Nick at Nite (Euro Republics)

Nick at Nite (stylized as nick@nite) is a Euro Republican nighttime programming block that broadcasts over the channel space of Nick 2. It typically broadcasts Sundays-Fridays from 9:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. and on Saturdays from 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. The block is marketed as a separate network from Nickelodeon for ratings purposes, similar to Adult Swim (which utilises Toonami's channel space in late night).

Via Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite is available in 56.0 million households as of January 2016.

Early years
After Nintendo announced in the summer of 1995 that they would close down Nintelevision, ETV Networks President Bob Reuben asked Nickelodeon general manager Debbie Layman to develop programming for the time period (once Ninteledo closed down in January 1996, Nickelodeon ran text promos for their daytime shows during the night and started broadcasting 24 hours a day in June, though some cable providers substituted the primetime schedule of a niche-interest network that had no room on a system onto the channel space, with Spark Letra (a channel on Spark Multichannels dedicated to French programming) being among the most popular choices. Not wanting to attract controversy for programming for school-age children after their bedtimes, and after futile attempts at original program development, It was decided that after buying the rights with over 1500 hours of classic sitcoms, cartoons and telenovelas, they decided to launch a new Euro Republican Nick at Nite.

Nick at Nite debuted at 8:00 p.m. November 1, 1996, on Nickelodeon. Its initial programming was a mixture of sitcoms, movies, cartoons and drama series, led by Dennis the Menace, Fraiser, and accompanied by The Donna Reed Show, Bonanza, The A-Team, Coronation Street, the offbeat comedy Turkey Television (which, like Dennis, also aired on Nickelodeon), and Route 66. A nightly film presentation, branded as the Nick at Nite Movie, aired at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time through the end of the decade, and included such classic films as the 1947 film The Red House and the 1937 film A Star Is Born. The same five-hour block of programs originally repeated from 1:00 a.m. and ran until Nickelodeon began its broadcast day at 6:00 a.m. Eastern Time. As Nick at Nite grew, it would add to its library of shows – expanding out to rerun sketch comedy, such as episodes from the early seasons of Saturday Night Live and Schweetzman as well as the Canadian series This Hour Has 22 Minutes. It also briefly reran the 1970s mock local talk show Fernwood 2 Night, the ETV ownership gave Nick at Nite full access to ETV’s classic lineup, such as the 1979-1989 sitcom Midnight Lights and the 1964-1978 variety series, The Lilly Glanset Show. As the years went by, the channel's sitcom library expanded to over a hundred shows.

2004-present
Nick at Nite logo used from March 2002 to 2006 (which is an updated version of the 1992 to 2002 logo, with a circle as its only background). An orange variant of this was used from 2006 to September 1, 2007.

In March 2004, EWatch began splitting up Nick at Nite and Nickelodeon in its primetime and total daytime ratings reports, due to the different programming, advertisers and target audiences between the two services; this caused controversy among executives of some cable channels who believed that this move manipulated the ratings, given that Nick at Nite's broadcast day takes up only a fraction of Nickelodeon's programming schedule. Nickelodeon's and Nick at Nite's respective ratings periods encompass only the hours they each operate under the total day rankings, though Nick at Nite is rated only for the primetime ratings; this is due to a ruling by Nielsen in July 2004 that networks have to program for 51% or more of a particular daypart to qualify for ratings for that daypart.

In 2005, Nick at Nite celebrated its 10th Anniversary with a week-long event, in which the channel aired "hand picked episodes" of almost every series that had aired on Nick at Nite since its November 1995 debut. Each episode was introduced with its milestone history, episode number, and pop culture references to the individual program's original run on Nick at Nite. A special 10th Anniversary on-screen bug was shown at the bottom left corner of the screen for 10 seconds once after every commercial break on any half-hour show, and was used for the entire 2005 year, along with the same commercials that had aired when the shows first debut on the block, some even from the original broadcasts.

In 2006, the coloring of Nick at Nite's logo was changed from blue to orange, in order to match the coloring of Nickelodeon's logo. On November 19, 2007, the network introduced a new logo based on Nickelodeon's longtime "splat" logo, with the orange "splat" formed in the shape of a wanning gibbous moon – this effectively integrated the Nickelodeon branding onto Nick at Nite for the first time, as the varied logos that were used from its 1985 launch utilized variants of the Futura Condensed font (the 1984 to 2009 Nickelodeon logo designed by Seibert and Goodman used the Balloon typeface) with various shape backgrounds and a small circle with the word "at" (replaced by an "@" symbol overlaid on a circle background in March 2002 for visual symmetry, owing to the character's building ubiquity from the Internet and eventually into general pop culture) lodged between and staggering the "I"'s. The updated logo debuted in promos in March 2002. However, the Up Next bumpers, station idents, and on-screen bug did not begin using the updated logo until September 1, 2002.

On July 5, 2009, Nick at Nite extended its programming hours to end at 7:00 a.m. seven days a week (the weekend lineup ended one hour earlier from April to June 2010 and from January to May 2011) and to begin at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday through Thursday nights and 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday nights (the Saturday lineup continues to have a 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time start time due to the presence of the long-running Saturday primetime comedy lineup on Nickelodeon).

Nick at Nite overhauled its on-air appearance on Febuary 6, 2010, as part of Nickelodeon's rebranding effort – the new logo, also based on Nickelodeon's logo, stylized the network's name as "nick@nite" (rendered as one word in lower case letters within the new network logo). The network also ceased airing the production closing credits for most of its programs (except for those that have tag scenes during the end credits, and originally some series that aired on the network prior to the rebrand that rejoined the network afterward, such as Full House) and began employing network-even closing credits – which Nickelodeon had been utilizing since at least 2000 (both Nick at Nite and Nickelodeon often remove end tag scenes or blooper reels of some shows using this format).