Nickelodeon's Failed Attempts at Making Pop Stars 

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"Andre" from Victorious also went on to be successful in the music industry, he's worked on Grammy winning/nominated songs, Nickelodeon really did fumble the bag with so many people.

I genuinely never realized big time rush was an actual band… like I feel like they didn’t communicate that well to any kids watching

It's ironic that nick overlooked Keke Palmer, Leon Thomas and Ariana Grande and they ended up being more successful than their chosen anointed talents and lost them all when their shows ended. To be honest, I think it helps that Keke, Leon and Ariana were never labeled to be their television characters so it was easier for them to build their careers. While Victoria Justice, Miranda Cosgrove, Drake Bell and the members of Big Time Rush will always be linked to Nick.

You know it's crazy, when I Carly came out in 2007 I remember thinking how ridiculous it was that someone who made Internet videos would be so popular and known around her school. The series actually makes a lot more sense today than it did when it came out

ultimately i think Disney picked better music talents while Nick picked better tv show acts

The things is casting Victoria Justice alongside huge broadway trained artists is the big mistake nickelodeon had done. Even when they give them less lines, they still overpower Victoria in terms of musical abilities.

Honnestly Victoria Justice completely had the potentiel to become a famous icon/ popstar, but playing a character as hated (overhated in my opinion) as Tori Vega ruined her chances because apparently a lot of people can't tell the difference biiitwenn a character and an actor

Nickelodeon’s viewership success came mainly from spongebob. They’d air spongebob several times during the day. The only live show that was really competing with Disney was icarly. Every Disney show was successful viewership wise, while Nickelodeon relied on spongebob and icarly. I remember reading several viewership articles back in 2008-2012 and spongebob was carrying that network.

Shortly after Ariana's debut album was put out, Nick started playing her music videos during breaks 😂

To be honest as someone who grew up with both Disney and Nickelodeon..... I always saw the main character would always be big in future so when I found out and watched Ariana getting bigger than the whole cast of victorious was mind blowing. For real

When it comes to Victoria, I also believe it was the choice of the song released as her debut that stunted her chances. When Ariana released The Way, it was a much more mature sound for her (at the time) that garnered attention and drew comparisons to early Mariah Carey. It was a clear distinction between Ariana Grande the recording artist, and Cat Valentine the dim witted character on the show. Whereas Victoria’s debut, Gold, sounded like a song that Tori Vega could’ve sung at any point in the show’s run. There was never a clear separation between her and her character.

I honestly am glad Nickelodeon had this issue. As a Nick fan from my childhood, watching since the early 90’s, it felt more wholesome generally overall and like they didn’t have to prove anything. They were not Disney levels of success, but successful enough to stay relevant and alive. So many amazing shows with actual values while they may not have been factories for pop stars, that didn’t need to be their focus.

I’m kinda glad Nickelodeon didnt pursue Ariana for a music career. I lowkey think she would of failed if Nickelodeon handled her music career. Ariana is now a multi-platinum, 2x Grammy winning artist

They got lucky with Ariana tbh, she is extremely talented, Nickelodeon didn’t make her, sure it helped but she is act amazing

I feel like a lot of the reason why Nick stars failed is because Nick was never that serious about making music because their brand really relied on being quirky. I mean when you think of Disney you think of magic, wonder, imagination and just stardom and amazing experience. When you think of Nick you think of Slime, Gags, Jokes and a Wacky time. Not to mention the general vibes of the shows were very odd or offbeat. It’s a bit jarring to see Miranda Cosgrove make fun of a cranky man with a wart and make a spaghetti smoothie then listen to her new single. And don’t get me wrong Disney shows were weird too but never as weird as most Nick shows were. I can’t imagine that was a very easy translation. They probably realized this and TRIED to make Victoria Justice something. But she obviously was not performing well and by that point Disney was phasing out most of their big names that raked in the millions already. They also did this while the world was slowly moving to streaming. I think Ariana Grande wasn’t really ignored based off of a perception of lesser talent than Victoria Justice I just think Nick really didn’t try enough and when they did try with Victoria it was too little too late. I mean Keke Palmer, Elizabeth Gillies, Andre Harris, Miranda Cosgrove, Drake Bell, Kira Kosarin, NBB, etc, etc all could’ve had a more significant career and made Nick a lot more money if the Company was able to properly integrate their brand with their musical talent. Which they never did and never will.

