Nickelodeon Unveils 2020-21 Slate Details

Nickelodeon has revealed its slate of all-new wide-ranging content, including The Astronauts (working title), an action-adventure series co-produced with Imagine Kids+Family, set to bow this summer.

Additionally, the company is set to premiere Tyler Perry’s Young Dylan on Saturday, February 29, at 8:30 p.m. Executive produced, directed and written by Perry, the series follows a family whose world is turned upside down when their nephew, Young Dylan (Dylan Gilmer), an aspiring hip-hop star, moves in unannounced.

Nickelodeon’s partnership with Perry is part of his long-term pact with ViacomCBS, producing original series for BET Networks (The Oval and Sistas) and other ViacomCBS networks, with exclusive licensing rights for the programming. Perry also recently announced his joint venture with BET Networks for the new streaming video-on-demand service BET+. Tyler Perry’s Young Dylan marks Perry’s first kids’ scripted series.

The company has also nabbed the best-selling title Big Nate, written and drawn by Lincoln Peirce, from HarperCollins Publishing, with plans to adapt it into an animated series. The eponymous 26-episode series follows Nate, a precocious 11-year-old boy, and his best friends as they navigate sixth grade with humor and style.

“Big Nate is a book title I’ve wanted to translate into a series for a long time, and I am so happy this awesome, super-funny character is coming to Nickelodeon,” said Ramsey Naito, executive VP of animation production and development at Nickelodeon. “All of creator Lincoln Peirce’s slightly unruly, but entirely relatable characters share Nick’s same creative DNA, and we can’t wait for them to join our amazing family!”

“With the greenlight of this show, Nate is getting one step closer to achieving true awesomeness,” said Peirce. “I am thrilled to be collaborating with Nickelodeon on new adventures for this unlikely sixth-grade hero.”

Nickelodeon is also expanding the world of Henry Danger with an all-new Danger Force spin-off, set to bow on Saturday, March 28, at 8 p.m. In Danger Force, four kids are recruited to attend Swellview Academy for the Gifted (SW.A.G. for short), a school conceived by Captain Man and brought to life by Schwoz, after having been accidentally mutated in the fight to save Swellview. While there, the kids must learn to harness their frequently troublesome and sometimes uncontrollable superpowers as they begin to fight crime. Despite the dangerous circumstances of their new lives, the superheroes must keep their real identities a secret from both their families and the villains who are out to destroy them.

“A key part of our content strategy is to grow original franchises like Henry Danger by expanding their worlds through new characters and more high-stakes adventures,” said Brian Robbins, president of kids and family entertainment at ViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks. “We’re spinning off our Henry Danger mega-hit into Danger Force, where a new set of characters join members of the original cast for a wholly new take on this long-running series.”

The company has also announced the voice cast for Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years, the first-ever SpongeBob SquarePants spin-off. Premiering this July, the CG-animated prequel (13 episodes) follows 10-year-old SpongeBob during his summer at sleepaway camp and stars Tom Kenny (SpongeBob SquarePants), Bill Fagerbakke (Patrick Star), Rodger Bumpass (Squidward), Clancy Brown (Mr. Krabs), Carolyn Lawrence (Sandy Cheeks) and Mr. Lawrence (Plankton), all of whom are reprising their iconic roles in this new series.

“When our younger characters first meet in Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years, there is an instant chemistry among them that could only be conveyed by the incredible talents who have lived and breathed them every day for the last two decades,” said Naito. “We are so excited to have the original SpongeBob cast join our new series, which is incredibly inventive and funny, and visually stunning in CG.”

Renewed for the 2020-21 season are: Are You Afraid of the Dark?, All That, Top Elf, The Casagrandes, Blue’s Clues & You!, PAW Patrol, Blaze and the Monster Machines and Bubble Guppies.