| This article is about the television channel. You may be looking for the block on Nickelodeon. |
Nick Jr. (currently known as the Nick Jr. Channel in the US) is a television channel owned by Paramount Global spun off from the American Nickelodeon's long-running Nick Jr. programming block, which began on January 4, 1988 in the US and 1 September 1993 in the UK and Ireland. They aired Thomas & Friends in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, India and the US. They also helped to produce the seventh series of Thomas & Friends.
Broadcast[]
United Kingdom and Ireland[]
In January 1999, Nickelodeon UK acquired the British pay broadcast rights to Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends from Cartoon Network.[1] They began airing the first to the fifth series on the Nick Jr. block and channel from 1999 in the UK and Ireland daily. However, Cartoon Network would continue to air the series until their license fully expired in 2001.
Beginning with the sixth series, Nick Jr. was the first-run broadcaster for the series in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
On 31 May 2004 a night-time block launched on Nick Jr. called Noggin. The block aired classic children's programming from 20:00 to 22:00 at night. One or two episodes of the first to the seventh series aired each night on the block. On 5 September 2005, the block was renamed to Nick Jr. Classics. The block lasted until 2010.
In 2004, a series of segments called Playtime with Fans were shown on the channel during advert breaks at least from 2004-2005 and would later air on TMF (later known as VIVA!) when the first to fifth series were being aired on the channel by Noggin. These segments were stories made by young children who played with their favourite characters, and Michael Angelis narrated the stories. At least three of these shorts were made.
On 1 August 2004, the eighth series premiered. Starting from this series, Thomas & Friends aired in a half-hour format. In the airing, two eighth series episodes, one seventh episode, a few Learning Segments and a song were paired. Michael Angelis' narrations of seventh series episodes were paired with Robert Hartshorne's music replacing Mike O'Donnell and Junior Campbell's music. Airings of the first to the seventh series now used transitions introduced in the eighth series. These half-hour format airings also aired on PBS Kids in the US and Treehouse TV in Canada, albeit with Michael Brandon's narrations instead of Michael Angelis' narrations. Initially, the eighth and the ninth series only aired during weekends, but they began to air during weekdays as well beginning in 2005.
On 26 June 2005, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of The Railway Series, Nick Jr. aired a marathon called Thomas & Friends Party. The day started off with party-themed episodes from other Nick Jr. series such as Dora the Explorer, Max & Ruby and the British version of Blue's Clues. Starting at 12:00, Thomas & Friends episodes aired until 18:00. 48 episodes from the fifth and sixth series were aired in the event, along with one episode from the seventh series.
On 30 January 2006, another Noggin block launched on TMF. The first to the fifth series aired on the block until 16 July 2006.
On 24 April 2006, Nick Jr. 2 was launched, with Thomas & Friends as one of its launch programmes. The tenth to the twelfth series premiered on Nick Jr. 2.The First series - fourth series episodes also aired on the block.
Nick Jr. first ran every series up until the eleventh series in 2007. Starting from the twelfth series, Channel 5's Milkshake! would begin to first run every series.
On 19 February 2008, Calling All Engines! premiered on Nick Jr. during a week on the channel called "Specials Week", which aired various specials of Nick Jr. series. This airing of the special cut out the songs and the learning segments.
On 30 April 2010, Nick Jr. rebranded. With this rebrand, the half-hour formats of the eighth to the twelfth series which were previously 28 minutes were shortened down to 22 minutes to allow advertising space. This included "Making Tracks to Great Destinations", the morning and night sequences, the Rev. W. Awdry's Letter, the Island of Sodor opening sequence and the learning segments being removed from airings. However, the full 28 minute half-hour formats were still shown on some weekends while Series 13 and onward didn't have the full block shown at all.
