Similar to the original 1996 series, this series has a live-action host in an animated world. The series features new production designs and the characters are animated digitally, though the visual style remains similar to the style used in the original series. Like the original show, Blue's Clues & You! depended upon built-in silences designed to encourage audience participation and what The New York Times called "direct address inviting preschoolers to play along with games and solve mini-mysteries". The show's producers recognized that its return was due to 1990s nostalgia, and that although young children had more access to technology and were more visual than preschoolers in the 1990s, they still had the same developmental and emotional needs to "slow down".
Cast and characters
Main
Blue – A blue puppy who leaves pawprints on objects as clues to what she wants to say.
Josh – The host of the new series. He is a cousin of Steve and Joe from the original series.
Mailbox - A mailbox who delivers a letter or e-mail to Josh every day.
Tickety Tock - An alarm clock who wakes the residents of the Blue's Clues House each morning.
Slippery Soap - A bar of soap who lives in the bathroom sink. He slides around everywhere he goes.
Recurring
Magenta - A magenta puppy who is Blue's best friend from school. She first appears in the episode "Playdate with Magenta."
Steve - Josh's cousin and Joe’s older brother, a college graduate who works at the Blue Prints Detective Agency. He was the first host of the original series.
Joe - Josh's other cousin and Steve's younger brother, who works at the Present Store. He was the second host of the original series.
Production
In 2017, the original show's creators, Angela C. Santomero and Traci Paige Johnson, after many years of trying to bring Blue's Clues back to Nickelodeon, were given permission to develop a reboot for 20 episodes. On April 17, 2018, Nickelodeon posted a video discussing the audition process for the series. Over a thousand people participated in the auditions. On September 13, 2018, Nickelodeon announced that Joshua Dela Cruz, best known as an understudy for Disney's Aladdin on Broadway for five years, would be the series' host. Dela Cruz, who grew up in New Jersey, watched the original show with his younger sister and is the first Asian-American to host Blue's Clues. Steve Burns, host of the original series, participated in the casting process. 9 Story Media Group's live-action and animation division co-produces the series with animators from Brown Bag Films. The animators updated the show with objects familiar to preschoolers; for example, a phone was used instead of the handy dandy notebook and an email arrived during mail time. On May 27, 2019, a first-look trailer was released to the public. On August 2, an extended version of the theme song was released. On August 26, 2019, it was announced that the series would premiere on November 11, and that the show's two original hosts, Burns and Donovan Patton, would be returning to portray their respective characters in the series premiere episode. The New York Times reported that Burns was at first reluctant to continue his association with the show, but was persuaded by its fans on social media to write, direct, and appear on the show. On November 19, 2019, the series was renewed for a second season of 20 episodes. The series was later renewed for a third season of 20 episodes on February 19, 2020.
Episodes
Release
The series premiered on Nickelodeon on November 11, 2019. Three episodes were made available to stream for free on Vudu on September 27, ahead of the official release on Nickelodeon. In Canada, the series premiered on Treehouse TV on the same day as the US date.
Merchandising
In July 2019, Viacom Nickelodeon Consumer Products announced that Just Play, a Florida toy company, would produce plush, figurines, playsets, and roleplay merchandise based on the series, while VTech, a Hong Kong company, would produce "early learning toys with modern tech features". Cardinal, a New York-based company, will manage games and puzzles. The products will become available for purchase in fall 2020.
