Paramount just disappeared a bunch of Nickelodeon shows
When we said "out with the old, in with the new" for the new year, we weren't talking to streaming services and their nasty habit of disappearing shows and films from their libraries. Unfortunately Paramount+ didn't get that memo and went ahead and indulged in the aforementioned nasty habit. This time around, it's some foundational millennial Nickelodeon shows (among other properties) that have hit the chopping block.
According to Deadline, the streamer has removed the cartoon Doug, the boyband sitcom Big Time Rush, and the Blue's Clues spin-off Blue's Room. It also got rid of My Life As A Teenage Robot, Wonder Pets, AwesomenessTV, Breadwinners, Game Shakers, House of Anubis, Let’s Just Play: Go Healthy Challenge, Welcome To The Wayne, Zoofari, Kung Fu Panda: Legends Of Awesomeness, and The Penguins Of Madagascar. Other titles that users have noticed missing reportedly include ALVINNN!!! And The Chipmunks, Face’s Music Party, Fanboy & Chum Chum, Ni Hao, Kai-Lin, Oobi, Sanjay & Craig, The Upside Down Show, and Tot Cop.
That's a whole lotta stuff! Not all of it has fully "disappeared" from the digital sphere; some shows, like Doug, are available elsewhere (in Doug's case, it's apparently been licensed over at Disney+). But other shows, including Big Time Rush, are now unavailable to stream unless you're paying to buy or rent somewhere like Apple TV.
Paramount+ purged a bunch of other kids' content in March, including the briefly rebooted Rugrats, which was a Paramount+ original based on a classic Nickelodeon cartoon. Yet lest some prime IP lay fallow for even a moment, the studio announced a "live action" Rugrats movie in development in October. And all of this comes shortly before Paramount is set to solidify its merger with Skydance in 2025. When that happens, it's expected that the company will spin off, sell, or otherwise shed some or even most of its cable assets, which could very well include Nickelodeon. So who knows what will become of that beloved archive of kids' television. For now, we know that these shows are lost in the ether. Hopefully somebody out there has some Big Time Rush DVDs.