In 2011 and 2012 when the fourteenth series and the fifteen series was airing on Nick Jr., there were many glitches occurred during broadcasts. The blocks that are affected by these errors including the blocks Old and New,Helpful Friends, and Learning Together. These included an episode's audio would play out of sync until an end came into practice before reverting back to the right synced screen and sound, and the first few minutes of the episode Charlie and Eddie where until the scene when Edward and Charlie leave Maithwaite were drowned out by Thomas, You're the Leader. Most of the recent broadcasts of the tenth series on Nick Jr. also have episodes or interactive segments either out of sync or with crossed over audio. Nick Jr. said to a user online known as Roll Along Thomas;
| “ | We're sorry about the technical problems which have occurred during a few episodes of Thomas the Tank Engine recently.
We have re-checked a large number of episodes and so far have only found problems on a couple of episodes, which should by now have already been fixed. We hope that there won't be any more problems. Of course if you should spot any, please do feel free to let us know. A note of the date and time that you were watching is particularly useful, as well. We obviously want people to enjoy our programmes as they were meant to be seen so it upsets us too when something goes wrong. |
” |
On 27 October 2012, feature-length Thomas & Friends specials from the CGI series began airing on Nick Jr. each Saturday at 13:00, starting with Hero of the Rails . After the specials had been aired, the fifteenth series began airing on Nick Jr.
In 2013, the first to the seventh series ceased broadcast on Nick Jr.
On 3 November 2014, Nick Jr. 2 rebranded into Nick Jr. Too, and Thomas & Friends became exclusive to Nick Jr. Too. After this rebrand, there were only a select few times that Thomas & Friends aired on Nick Jr. The Christmas episodes of the seventeenth series aired from Christmas Day 2014, and King of the Railway was repeated on 11 February 2015 and Blue Mountain Mystery was repeated on 18 and 19 February 2015. The eighth to twelfth series ceased broadcast on Nick Jr. and Nick Jr. Too around Spring 2015. Nick Jr. Too also aired the seventeenth series and the eighteenth series.
The CGI series episodes in the half-hour airings on Nick Jr. Too remained the same as the PBS Kids airings, but were shortened to fit in more advert breaks, which meant the Mr. Perkins' Storytime and Postcards segments were removed, only leaving in two episodes with a song in the middle.The episodes from the Spills and Thrills DVD also premiered on Nick Jr. Too.
Around spring 2017, the episodes from the Dinos and Discoveries DVD and the nineteenth series aired on Nick Jr. Too. Unlike before, these episodes were not aired in a half-hour format and were instead aired individually. However, they were aired in the same order as the 28 minute half-hour format airings that were being aired on PBS Kids in the US.
In October 2016, Turner Broadcasting System Europe acquired the pay broadcast rights to Thomas & Friends.[2] The series was removed from Nick Jr. Too at the beginning of 2017, and Cartoonito began airing the series in March 2017. However, Thomas & Friends last aired on Nick Jr. Too on 26 December 2017 with Diesel's Ghostly Christmas and the Nick Jr. Website still featured the Thomas & Friends activities for a time.
In October 2021, Mattel announced various broadcasters who had acquired Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go in their respective countries, with Nick Jr. acquiring the pay broadcast rights to the series in the United Kingdom and Ireland,[3] and as such, it premiered on 16 May 2022.
United States[]
The Thomas & Friends partnership with PBS ended on 31 December 2017 and the Christmas/Winter episodes of the twenty-first series began airing on the Nick Jr. Channel on December 18, 2017, including Emily in the Middle, Daisy's Perfect Christmas, The Big Freeze and Over the Hill.
As of early 2020, the Thomas & Friends partnership with Nick Jr. ended, and all traces of it were removed from the website. Shortly after the Nick Jr. partnership ended, Mattel made a deal with Netflix to stream Thomas & Friends in the US, starting from March 2020. After the announcement of the 2021 reboot, Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go, Cartoon Network acquired the broadcast rights for the show in the US.
Other Regions[]
In the Netherlands, Nick Jr. aired the first series up until the thirteenth series as part of Nickelodeon's main programming and on Nick Jr.'s own 24/7 TV channel. Nick Jr. always aired standalone episodes. Nick Jr.'s logo was featured on the front cover of the Dutch DVD releases of the first series to the fourth series by Bridge Pictures.
Thomas & Friends also came to Nick Jr. in Australia and New Zealand for a while.