I feel like the problem with BTR is that they didn’t continue as a group. They went on hiatus as soon as the show ended. They halted any kind of momentum they had. Drake Bell…I will never understand how he didn’t become big in the music industry

Miranda Cosgrove never really fit the popstar mold, and didn't have any exceptional singing talent. But she was the highest paid child actress at some point, had a great time voicing Margo from Despicable Me, had a normal college life, and is now back to acting; so I would say she did pretty well for herself.

I think one BIG reason Nickelodeon was bad at promoting their artists music is because they never let clear that they were artists. For example, all those years I watched Big Time Rush as a kid I didn't even realized they were an actual band. And I know I'm not the only one. edit: nickelodeon didn't promote my music right either

Thank you for giving Taina her props she was truly walking so the Disney girls could run that show was so underrated!!!

The problem with Nick was that they didn't Make it clear their talents were actually real musicians, like the members of Big Time Rush seemed like a band from a tv show and people never knew they were an actual band because nick were bad at marketing their artist. The reason this whole pop star factory thing worked for Disney was that they not only released soundtracks fro their shows and made the Miley and Selena for example sing in their shows, but they also.released music with them outside of the shows, so people knew that they were actual singers in real life. If nicked actually released music with BTR for example outside the show, and maybe used better marketing, people wouldn't see them as just a band from a show

It's ironic to me that Miranda, Victoria, and Big Time Rush were the ones who were heavily promoted by Nick, yet Ariana Grande and Keke Palmer ended up being the bigger stars out of that network today.🤔

big time rush will always be the funniest to me, since when i was watching the series, i thought they were a parody of boy bands....not an actual one that the show is trying(and failing) to promote

I never understood why Nickelodeon overlooked Ariana as badly as they did. The girl already had at least one Broadway cast recording under her belt well before her Nickelodeon debut, whereas Victoria Justice (to my knowledge) didn't have a musical background to her name until Victorious came out.

Watching Ariana grande on victorious I instantly knew she would big a huge musical icon. Her voice stood out way more than most of the other nickelodeon actors/actresses.

I personally believe that a couple of other reasons why Ariana Grande surpassed her Nickelodeon & Disney counterparts is because she wasn’t the main character of a show, she utilized the new & upcoming rise of social media, and she basically took her career into her own hands. She was undoubtedly one of the most loved & relatable characters on Victorious, while she never had to go under the same level of extreme scrutiny, public attention & maintaining that “good girl image” that her other main female child stars like Miley, Selena, Demi, etc had to go through during their peak childhood fame. I also remember when her second album was coming out she used Instagram to promote tf out of it, and she even did a daily countdown for the album and one of the lead single’s (Problem) that legit broke a lot of charting records at the time. She also carved her own lane by uploading RU-vid covers of extremely noteworthy songs where she essentially did her own marketing for her music talent in a newly found network (aka RU-vid) that wasn’t over saturated at the time. She truly was in her own lane, and basically spearheaded her own music career outside of Nickelodeon while she got free promotion from them as a beloved kid’s character whose show got played on the network 24/7 for millions of people all across the world to see.

I think its also worth noting that even though their shows, Unfabulous and True Jackson VP, didn't last long and weren't huge hits, Emma Roberts and Keke Palmer are now bigger stars than any of the Nickelodeon leads who actually had the hype machine pushing them. Seems like Nick is just always putting their eggs in the wrong baskets.

Combined with her rare talent, what worked for Ariana is probably the very fact that she was neglected. She was the deserving underdog who got overlooked. I never watched Victorious but I know those actors from social media. One day I watched an interview where Ariana took the hosts around her apsrtment and to her little recording nook (she wasn't this huge superstar back then) and then she sang a little for them. And I just remember being stunned into silence. Like wtf, is this girl even real? And I remember being so annoyed that she wasn't the lead or got promoted as much. There's this strong emotion that underdogs create within most of us.

