Mar 29, 2024

Paramount+ Unceremoniously Drops 10 Kids Titles Including "Rugrats," "Blue's Clues & You," and "Big Nate"

Paramount+ has reluctantly and without warning removed 10 children's titles from its current catalog, including several animated shows from popular cartoon franchises such as "Blue's Clues" and "Rugrats."

This week's deletion comes amid uncertainty about Paramount's future. The legacy company is struggling to adapt to the streaming era and plans to lay off 800 employees this year. The entire staff of Paramount's preschool streamer Nogging is also included in the layoffs, and the parent company plans to discontinue the platform this year. In addition, Paramount Global's majority shareholder, Shari Redstone, wants to give up her stake in the company.

When the closure of Noggin was announced, a Paramount spokesperson stated that many of the platform's titles would be migrated to Paramount+, as children's programming, particularly Nickelodeon children's programming, is among the platform's most watched programs. Given the company's current status, Paramount's decision to stop children's content is a bit of a head scratcher.

A list of all shows removed from Paramount+ this week follows. Anime titles are in bold.

Most of these titles are relatively new, having been released within the past two to four years, and some, like "Blue's Clue & You" and "Rugrats," are still airing episodes on Nickelodeon's linear network, or at least have been until now It is worth noting that Cartoon Brew contacted Paramount and Nickelodeon for more information on this removal, but did not immediately receive a response. We will update this article as more information becomes available.

In its annual 10-K financial report filed in February (available here in PDF), Paramount announced the reduction of its streaming catalog, writing:

In connection with our ongoing review of our international content strategy, in Q1 2024, We have made a strategic decision to focus on content with global appeal. As part of this effort, we are streamlining our international Paramount+ original content in particular and streamlining our linear network programming. As a result, we are reviewing our vast global content portfolio and removing select content from our platform.

Paramount has not confirmed that this is a complete removal of programming, but shows have also been removed from Nickelodeon's official website. Nevertheless, there is widespread speculation that the company may attempt to sell at least some of these programs to other platforms.

Given its long and fruitful relationship with Nickelodeon, Netflix appears to be a strong contender; Netflix recently partnered with Paramount and Nick on a live-action adaptation of the hugely popular "Avatar: The Last Airbender": the film "Sandy Cheeks" is due out later this year.

Artists who worked on some of Nick's shows that were taken down have been vocal on social media about a situation that feels all too familiar after Warner Bros. Discovery's more extensive purge of shows in August 2022. Most of these series remain sealed, and there are fears that Paramount will do the same for titles it cannot sell to other distributors.

Outstanding storyboard artist Regis Camargo was one of the artists hardest hit by the cuts, with four shows he worked on being dropped by either Max or Paramount+. He tweeted:

Final Space, Prodigy, and now Big Nate. Three shows I worked on were streaming for less than 2 years - (Prodigy was less than a year before returning to Netflix). Final Space" is not there yet: ...... No one knows where "Big Nate" will end up: ......

Before adding later:

Correction in LRT. Four of the shows I worked on ("Middle Most," for which I did a bit of animation for Goku Parker...) are off the grid.

Rugrats story artist Lee Cree tweeted:

Rugrats 2021 was my first onboarding job (revision) and sad to hear they removed the show without prior warning

But hey, it's American animation. amrite: