Children's programming on Telemundo


Children's programming has played a part in Telemundo's programming since its initial roots in television. This article outlines the history of children's television programming on Telemundo including the various blocks and notable programs that have aired throughout the television network's history.

History

Nickelodeon en Telemundo (1998–2000)

On September 15, 1998, Telemundo entered into a programming agreement with Nickelodeon to carry the cable channel's programming as part of a morning children's program block, "Nickelodeon en Telemundo". The block, which debuted on November 9, 1998 and was considered a sub-block of Telemundo Infantil, consisted of Spanish dubs of Nickelodeon's animated series aimed at older children and preschool-oriented programs aired by the channel's Nick Jr. block. The block ran on weekday mornings until September 5, 2000, when it was relegated to Saturday and Sunday mornings in order to make room for Hoy En El Mundo. Nickelodeon's contract with Telemundo ended in November 2001, following the network's acquisition by NBC; Hey Arnold! continued to be aired sporadically for a few years afterward.

Telemundo Kids (2005-2006)

On September 17, 2005, Telemundo launched a weekend morning block that turned out to be a revival of the "Telemundo Kids” block, but branded differently. The block consisted of Spanish dubs of various Nickelodeon and Canadian shows including All Grown Up, Wimzie's House, Hey Arnold!, Dora the Explorer and Jacob Two-Two. Following the sale of Telemundo to NBC in 2001 and the CBS/Viacom split in early 2006, the block was discontinued September 2, 2006. However, Jacob Two-Two carried over to the block’s direct successor Qubo, which premiered the following week.

Qubo on NBC/Telemundo (2006–2012)

In May 2006, NBC Universal and Ion Media Networks announced plans to form Qubo, a joint venture in conjunction with Scholastic Corporation, Classic Media and Corus Entertainment subsidiary Nelvana. The multi-platform programming endeavor, aimed at children between 4 and 8 years of age, would comprise children's program blocks airing on NBC, Spanish-language sister network Telemundo and Ion Media's i: Independent Television, as well as a 24-hour digital multicast channel on i's owned-and-operated stations, video on demand services and a branded website. The reasoning why the name "qubo" was chosen for the endeavor, or why its logo is a cube, has not been publicly explained by any of the partners, although general manager Rick Rodriguez stated in an interview with Multichannel News that the name was intended to be something that sounded fun, and be a brand that could easily be uniformally used in English and Spanish.

MiTelemundo (2012–2017)

On March 28, 2012, NBC announced that the three-hour children's programming time period allocated by the network on Saturday mornings would be taken over by Sprout and launch a new Saturday morning block called NBC Kids, which is aimed at preschoolers and grade school-aged children ages 2 to 9. Sprout also produced a Spanish-language sister block for Telemundo known as MiTelemundo.
NBC Kids debuted on July 7, 2012, one week after the Qubo block ended its run on both NBC and Telemundo on June 30.

MiTelemundo (Litton Entertainment) (2018–present)

On February 24, 2016 and March 1, 2016, NBC and Telemundo announced that it would lease its Saturday morning lineup to Litton Entertainment, The More You Know beginning October 2016 on NBC and January 2018 on Telemundo. Named after NBC's series of public service campaigns, the three-hour Saturday morning block is programmed by Litton Entertainment, and features live-action programming aimed at teens, all of which is dubbed in Spanish. Despite the change of programming, it did not change the name of the block, which remains as MiTelemundo.