I think that part of Ariana's success was because we knew her as Cat Valentine, a bubbly, sometimes weird and childish girl, and her first album was a lot more mature, so we wanted to see that new side of her, and that may have kind of boosted her career too. I'm not saying that's the only factor on her success, she it's extremely talented and she was my favourite character in Victorious, and I've been also supporting her career since My Everything, I just like to think that Nickelodeon helped her and boosted her career by giving her the chance to portray Cat, and by that, giving her the chance to show something completely different to what people knew

Despite having success later than Miley, Selena & Demi, Ariana Grande was the first of the 4 to win a Grammy. Nickelodeon really fumbled the bag HARD

LMAO I know Nickelodeon was PISSED when Ariana's debut album dropped 😂😂😂😂

I used to watch the Naked Brother’s Band as a kid and was surprised to watch Alex Wolf’s AMAZING performance in Hereditary - extremely bone chilling! His acting was sensational and every emotion literally permeated through the screen as I watched, as well as his role in My Friend Dahmer which I enjoyed as well! He’s an extremely talented actor who went on to go the indie/artsy film route which is pretty uncommon for Disney/Nickelodeon alum. Super underrated but probably one of my favourite talents to come from either conglomerates

I’m glad you recognize the actual first show to do this, Taina! Christina Vidal was incredible and eventually ended up in Disney in the movie Brink and Freaky Friday.

crazy how Ariana Grande is now one of the biggest artists of all time, passing all of her peers and is up with Rihanna, Taylor, Adele, Beyoncé etc. she’s the most streamed female artist of all time, biggest act that debuted in the 2010s, countless of records, countless of hits, countless of smash albums and more.

My points: The problem with Victoria Justice's music: it was always to basic and boring and it never evolved and Columbia barely promoted her. They bet on Victoria to much,sure she had the it factor but musically never stood out ,she could belt power pop hits but never showed more raw talent like her recent song Treat Myself. Big Time Rush: was to much related to their tv show. At some point people didn't know if they were a band or a show,and also bad promotion of course. they had hits but their image was to boring and they were a little older than their competition,people lost interest and found it in more younger and new talent like One Direction. Ariana came out of nowhere and blew everyone away. She had good managment and undeniable talent. She was so different from her nickelodeon persona it was easy for people to separate them,while Victoria was basically tori and btr the show outshined the band. And Miranda Cosgrove was never popstar potential ,she was just to awkward and never fit the part ,she could somewhat sing but her talent was definitely being a comediane. She is so funny just follow her on insta and you'll see.

Awesome video bro. I’m 28 and almost cried realizing your correct about never having shows like those again. Kids these days won’t understand that was the peak of television when it came to kids shows.

Leon Thomas has been pretty successful, mostly behind the scenes but definitely has been successful.

I think the reason Ariana grande is who she is, is due to her being gifted with her singing abilities. She’s one of the best I’ve heard from our generation. She was born to sing.

It was really weird in 2013, after watching my last Nickelodeon show (Sam and Cat) suddenly seeing Ariana go from just an actress in a kids network to being a enormous popstar??? When the music video for Problem dropped, I was shook

I LOVED Taina! The actress who played Taina is named Christina Vidal. She can be heard as the lead vocalist in Freaky Friday with Lindsay Lohan. I had no idea the show ran so short, though. I was in middle school when it came out. Taina was VERY reminiscent of That's So Raven, meaning the amount of time they spent in the halls at school. I mean it DIRECTLY could've been produced by the same company although Taina came out first. That's So Raven didn't come out until high school so yeah, similarities. Both were VERY GOOD shows.

I knew that Liz, Ariana and Leon were on Broadway before Victorious, but didn't realise how good they (girls) were until Give It Up. After that I always wondered why they didn't give more songs to Liz and Ariana. Also why (in the show) they always went to Tori when they needed a singer when there were better options.

They also missed the chance to turn keke palmer into a super star

I think theres another factor at play. In the 00s, Nickelodeon shows always had noticeably more "edge" than disney shows-- still a kids show but not diabetically saccharine. I'd surmise that Nick's audience skewed slightly older and less sheltered than disney. Its easier to hook a kid who is a little younger and has had fewer cultural exposures because there is less to compete with.

Its funny how all the successful people are side characters/ underrated characters

Taina and Romeo are unlocking very specific memories for me that I had forgotten about until now. The opening to Taina is something I never thought I would forget, but this is all flooding back to me.

In high school I watched Victorious with the kids I babysat. I studied music and voice and spotted Arianna as being slightly better than the rest of the cast vocally right away. So I looked her up but I also looked up Victoria and Liz as well because I still enjoyed their talent. Ariana was posting covers all the time. She even had some technology to make her own background music that she would mess with. She was finding all kinds of ways to perform random shows for free on her own whether it be a holiday performance or a volunteer program with music. Victoria did a bit on her own but it was more like a cover every 6 months or so. To be honest, I think a part of Ariana's success was her literally working her butt off on her own. Yes, she was a better singer. But she was also significantly more passionate about creating music.

honestly , the biggest reason ariana became successful is branding . she ditched her “iconic” red hair and went for a half-up ponytail and did 90s inspired r&b music. which, not only showcased her true talent, but also made an impact outside of the youth talent industry and into the music industry . she also constantly rebrands herself during album eras . for example , after her debut album, she transformed herself into a mega popstar image, taking inspiration from britney spears and other pop divas. then, she gained traction from the dangerous woman era where she fully broke away from nickelodeon. then , she started her “aesthetic” era with sweetener and then became an icon with thank u, next. and now no one ever brings up nickelodeon when talking about her.

Ariana has an unmatchable, amazing talent. She just so happened to be on a kids TV show. That's the difference between her and everyone else on Nickelodeon.

I came across this youtube channel recently and DAMN THIS IS SO INTERESTING!!! I agree on you with this video, like you even let slip max schneider who has another quite successful album and keke palmen who sang the opening for one of the known games league of legends 🤩

Ariana was really serious about pursuing a music career ever since she was a child. Thats why she did broadway and theater in her early years. Nickelodean HELPED her not MADE her to be the star that she is today.

If you don't know, Ariana debuting a #1 album in B200 was so mindblowing because it's very rare for a NEW artist to debut that high that time. It might not be quite shocking because it seems very normal now for new artists to easily debut a #1 album despite being new like Billie and Olivia.

"Make sure you drink water while you watch this video" *grabs a bottle of water and drinks it*

I really loved Big Time Rush. Like in college listening to them all the time

I think the reason Big Time Rush never made it big was because One Direction was taking over, it was extremely hard to compete with the biggest boyband in the world during that time

Even my 13 year old brain could see that Ariana was the most talented on that show

Disney used to have their stars in their commercials or have sneak peaks of their music acts. I remember on Disney they'll play a music video between tv shows and tell you the album is now available. Never recall Nick doing that at all.

This was the video I didn’t realize how deeply I needed👌I always wondered as a kid what was up with all these music artists from the shows I watched, but only certain ones were doing well. Didn’t realize most of them were the Disney ones😂

BTR was hella fire back then 😂 that was definitely my show. They still have almost 2 million monthly listeners on Spotify which is kinda crazy imo.

I remember seeing old interviews of Ariana, and she would get asked how it like balancing a music career (with the release of Yours Truly) and being an actress, she responded along the lines of finding a balance. Later down the line it had been revealed 2013 she had been working on her debut for 7 years. Safe to say she was a hardworking person for the get go. I bet was given the chance to grow her audience/fan base from Nickelodeon, which carried over to her music career, plus Ariana’s really pretty.

Only recently discovered your channel and glad I did. Terrific video essays on interesting topics.

