Paramount+ is DejaView’s choice for Streaming Wars dark horse. While all streaming services have major flaws, we believe Paramount’s is the one most likely to resolve their issues. We’re proud of them for constantly updating the UI and releasing new features while their competitors (Disney+, Peacock, and HBO Max) have remained stagnant for the past couple years. The two biggest issues Paramount has are an industry-worst 1.5 year delay between MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon episodes airing and becoming available to stream, and incomplete series. Many of their shows are missing multiple seasons, which is not something that plagues Disney+ or Peacock. Hopefully they are working to fix this in the near future.
There is another problem with Paramount+ and it relates to their Nickelodeon library. Between July 2021 and October 2021 Paramount+’s monthly press releases promoted a whopping 12 live action series from the Nick catalog that never showed up. Some of them were listed twice in that period, but no-showed each time. Others no-showed in that timeframe, but appeared 1-2 months later. Since that point Paramount stopped scheduling or adding classic Nickelodeon live action series. That’s a major bummer for people who have been waiting for their childhood favorites to arrive. Unfortunately we don’t know why so many shows from the same brand no-showed so close together or why they seem to have given up on them all 1 year later.
Here is the list of series that Paramount+ promoted last summer and fall that are still missing.
Nickelodeon No-Shows on Paramount+
July 2021
| Title | Years | |
|---|---|---|
| Splash TV (Seasons 1-2) | 2002-2004 |  |
August 2021
| Title | Years | |
|---|---|---|
| Phred On Your Head (Season 1) | 1999-2000 |  |
| 100 Things To Do Before High School* (Season 1) | 2015-2016 |  |
*The 100 Things To Do Before High School pilot film has been available on Netflix for years and is on Paramount+, but the series has never streamed or at least has not in many years, so people were quite excited to see it finally listed in August. It also got listed in October and no-showed again.
September 2021
| Title | Years | |
|---|---|---|
| Bucket & Skinner’s Epic Adventures (Season 1) | 2011-2012 |  |
| Cousins For Life (Season 1) | 2018-2019 |  |
| Soccer Superstar (Seasons 1-2) | 2015-2016 |  |
| Talia in the Kitchen* (Season 1) | 2015 |  |
| Wendell & Vinnie (Season 1) |  |
*Contains part 2 of a crossover with Every Witch Way, which is already streaming on Paramount+. Fans can’t view the full special. Talia has never been available on streaming.
October 2021
| Title | Years | |
|---|---|---|
| Jagger Eaton’s Mega Life (Season 1) | 2016-2017 |  |
| Keep It Spotless (Season 1) | 2018 |  |
| See Dad Run (Seasons 1-3) | 2012-2014 |  |
| Webheads (Season 1) | 2014-2015 |  |
100 Things To Do Before High School also no-showed again in October.
Why Did These Shows Not Arrive?
Our theory is that someone working at Paramount+ during this time honestly just did not understand how licensing or royalties work and listed content that they assumed could stream without gaining approval and going through the necessary steps. How else you explain such a massive amount of content over a 4 month period not arriving? Perhaps somebody with access to their digital archives noticed old shows and thought they could do something awesome by just adding them until a higher up realized and stopped them. Seem unlikely? How would you explain this?
Paramount+: Still More Catalog Friendly Than Disney+
What’s cool about this is some of the series promoted like Phred On Your Head or Splash TV had never been legally available since their original airing. They are not available on DVD and are not available to rent or purchase digitally on TVOD like Prime Video or Google Play. On the flip side, their no-shows are now doubly disappointing. While it’s good to know that digital copies must exist, it’s sad that Paramount dangled the possibility of seeing them only to yank them away. The variety of the series is vast. Everything from Nick & Nite to game shows to reality TV is covered. Previously Nick had provided some surprising bits of Nickelodeon history. Disney+ has not done much of this, sticking more to the past 3 years of their Kids & Animation library.
Overall, Paramount+ had been doing MUCH better than Disney+ with classic Nick. We wrote an article last year suggesting Disney could learn from them, praising Paramount for streaming multiple live action shows from the 80s and 90s as well as vintage Nickelodeon game shows. Disney+ never adds live action shows from those decades, not to mention apparently decided not to stream Disney Channel’s own unscripted series and game shows. 90s Disney Channel show Honey I Shrunk The Kids left Prime Video over 1.5 years ago and instead of adding it to Disney+ they just locked it in the vault.
We also must continue to praise Paramount for doing far more with their classic cartoon library than Disney+. In September Back at the Barnyard is arriving which brings Paramount+ close to a complete NickToon library (Figure 1). Disney+, on the other hand, is missing more than half of their cartoons (Figure 2)!
Figure 1: Nickelodeon Cartoon Progress on Paramount+
Figure 2: Disney Cartoon Progress on Disney+
Drew Ryan is a film, TV, and Disney geek. He has degrees in English, Student Personnel Administration, and Library & Information Science from Lawrence University, Concordia University-Wisconsin, and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Interested in the minutia and licensing of streaming service content, he is always publishing lists, suggestions, and advocating for Disney’s missing library to be added to Disney+. Drew subscribes to Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, HBO Max, and Paramount+. You can find him waxing nostalgic over classic Disney Channel or geeking out over Marvel, CW shows, & Disney on Twitter.
