Shocking: Nick Reruns from the 90s Do Big Ratings  ⚐

"According to Nielsen, the midnight-to-1 a.m. combo of All That and Kenan and Kel drew roughly 600,000 viewers (of all ages) Monday, compared to the 374,000 viewers who caught Lopez Tonight on TBS in the same hour. It also bettered the 559,000 viewers who caught an Awkward rerun on MTV at midnight, as well as the roughly 500,000 people who checked out reruns of The New Adventures of Old Christine and HIMYM on Lifetime"

(Via Vulture.)

This is in no way shocking. In fact, it's only shocking that it hadn't been done before this. As a child of the 80s (and a teen in the 90s), I was there when cable tv exploded. During that time, the smaller UHF network and cable networks flooded their time slots with reruns of 70s and 80s tv shows (and, later, 90s shows).

I seriously believe I've seen every episode of Happy Days ever created. A show that aired a majority of its episodes before I was 3. (Same with Laverne and Shirley, The Jeffersons, etc).

Nick at Night, the good old channels 56 and 38 (in Boston), old school USA Network. They aired every single semi-popular show from the 70s and 80s ad-naseum. Today, with reruns on related cable networks, Netflix and Hulu, DVD, it's much much easier for someone to keep up with their favorite tv shows.

So, as someone pretty much sitting in the every advertisers target demographic, I've seen every show from the 70s and 80s, and pretty much every modern show. And I can catch them whenever I want online or on-demand.

What's missing from this picture? The other shows that aired during the 80s and 90s. The shows that padded out networks like Nickelodeon and USA. The shows that have been incredibly hard to find and that would cause almost any 25-35 year old to stop what they were doing and sing along to the theme song.

When I heard TeenNick was airing these shows, I set my DVR to start recording Clarissa Explains it All and Doug. I still knew the theme songs. I remembered character names.

Apparently everyone else did, too.

Just wait until Hey Dude and Salute Your Shorts are on. Ratings gold.