Man 2007 as far as I can remember, nick really was the boom! I really enjoyed my childhood with these shows like: icarly, ned declassified, big Time rush, Victorious, drake and josh and the list goes on… nick may had fail with some of those cast members but they really provided really good shows for us to watch as kids💯👏🏽 thanks nick🍾

taina was actually pretty highly rated and i remember it being popular when i was a kid. Apparently, "the real reason why the show was cancelled was due to behind-the-scenes business decisions and the network clashing with Vidal's management team, which included her mother. "

Honestly, I love how Nickelodeon allowed their stars the freedom to explore their musical paths and contracts outside rather than tying their successes solely to the channel. That way they can blossom in their own way. I never hear anything bad about Nickelodeon from their stars in regards to their contracts the way we hear of similar channels

patrick is such a creative & comprehensive thinker. respect

Honestly, even though they didn't have as much success as others, BTR are one of my favorite bands. I'm very happy they reunited a few months ago, and started doing some music again

The problem with Victoria Justice aside not having a manager as good as Ariana's was that she fitted the pop star mold way too perfectly (model like features, a mature voice with a juvenile flair). Ariana didn't and that made her more accessible to the audience and sure did helped for her having doll like features and a Mariah Carey-esque voice.

Nick has a history of fumbling the bag. When it came to Big Time Rush and Victorious they had a game plan.

“i think we all sing” really ruined victoria justice

Just discovered your channel on my 11 hours shift and I’ve been watching since I clocked in. Great shit man

What’s so shocking about Ariana Grande is that everyone who watched Victorious (before Ariana got big) knew Ariana was the best singer in the show and knew she was getting sidelined. In the meantime, Nickelodeon didn’t see any of her talents. I was a fan of Ariana’s singing before she became big, and, literally, many Victorious music videos would have fans commenting how amazing Cat Valentine’s singing was. I’m just confused how Nickelodeon did not see what every Victorious fan knew….

To be fair Miranda stopped her career before it could get big, Drake Bell was just very underpromoted when he was still very popular, and Victoria has a hate train running against her while Ari at the same time was loved

Big fan of Victorious in high school. Around halfway through season 1, I just got a sense that the actress playing Cat had a real chance of becoming a super star. She was literally singing through most of her lines. But my favorites were Andre and Jade.

I like how u always tell me to stay hydrated while watchin ur videos, thanks for always lookin out for me man 🥺💖

Ariana took charge of her own career by releasing covers on RU-vid with some of her costars and getting her own name out there. They would let her sing on the show but never to the point of outshining the lead which… was inevitable given her talent. But thankfully she didn’t get suppressed.

Ariana Grande became such a huge star to the point where I forgot she started on Nickelodeon

Literally Elizabeth Giles, Ariana Grande and Lion Thomas III were all SIGNIFICANTLY more talented than victoria justice. Nick basically flopped hard on all 3 of them. If any of them signed with Disney instead we'd have a completely different musical era

Another aspect of this is the fact that cable tv was being blown out of the water by hulu and netflix. Like I think 2012 was when a lot of families were ditching cable for streaming services so a lot of kids just weren't watching tv anymore. You mentioned the rise of social media being what entertained kids and yeah. I don't think btr or justice were doomed to fail but I think navigating these new waters is something not a lot of networks knew how to do and so the cards weren't stacked in their favor. Grande with her yt and insta was figuring out how to navigate and caught that wave just right and is still surfing it.

I liked most of the video but there is some wrong information here. Mostly with "Taina". That show lasted for 2 seasons, not 1, the soundtrack came out in 2002 & Nick cancelled the show after 2 years despite it being a ratings hit. They canceled it because Christina Vidal (Taina) threatened to lawyer up against Nickelodeon because the network execs were trying to skirt around child labor laws with her and abuse her rights. They did the same to Amanda Bynes at that time (look at what happened to her after awhile) & Nick Cannon but since Vidal didn't "play the same game", they cancelled her show, despite scripts for a season 3 being written at the time. Also, "How to Rock" was based on a popular book series, not a HSM knockoff like "Victorious".

I think it's also that Disney is just better at finding and recognizing talents. Many singers who came out of Disney are incredibly talented, their music can stand their ground outside of the Disney shows. Nick was letting some foot fetish producer cast young girls bare footed. They had Ariana and casted her as a side character who's very dumb, when they should've recognized her talent and wrote a future superstar persona for her. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I LOVED Taina as a kid and was so upset when it was canceled. A lot of people don't even remember her, but I definitely do. I wish more videos acknowledged that there were others outside of the big well known Nick and Disney famous artists that paved the way.

