The President’s favorite television character turns 10 this year. And Nickelodeon, which owes a substantial portion of its fixture atop the total day cable network average viewer ratings to him, is pulling out all the stops to celebrate.
From the NYTimes:
To fete the show’s 10th anniversary, Nickelodeon plans to wring “SpongeBob” of every drop with a 50-episode weekend marathon on Friday that will include 10 new episodes, while its sister network, VH1, plans on Tuesday to show a documentary, “Square Roots: The Story of ‘SpongeBob SquarePants,’ ” that interviews its creator, Stephen Hillenburg, an illustrator and marine biologist; many of its writers and animators; media scholars; and celebrities like the comedian Ricky Gervais, who explains with a smirk, “I like the fact that he’s yellow, I like the fact that he’s porous, and I like the fact that he wears pants.”
I’m going to guess that 10 new episodes of SpongeBob in a single week are going to make a lot of adults gnash their teeth as he pushes their favorite cable shows out of the top 20 cable show ratings for the week.
Those adults may take heart, some would find chinks in the Bob’s armor:
So far 2009 is the first year in the last seven in which “SpongeBob” has not been Nickelodeon’s top-rated series. At the moment “iCarly,” a tween-aimed live-action series, is the channel’s No. 1 show, followed by “Penguins of Madagascar,” which is made with computer-generated animation and based on a hit DreamWorks movie, and has that tell-tale 3-D sheen. “SpongeBob” is third, but neither “iCarly” nor “Penguins” has the same sweetness or inspired asides of animated lunacy, like a squid whose long, drooping arms are milked like a cow’s udder.
My guess is that it just means more kids shows atop the cable ratings lists. 
LONG LIVE SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS!
While the show is definitely lacking quality and laugh-out-loud humor these days, it’s still a carefree joy to watch. I think that’s the reason why so many tune in. It’s hard not to smile during Spongebob, even after a miserable day.
I read in TV Guide that all the Spongebob stuff brings in like 8 BILLION DOLLARS a year! I may have misread it, but I’m pretty sure thats what is said.
Spongebob is usually great, but newer episodes have been way below par, even for kid’s toon. I guess after 10 years that’s to be expected. Sometimes shows go on too long, or writers get burned out and are replaced by less-gifted writers. So I’m not surprised SB is no longer number one; overexposure, time and aforementioned drop-off in quality have all taken their toll.
Still, SB hasn’t suffered as much as that crappy Fairly Oddparents. I used to love it, now it sets my teeth on edge. COSMO MUST DIE!!!!
cheers to Spongebob!
I used to watch the show as a kid in the early 00’s (I’m 18 now btw), and I’m glad the show is still there. I thought it would be canceled by now, but no it’s been the 2000’s “Rugrats”, and I’m glad it has. I always knew it always could be. So thanks SpongeBob for 10 years of entertaining the world.
First,on topic: Spongebob is, with the differences you would expect bewteen the 1950’s and 1990’s, the Looney Tunes of our times, with visually memorable main characters – and malleable, not to say tearable, foldable, mutilatable,and all back in one piece within five seconds. Second, on cable in general — read somebody else’s USA Today -given my contempt for their Lifeline section, the somebpody else above is not superfluous. Of course, the always transparently biased critic Robert Bianchi treated the ” empowering” new Lifetime series ” Diva ” like spun gold,( it got a full-two page spread )and mocked the Scifi show Warehouse 13, even cattily ripped the change of name to Syfy ( which I sort of agree with, and is an obvious point not worth calling “stupid.” ) Because even a critic you have less than zero respect for can have a subliminal effect,I avoided all but the last hour of W-13, and I could see why a dogmatist slavishly following a lockstep editorial policy would not like it. It was much better than Bianchi said, asI’m sure Real Housewives, Diva, Flava Fave etc are far worse than he says. I hope W-13 succeeds. With propaganda rags, widely read, like USA Today against the whole idea of a channel even partly for the evil, brutish 18-35 male,they made need even just semi-committed viewers to make it.
My is guess is that some, mostly, or all of the Top 20 Ratings for Cable will be filled with New, Rerun episodes of SpongeBob Squarepants.
Still A Yellow, Porous BRAIN WASHER!!
Elaine from Seinfeld should do a guest spot on SpongeBob and declare him “spongeworthy”.