Nick News with Linda Ellerbee Turns 15!

Nick News with Linda Ellerbee Turns 15!

The Longest Running and Most Watched Kids' News Show in TV History Celebrates 15 Years on the Air with Primetime On-Air Special

Nick News with Linda Ellerbee: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow - Celebrating 15 Years of Nick News Airs Sunday, May 28, 8:30 p.m. ET/PT on Nickelodeon

NEW YORK, May 9 /PRNewswire/ -- The Emmy, duPont and Peabody award-winning Nick News with Linda Ellerbee, the groundbreaking, longest-running and most-watched kids' news show in television history, celebrates 15 years on Nickelodeon in May 2006. Informed by a philosophy that ignorance is not bliss, that kids deserve and need information about the world and events that shape it, Nick News has covered major world events and other issues that affect kids in a way that no show on television ever has, earning the respect of parents, educators and, most important, kids.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060509/NYTU071-ahttp://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060509/NYTU071-b )

To celebrate this milestone, Nickelodeon will air Nick News with Linda Ellerbee: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow - Celebrating 15 Years of Nick News on Sunday, May 28, at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT. The half-hour, commercial free special is a retrospective of 15 of Nick News' most compelling stories over the last decade and a half, and a fast-forward to meet some of the players and see what their life is like today, when they're grownups. It shows how Nick News -- and kids-have never shied away from talking, in no-nonsense language, about the crucial issues of our time-war, AIDS, terrorism, natural disasters, gay parenting, homelessness, racism, genocide-and how kids have responded by working to change their world for the better.

"No other show gives kids the opportunity to speak their minds on important issues quite like Nick News," commented Cyma Zarghami, President of Nickelodeon Television and Head of MTVN Kids and Family Group. "Nick News and Linda Ellerbee present stories about issues in a manner that empowers kids and enables them to take action. The show provides a great way for kids to initiate a dialogue with their parents. Nickelodeon is proud that for the past 15 years, we have been able to offer our audience a unique outlet like Nick News to help them do that."

"I am the luckiest journalist in television," commented Linda Ellerbee, host and Executive Producer of Nick News. "We tried to teach kids about life. Instead, they taught me what life is all about. I look forward to my continuing education on Nick News."

Stories featured in the Nick News 15th Anniversary special include:
* War -- While wars continue to divide nations, Nick News has focused on
the feelings and thoughts of the kids affected. In Afghanistan, we went
to a school where girls were taught, illegally and in secret, during the
rule of the Taliban. At home, we listened as kids all across America
talk about war with Iraq.
* Differences -- Nick News has continually explored how kids can deal with
difference -- physical, mental, racial, religious, or family background.
In "My Family is Different," the subject was showing respect for kids
who come from same sex families.
* The Middle East -- Nick News brought two Palestinian and Israeli kids
together for the first time to speak about what it would take for them
to be friends. Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow - Celebrating 15 Years of
Nick News updates us on what, if anything, has changed for these kids.
Could they be friends today?
* HIV and AIDS -- In 1992, a little girl with HIV educated us all when she
broke into tears while telling Magic Johnson she just wanted to be
"treated normal." Eleven years later, during a special on AIDS in South
Africa, Nick News followed a boy named Life, who traded his childhood
for taking care of his HIV-infected mother. Find out what happened to
those two kids on Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow - Celebrating 15 Years
of Nick News.
* Slavery -- Forgotten or ignored history has always been a part of the
series. Nick News focused on the legacy of slavery, touching on
realities kids are not taught in school.
* Natural Disasters -- When Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, Nick
News was there to hear the stories of kids who had lost everything,
including one kid who reminded all of us of the difference between
things and what's important. The 15th Anniversary special tracks that
boy's life today.
* Genocide -- Marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz,
Nick News told the story of the Holocaust through kids whose
grandparents had survived it, and then looked at stories of genocide
taking place today in the Sudan.
* Homelessness -- The fastest growing segment of poverty in America is
kids. Nick News listened as homeless kids told us about their
experiences.
* Terrorism -- Following September 11, 2001 - kids spoke candidly about
fear, anger and courage, and, in doing so, gave the rest of us hope for
the future.

A sneak peek of Nick News with Linda Ellerbee: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow - Celebrating 15 Years of Nick News will be broadcast on TurboNick, Nickelodeon's broadband video service on Nick.com, two weeks before the on-air special. For more information on the special, visit http://www.nicknews.com/ .

About Linda Ellerbee

Linda Ellerbee is an award-winning broadcast journalist who, along with Rolfe Tessem, her partner, owns Lucky Duck Productions. A seasoned correspondent an anchorwoman with experience at both NBC and ABC, Ellerbee is also a best-selling author. Her titles include: And So It Goes, her best-selling book about TV news, as well as her latest offering Take Big Bites: Adventures Around the World and Across the Table (available in paperback edition on May 4, 2006). In addition, Ellerbee currently has written an eight-book series for middle-school kids, titled Get Real. Ellerbee and Tessem are executive producers of Nick News, a Lucky Duck Production in association with Nickelodeon. In addition to Nick News with Linda Ellerbee, Lucky Duck produces prime-time specials for A&E, HBO, Lifetime Television, MSNBC and MTV.

About Nick News with Linda Ellerbee

Nick News, celebrating its 15th year, is the longest-running kids' news show in television history, and has built its reputation on the respectful and direct way it speaks to kids about the important issues of the day. In 2005, it won the Emmy for Outstanding Children's Programming for its show, From the Holocaust to the Sudan. In 1994, the entire series, Nick News, won the Emmy for Outstanding Children's Programming. In 1998, "What Are You Staring At?" a program about kids with physical disabilities, won the Emmy for Outstanding Children's Programming. In 2002, "Faces of Hope: The Kids of Afghanistan," won the Emmy for Outstanding Children's Programming. In 2004, two Nick News Specials, "The Courage to Live: Kids, South Africa and AIDS" and "There's No Place Like Home," a special about homeless kids in America, were both nominated for the Outstanding Children's Programming Emmy. In fact, Nick News has received more than 20 Emmy nominations. Nick News, produced by Lucky Duck Productions, is also the recipient of two Peabody Awards, including a personal one given to Ellerbee for her coverage, for kids, of the President Clinton investigation; a Columbia duPont Award; and more than a dozen Parents' Choice Awards.

About Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon, in its 27th year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, online, recreation, books, magazines and feature films. Nickelodeon's U.S. television network is seen in more than 89 million households and has been the number- one-rated basic cable network for more than ten consecutive years. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. (NYSE:VIA)(NYSE:and)(NYSE:VIA.B).

Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060509/NYTU071-a
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060509/NYTU071-b
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/
AP PhotoExpress Network: PRN4,5
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: Nickelodeon

CONTACT: Joanna Roses, +1-212-846-7326, or Thamar Romero,
+1-212-846-7491, both of Nickelodeon

Web site: http://www.nicknews.com/
http://www.nick.com/

NOTE TO EDITORS: Episodic and new artwork of Linda Ellerbee available upon request.

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