The way you end your videos is a really good tactic. It incentivized me to look for more. I’m watching your videos like it’s a playlist on run. Every video is a 8-9/10

Ariana and Liz: We worked on broadway multiple times and have the littest vocals on the show. Dan: Let’s make Victoria the star! ⭐️ ⭐️ 🌟

I knew something was special about Ariana Grande back then. Nickolodeon kept trynna put Victoria Justice as the star but when I heard Ariana and Liz Gilles perform the song "Give it up" I knew both of them had more talent than Victoria it was laughable. Not only that but Ariana's character for "Kat" was golden in the show. She played her character so well and had a huge fan base off just her character she played. Couple that with her musical talent and it's no wonder she ended up being bigger than the whole cast.

I remember watching Victorious, there was an episode where Ariana sang, at that moment, I knew she was going to be big.. I wasn't wrong, and I am so proud of her!

This is only the second video of yours that I’ve watched but I am 100% convinced to subscribe. Amazing videos

This really shows how they don’t care about their actors unless they show is popular

So I actually had a production teacher at film school who was a producer on victorious actually on several of the nickelodeon shows you mentioned and I asked her about this. She said that Ariana never actually gave nickelodeon the rights to her Voice so they could only use her sparingly I don’t know any further details about it or how that works that was just the explanation I was given when I asked.

you didn’t mention “Make it Pop” Nickelodeons attempt at making their own K-Pop like group….

Taina was such a good show! I remember seeing the girl group 3LW sing “no more” it was soooo good!

I think for Victorious, even though Victoria Justice was clearly the main character, there was so much talent on that show that they could have pursued besides just Victoria, like Ariana obviously, but Elizabeth Gillies was also on Broadway and she had great vocals too and Leon Thomas is also incredibly talented. I think that for shows that try to push a musical act they typically have one performer, but Victorious had a lot and the biggest hits were never just Victoria's, Freak the Freak Out was huge, but so was Take a Hint, Give it Up and Song 2 U. I think part of what missed for Victoria Justice's music career is that the message wasn't uniform.

Fun fact, Columbia records, and Atlantic records both passed on Ariana Grande; they both believe that she wouldn’t be a massive star.

You just unlocked a memory I remember that Tania show! I actually really liked it and watched every episode and liked it enough to notice when they canceled it after like 2 seasons

This is my fav video yet, i can’t stop rewatching it.

Even Elizabeth Gillies (Jade) was a way better singer than Victoria Justice. They had Andre, Jade, and Cat just dancing circles around the main character they were struggling so hard to convince us was the star.

I have to give credit to Ariana, she and her team did everything right. She was already a talented singer, and the comparisons with Maria Carey also helped put her in the spotlight. The best thing she did was distancing herself from the cookie cutter or bubble gum pop kids network music by collaborating with a hip hop artist on her first song. She already had a network outside nickelodeon.. She was friends with people from the entertainment, dated someone who had street cred and wasn't a part of the kids network circle, released catchy music outside of nicK and collaborated with other well known artistes familiar by the general audience( Nathan Sykes, Babyface, big Sean, Mac Miller..). And apparently she had been recording her debut album through out her victorious career. She released the second album after Sam and cat and that one already solidified her place as the IT pop girl especially collaborating with artists like Nicki

I am so so sad you didn’t experience Taina back in the days lol I LOVED her

What made the two networks fall was the constant push for music. If they didn’t get greedy and keep trying to produce music they would have been more successful in the long run. The two best shows on Nickelodeon was Avatar and Spongebob - no singing. And on Disney Sweet Life of Zack and Cody - also no singing.

I think part to Ariana's success was her image too. She had a certain Lolita styling with her hair and wardrobe, and bringing back old-school style r&b music. It was a unique combination

Boyfriend by Big Time Rush is STILL a BOP. Ion care what anyone says 😭💀

Well Big Time Rush just had their Forever tour this year so that gotta count for something