In an interesting partnership, Nickelodeon has teamed up with Facebook and aired tonight’s brand new episode of everyone’s favorite SpongeBob Squarepants one day early on Facebook. Although premiered on television for the first time tonight on Nickelodeon, the first episode of a five part series called Legends of Bikini Bottom premiered on the social networking site last night. Guest stars include Amy Sedaris (Ma Angler) who plays the leader of the clan of trenchbillies, and Ginnifer Goodwin (as Mermaid). The clan hold SpongeBob and his buddy Patrick captive while they are out jellyfishing one day.This was big news in our household. At 8pm, the kids sat awaiting the new episode. In case they missed it, they set it to record on DVR earlier today. A new SpongeBob episode is big news in our home, and apparently in a lot of other places. While the show is funny, really funny, I didn’t realize how much it appealed to the older kids, but it must if Facebook got the first glimpse. Surely, they don’t think that 5 or 6 year-olds have Facebook accounts?SpongeBob’s Facebook page has over 16 million fans alone. My 13-year-old still loves SpongeBob and his quirky underwater friends and I have to admit that the show makes me laugh a lot. It’s one of those unique blends that appeal to kids and parents.
Yet with such a large following, just having the ability to draw in viewers using Facebook suggests that it has a very large fan base of older teens and possibly adults. Kids aren’t officially allowed to have their own Facebook accounts until age 13, but I’m sure a lot of moms will let their younger ones watch the episode on their accounts. Kids as young as preschoolers know what Facebook is, especially since so many moms make checking their Facebook account a daily activity.
These social networking sites are not only gaining attention from users, many of whom are parents, but it seems they are now be marketed specifically to parents (and possibly kids). The show, launched by Stephen Hillenburg almost 12 years ago has roughly 70-million viewers monthly. It remains one of the most popular shows on MTV Networks’ history, and generates more than $8-billion in worldwide retail sales.
