New Kid City was a postponed concept for an educational channel from Sesame Workshop. It was in development from 1995 to 1998, when CTW partnered with Nickelodeon to create the Noggin channel. New Kid City was merged with Nickelodeon's own idea for an educational channel, Big Orange, to form Noggin. New Kid City was a "prototype" of the Noggin channel.
The idea for New Kid City was first announced in 1995 by the Los Angeles Times newspaper. The channel was planned to act as a home for CTW's shows aside from Sesame Street. (source) It was planned to launch sometime in 1997, but this never ended up happening.
Articles[]
- Los Angeles Times article about New Kid City
- Kidscreen article from 1999, with a summary of Noggin's history
- Screened Out book from 2000, which mentions New Kid City
Timeline[]
From the above articles, the timeline of New Kid City's development is known:
- Spring 1995: CTW announced its plans to make New Kid City. It felt that it could not keep relying on outside networks to air its shows, and it thought New Kid City would provide a stable home for its programs.
- 1997: New Kid City was planned to launch in 1997, but the channel's development never came to fruition and it not aired.
- Late 1997: Viacom-owned Nickelodeon discovered that CTW was still planning to make New Kid City. Nickelodeon was recently planning its own educational network, originally called "Big Orange" and later renamed Noggin. The two companies started discussions to merge their ideas into one network.
- 1998: CTW entered a partnership with Nickelodeon to co-found Noggin. They merged the ideas for New Kid City and Big Orange into the combined Noggin concept.