.

And no, Viacom will not make Nickelodeon a commercial-free network. Nickelodeon's reach and audience is so big, they can't afford not a run advertisements across the network.

Nickelodeon was originally commercial-free, but for the reason above, it went commercial in the 1980's.

Even if Warner Bros takes Friends, Full House, Mom away from them, they'll still find somewhere to get shows for adults. Even if its from other Viacom networks (South Park, Yellowstone, Awkwafina, etc.)

Again you want that advertiser money, not limited to children.

I could go on, but this is pretty much the gist of it. Getting the highest ratings you can get, and using those numbers to pull in advertisers.

Whether you like it or not, Nick at Nite is still very profitable and won't be going away anytime soon.