Raitings Flop For No Reason - PBS Kids and NBC To Shut Down PBS Kids Sprout and Universal Kids Cable Networks On March 6, 2025

It's another unfortunate blow for fans of cable television and physical media on DVD and VHS, as after 20 years on the air, PBS Kids and NBCUniversal have announced the unfortunate demise of its hit preschool and kids channels, PBS Kids Sprout and its successor for the elementary school older kids, Universal Kids which will be shutting down on Thursday, March 6th, 2025 at 6am

The first channel PBS Kids Sprout first launched on Monday September 26th, 2005 as a contract of NBC's joint-venture collaboration with PBS, Mattel's Hit Entertainment, Apax Partners and Sesame Workshop. The channel was noted to be the first USA 24/7 preschool network, even though these pre-K channels have existed years before, with the launch of the Nick Jr. and Playhouse Disney international channels in September 1998. Among its lineup over its 12-year adventures included a slew of hit preschool series both from the PBS Kids catalog roster, Sprout originals and the best HIT programs from around the world.

Among the iconic series from PBS Kids Sprout included the main seven programming blocks, The Sunny Side Up Show, The Sprout Sharing Show and The Goodnight Show that aired every day, Musical Mornings with Coo, The Wiggles: Sprout's Wiggly Waffle and LazyTown: The Super Sproutlet Show that aired on weekday mornings and afternoons from Monday to Friday and The Let's Go Show which aired on the weekends on Saturdays and Sundays.

The PBS Kids Sprout launch lineup included former PBS Kids mainstays Angelina Ballerina, Barney & Friends, The Berenstain Bears, Bob the Builder, Caillou which has continuously been described as the worst preschool kids show ever created, Dragon Tales, George Shrinks, Jakers! The Advnetures of Piggley Winks, Jay Jay the Jet Plane, Make Way for Noddy, Sagwa the Chinese Siamese Cat, Sesame Street, Thomas& Friends and Zoboomafoo, UK acquistions Teletubbies and Boohbah, Nickelodeon acquistion Kipper the Dog and the USA cable television debuts of Big Sister, Little Brother, James the Cat and Pingu.

The original in-vision continuity lineup of hosts and presenters consisted of Kelly Vrooman, Sean Roach, Michelle Lepe, Noel MacNeal, Kevin Yasmine and Dennisha Pratt and their p and their puppet sidekicks named Star, Patty, Ricky, Curtis E. Owl and their corporate mascot, a kazoo chicken named Chica voiced by Forest Harding which later gave TSSUS their own half-hour series The Chica Show in November 2012.

The second network Universal Kids was launched on Saturday September 9th, 2017 as a majority of the PBS Kids Sprout catalog was owned and acquired by solely NBCUniversal only by 2013 hence NBC stealing the Sprout programming for their final kids programming block on Saturday mornings, the fittingly named NBC Kids that ran every Saturday from 2012-2016 and NBC has since then been affected by the stupid teen-oriented programming saturday morning idiots at Litton Entertainment.

Since 2017, Universal Kids' lineup continues to expand on the Sprout family, with new programs like a kids edition ripoff of hit NBC franchises Top Chef and American Ninja Warrior, the USA debut of the international kids edition of The Voice, the PBS Kids Sprout reboot of the classic game show Beat the Clock and the linear debut of hit Netflix series such as Madagascar: All Hail King Julien, Shrek: The Adventures of Puss in Boots, The Mr. Peabody & Sherman Show and preschool series Dinotrux.

It's currently unknown which channel will replace Universal Kids after the March 6th closure date on whether it will be a new preschool/kids network or it will be an adults-only network in the similar fate that happened to the shutdown of NBC and iON Television's kids channel Qubo in February 2021.

A huge thanks to Andrew Beecham and the entire PBS, Comcast and NBCUniversal teams who have worked together tirelessly to make these channels possible over the last two decades. Without your support, these iconic channels would not continute to exist to this very day.

Thanks for all the memories and as always, kidness counts.

RIP
PBS Kids and NBC's childrens channels
September 26, 2005-March 6, 2025

RIP PBS Kids Sprout September 26, 2005-September 9, 2017
RIP Universal Kids September 9, 2017-March 6, 2025

www.sproutletsgrow.com www.sproutonline.com
www.universalkids.com www.pbskids.org www.nbc.com

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Dedcicated to the memory of Britt Allcroft