NBC Kids
NBC Kids was an American Weekend morning children's television programming block that aired on NBC from July 7, 2012 to September 25, 2016. Telemundo also aired a version of the block under the "MiTelemundo" title, which featured a separate lineup of Spanish-dubbed programs until December 31, 2017. NBC Kids, which replaced the Qubo block, was programmed by the Sprout preschool cable network, as they were both targeted at children ages 2 to 6.
The three-hour block featured educational entertainment series for younger children, which met programming requirements defined by the FCC's Children's Television Act, and is the first block to air in high definition by NBC completing its conversion to the quality.
The block came to an end on September 25, 2016, and was replaced the following week with a live-action E/I block from Litton Entertainment named The More You Know, marking the end of traditional Saturday morning children's programming on broadcast television.
History
In 2012, NBCUniversal withdrew from the Qubo joint venture, with Ion Media Networks acquiring NBCUniversal's interest. On March 28 of that year, NBC announced that the three-hour children's programming time period allocated by the network on Saturday mornings would be programmed by Sprout and launch a new Saturday morning block called NBC Kids, which was aimed at preschoolers and grade school-aged children ages 2 to 6. Sprout also produced a Spanish-language sister block for Telemundo known as MiTelemundo.NBC Kids and MiTelemundo both debuted on July 7, 2012, one week after the Qubo block ended its run on NBC on June 30, followed by Telemundo on July 1. This left Ion Television as the only network to retain a Qubo-branded children's block, until Qubo Channel ceased operations on February 28, 2021, as the E.W. Scripps Company is now the owner of Ion Media, which they acquired on January 7, 2021.