Nickelodeon Acquires "Winx Club"; Will Co-Produce Seasons 5 and 6

Wow, I'm actually surprised about this news.


Looks like Nick does have variety after all. Hope it isn't degreated to Saturday mornings only, though I fear that it will.
 
As the old saying goes: 'One man's trash is another man's treasure.' None of the shows Viacom has acquired are bad, but that's a discussion for another time. I'm amazed that Nicktoons Network and Nickelodeon are being added as the only networks catering to people of all ages, kids for money-making purposes, anime and shows from Italy that were once acquired by 4Kids along with those who are still a part of Funimation's growing library.
 
Wow, with Dragonball Z Kai, Voltron, Iron Man: Armored Adventures, and now Winx Club, Nicktoons seems to be appealing to the anime/anime-influenced audience quite a bit.
 
It’s important to note that the press release didn’t mention this airing on Nicktoons at all, just Nickelodeon. They even made mention of it being targeted to young girls. Nicktoons targets young boys, so chances of it airing there are pretty slim (or at least airing a lot are).
 
Guess the rumor about 4Kids losing Winx Club was true. The press release mentions that Nick has access to the existing Winx Club series, but it doesn't mention anything about the 4Kids dub. So I guess that means they'll air the other English dub out there or they'll do a brand new dub themselves.

I've never actually followed the series religiously, I've watched a few episodes when it was on FoxBox though and I thought it was decent. But its nice to know that the rest of the series and the movies will be hitting the US.

So that makes two series Nick snatched away from 4Kids, interesting.
 
I'd say it looks like it, at least when you translate it to 3D (there's some 2D pictures in the show and the concept art, which look just like the typical anime-influenced stuff) The production's is done in France, specifically by Method Animation, which has a heavy anime influence into their animation. France in general intergrates anime into their animation a lot more than America does, so it's no real surprise.

And regular Nickelodeon? That's even more of a shock they'd air Winx Club there. Acquisitions don't last long on it, though if it's a co-production, I guess it might last longer.
 
I really wish Nick would buy the rights of Pokemon from Cartoon Network :(
This was shocking indeed, I never expected this to be the type of show Nick would buy. i've seen a couple of episodes, kind of reminds me of WITCH and Totally Spies.
 
I'm pretty sure all of this is going to be regulated Saturday mornings/afternoons on Nickelodeon Proper. So we got Power Rangers, TMNT probably hitting the channel in 2012 along with this. Coupled with Avatar and Danny Phantom they could make themselves a decent action block.

Of course this is all to compete with Disney/Marvel, but hey anything that gets iCarly aired less.
 
I'm really curious whether Nick will be using the original dub or the 4Kids dub. Probably be better off using the original, since obviously 4Kids wouldn't be working on the later seasons.

Good news for fans of the show. Nick is picking up all the good stuff, aren't they?
 
Man, first TMNT, now Winx Club. Nick isn't pulling any punches, are they?

I was kind of done with Winx after season 3, but I have to give Nick credit where credit is due: they and Disney at least acknowledge that girls exist. Cartoon Network doesn't currently run any girl-centric shows other than Totally Spies!, but they've got plenty of boy-centric shows. CN, if you truly want to compete with these guys, you've got to diversify your portfolio.
 
I think this means that there is a chance that Nick could get Pretty Cure. I mean, they're both Magical Girl series.

EDIT: Maybe next we'll find out that they bought Kirby from 4Kids.
 
So the tales of Rainbow S.P.A. shopping Winx Club were not only true, but they actually found a buyer in Nickelodeon. Cool.

I think they tried to find another place to air the show here because the show is big pretty much everywhere else in the world and they think it's possible to have that level of success here as well. With 4Kids, it was a modest success, but it was hurt by not only 4Kids producing their own version, but that it was airing on Saturday mornings on broadcast networks - a pretty much dead medium.

If there's any place where Winx Club could really take off in America, I think it's Nickelodeon. They've always been the most gender-balanced of the Big 3 kids' cable networks. The plan is interesting though... do four one-hour specials to recap the first two seasons, then air all of Season 3 and 4 (the latter having never aired here in America) before premiering currently in-production Season 5 and newly-announced Season 6. That, to me, screams that the 4Kids' version of Winx Club is going to cease to exist (in the way the 4Kids' version of 'One Piece' disappeared after FUNimation picked up the rights). So we're looking at either the English version the UK gets, or a brand new American-exclusive version (a la 4Kids), but with Los Angeles VAs.

The question is... can an acquisition survive on Nickelodeon? They run very few, and those that have haven't done too well. The last one I can even remember them running was that live-action show from Australia about three mermaids who had human legs on land... I think, I can't recall too well and never watched the show. And a few years back, there was '6teen,' and we all know how that turned out.

But, Nickelodeon is co-producing 'Winx Club' Season 5 and 6, so that will definitely give the show a chance at success, more than any completely third-party acquisition. The question is... will the ratings prove this a worthy investment?

Anyway... Nick in general seems to be doing well, picking up viable franchises like 'Power Rangers,' 'TMNT,' and now 'Winx Club.' They may all have great futures if Nick can pull all of this off.
 
That's what I thought after noticing that they didn't mention the 4Kids dub in the press release. It probably would be the better choice to make since 4Kids wouldn't be able to work on the movies and seasons four through six. Plus, I think that it would be cheaper for Nick to just air the other English dub since they already have the rights to it, so there isn't a need to make their own dub with voice actors in LA. That is more likely to happen than getting the 4Kids cast back, but I still think that they're going to go with the original dub.

Anyway, I was quite surprised when I first saw this news. I did not see this coming at all. I heard about 4Kids losing the rights and Rainbow looking for a new partner and I guess all of that was true. I'm glad that it will air on regular Nick since I don't have Nicktoons and the series might pick up a larger audience with airing on the channel that most homes have.

Even though introducing the first two seasons with four hour specials sounds like a nice way to get kids to watch the show, I hope that they'll also air all of the episodes from the first four seasons, along with the movie, before season five airs. They have the rights to all of these seasons and there are enough episodes to give the series a decent weekday afternoon slot, which might gather more attention than just on Saturday mornings. There have been good points about acquisitions not lasting too long on Nick, but I think that fact that they're actually going to co-develop and co-produce makes me think that they're willing to give Winx Club a good chance to gain an audience. I'm quite happy with this news and hope that they'll give some nice promotion for Winx Club when they finally start airing the series.
 
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