The ‘90s Are All That is a nighttime programming block on TeenNick featuring a rotating selection of iconic live-action and animated shows from Nick’s 1990s library. The block kicked off July 25, 2011, and airs Monday to Sunday from midnight to 2:00 a.m. The block was developed in response to overwhelming demand from fans of Nick’s groundbreaking original series from the 1990s. There’s a generation that grew up on Nick in the 90’s, and for the past few years Nickelodeon ‘90s fan groups have emerged asking to see the shows they grew up on. Now, there are people working at Nick who were part of that first generation that watched Nick. Since launch, the programming and additional content has continued to be driven by the fans through social media – fans actually vote on Facebook for the shows they’d like to see appear in the block. Entertainment Weekly calls it a “viewer-driven ratings powerhouse" and listed it as one of the industry's outstanding achievements of 2011.On the first night that Nick’s 1990s programming made its triumphant return to the airwaves, it transformed Twitter into its own personal (Pickles) playpen, claiming all 9 organic worldwide trending topics at one point, and a whopping 18 trending topics throughout the night. Pretty phat, right? And the microblogging love didn’t stop there. Since that night we’ve seen everything from show titles to new catchphrases (i.e. #WhatTheKel) make their mark as trending topics. While we’ve been lucky enough to watch our sleep-deprived fans gush in nostalgic euphoria over the programming, we couldn’t have sustained our momentum for this long without our own social activity. On our Twitter and Facebook pages, we’ve channeled fan passion into real on-air results. Our UPick stunts on Fridays and around holiday events put the line-up in our fans’ hands, giving them the rare opportunity to choose what ends up on TV with the click of a button or the simple stroke of a hashtag. Whether through influencing on-air programming or sampling a wide array of video content, we’re getting the fans the entertainment they’ve demanded wherever and however we can. We’re constantly gauging fan energy towards certain shows, always checking-in, asking what they want to see, and delivering results faster than you can say Rugrats. Beyond programming, we felt a strong desire to integrate the fans directly into the on-air experience. We use our favorite fan tweets as part of our on-air packaging, and we’ve helped channel that energy into collectively awesome social activity. By providing witty questions and hashtags each night on-air (i.e. #90sPickupLines) we engage our fans with our unique ‘grown up’ look at the shows that defined our childhoods. We’re tying the nostalgia to the latest trending topic on Twitter, socializing the ‘90s experience by asking our fans to connect the old with the new in fresh, fun ways. On Facebook, our daily mini-stunts like ‘Meme Monday,’ ‘Re-write Wednesday’ and ‘Vital Realizations’ get our fans thinking about and playing around with the beloved content in a way that only social media could make possible. Like Doug missing The Beets concert, but then having a surprise personal jam session with the band at the Honker Burger later that night, the ‘90s may have been away for some time, but now they’re back and better than ever in the social space.
"Best of 2011: How TeenNick -- and fans -- started 'The ‘90s Are All That'" http://popwatch.ew.com/2011/12/17/best-of-2011-behind-the-scenes-teennick-the-90s-are-all-that-keith-dawkins/ "BUZZFEED: Success Doug" http://www.buzzfeed.com/whitneyjefferson/doug-funnie-is-always-successful “The Good Ol’ Days of 20 Years Ago" http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/arts/television/teennicks-90s-nostalgia-fest.html
