• by David Kaplan , March 10, 2005

Nickelodeon plans to keep America's kids pretty busy. During its 2005-06 upfront sales presentation in New York on Wednesday the Viacom kids network said it plans to run 248 new episodes of 18 Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. series, and will introduce a new live-action series created by Whoopi Goldberg.

Including Whoopi, there will be a total of six new live-action and animated series for the 2005-06 season, Cyma Zarghami, president of Nickelodeon Television, said during the sales pitch at the Roseland Ballroom in New York.

Of the 248 premiere episodes, "SpongeBob SquarePants" makes up 20, while the preschool series "Dora the Explorer" gets 24. Other returning shows include the live action series "Zoey 101," "Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide," "Unfabulous," "Drake & Josh" and "Romeo!".

The new shows Nickelodeon is adding to its schedule in September are "Catscratch," an animated tale about three wealthy, yet hapless, felines); "Power Strikers," a live-action comedy executive produced by Whoopi Goldberg about a girl's soccer team; and "The X's" (November), about a family spies living in the suburbs.

Meanwhile, Nick Jr. roster with three new "play-to-learn series": "Go, Diego, Go!," (October) an animated spin-off of the "Dora the Explorer;" "The Wonder Pets" (2006), a combination live-action/animated series about three opera singing classroom pets who become superheroes after school; and "Wubby Widget" and "Walden" (2006), an animated series about three indefinable creatures who each approach and solve problems in a different way.

Meanwhile, come August, Nicktoons, which features mostly animated favorites from the past, will become ad-supported in August, Zarghami said. Nicktoons will also add three new series to its line-up in 2006: "Skyland," "Shuriken School" and "Kappa Mikey."

With Kraft's announcement earlier this year that it would cease advertising junk food products on kids' television, one media buyer doesn't think Nickelodeon will suffer much.

"Initially, they are losing a lot of advertising, but there are so many other kids products that will step in to fill the void," said the media buyer, who did not attend the presentation. "They're offerings are consistent in their ratings, so I don't think they have much to worry about."