Blocks[]
UK/IRL[]
- Nick Jr. (1999–2015)
- Nick Jr. Classics (Formerly Noggin) (2004–10)
- Nick Jr. Too (2006–17)
- Nick Jr. Thomas & Friends Party (2005)
- Noggin on TMF (2004-2005)
US[]
- Nick Jr. (June-August 2000; 2017–19)
AUS/NZ[]
- Nick Jr. (2003-2010)
Airings[]
2006
2007
2008
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Trivia[]
- In 2000, during Shining Time Station's airtime to promote Thomas and the Magic Railroad, Nick Jr. held a sweepstakes for children to enter to win a train-themed party in their home for their friends, along with Mara Wilson and a life-sized model of Thomas as special guests. Several winners would also have won a Wooden Railway Stop & Go Figure 8 set.
- Sometime before 2004-2005, episodes from the first series were shown on this channel in the UK and Ireland with their unaltered opening titles and credits, however, a majority of them were later on shown in the digitally remastered format, though some episodes still had their original opening titles, but with remastered credits. All second and third series episodes were shown with remastered opening titles. However, the fourth series episodes were shown with their Australian opening titles.
- The half hour editions of the eighth series from when they aired on Nick Jr. UK were made available on DVD in South Africa by Next Video, with the exception of "Patience".
- Between 2004 and 2005, Michael Angelis would provide voice overs in some promos.
- The Nick Jr. Thomas & Friends Party aired on 26 June 2005 as a 6 hour marathon of classic Thomas & Friends episodes at 12.00 midday after the failed 60th Anniversary attempt at Hatfield House.
- The Nick Jr. UK and Ireland promo for the fifteenth series used the Monty Python song Always Look on the Bright Side of Life from their film Life of Brian.
- The only special that didn't aired on both the UK and US channels is The Great Discovery.
Gallery[]
Logos[]
Sing-a-long Vol.2 Korean VHS
Nick Jr. endboard
Nick Jr. endboard
.png "HiT Entertainment and Nick Jr (2004).png (1.41 MB)")
_(Alternate_version).png "HiT Entertainment and Nick Jr (2004) (Alternate version).png (1.48 MB)")
UK Videos[]
US Videos[]
References[]
- ↑ Nickelodeon UK has swiped the rights to Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends from arch-rival children's cable channel Cartoon Network, writes Alice Macandrew. The entire series is set to air on - Broadcast
- ↑ Cartoonito takes Thomas from Nick, Sesame Street - TBI Vision
- ↑ Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go Expands Globally - aNb Media, Inc.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 17 June 2001 schedule (1)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 17 June 2001 schedule (2)
- ↑ 29 March 2010 schedule
- ↑ 2 April 2010 schedule
- ↑ 12 April 2010 schedule (archived)
- ↑ 17 April 2010 schedule (archived)
- ↑ 27 April 2010 schedule (archived)
- ↑ 10 May 2010 schedule (archived)
- ↑ 26 May 2010 schedule (archived)
- ↑ 11 June 2010 schedule (archived)
- ↑ 7 July 2010 schedule (archived)
- ↑ 15 August 2010 schedule (archived)
- ↑ 11 August 2011 schedule (archived)
- ↑ 26 August 2011 schedule (archived)
- ↑ 12 September 2011 schedule (archived)
- ↑ 30 September 2011 schedule (archived)
- ↑ 24 December 2012 schedule (archived)
- ↑ 9 January 2013 schedule (archived)
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 Nick Jr. UK To Premiere Brand-New "Thomas & Friends" Movie "King of the Railway" On Saturday 31st May 2014; To Announce Exciting "Peppa Pig" News Soon - NickALive!
- ↑ Nick Jr. UK on Facebook
External Links[]
- Nick Jr. (British and Irish TV channel) on Wikipedia
- Nick Jr. Channel on Wikipedia
- Nickelodeon Wiki
- Thomas & Friends on Nickelodeon Wiki
- Nickstory Jr. UK Archives
- Nickstory Jr. Archives
- Thomas & Friends on Nickstory Jr. Archives
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