The First Two Seasons Of The Original 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Arrive On Paramount+ In September
As cool as it might be to drop all 193 episodes at once, it just doesn't look to be in the cards
The original 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be heading to Paramount+ in September, the franchise's social media accounts announced on Tuesday.
On September 19, the first two seasons will arrive on the service. That encompasses 18 episodes, from "Turtle Tracks" to "Return of the Technodrome". These are also the episodes that were recently relisted to iTunes with Nickelodeon branding on August 14. Clearly, it's going to be a gradual process, but this isn't a bad start. At least you'll know what to expect every time progress is made on that front.
At the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem San Diego Comic-Con panel on July 20, the series which originally aired 193 episodes from 1987-1996 on CBS was announced by original co-creator Kevin Eastman to have finally been acquired by Paramount, having owned the rest of the franchise since 2009. By August 1, the first season hit YouTube and Nick.com, began dominating the Totally Turtles Pluto TV channel with episodes as deep as season 7, and Nicktoons has hit plenty of episodes as well, even if its 6 midnight hours a week with a Friday marathon starting at that hour and ending at the start of the Saturday schedule as it was when it landed is now just the midnights Monday to Thursday. It wasn't so clear whether the deal covered a premium streaming service like Paramount+, or if it would just be a purely ad-supported one like Pluto TV is. A lot of people were confused and asking “What about Paramount+?” or expressing their hope that it would After all, Paramount+ isn't Nickelodeon-branded per se, even with a Nickelodeon hub on the service. This confirmation is very assuring.
This makes the 2003 4Kids-produced Turtles series the only one to come to Paramount+ in whole rather than in pieces. Rise season 1 arrived alone in April 2021 before it was followed in February 2022. The 2012 series took from June 2022 with just season 1 to just two weeks ago with seasons 4 and 5 to fully arrive on the service. Even when Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series arrives, whether one season drops all at once or in batches it still wouldn't be able to qualify because it's a two-season order.
For something that was said to be done next year, to have all of this done in about seven weeks is mighty fast. But maybe because it’s only the first two seasons thus far, the time it will take until all ten seasons are available on both avenues that are going gradually will take it into sometime next year. The places that are still only showing season 1 could slowly expand in their areas too. And maybe then it will get an airing on main Nickelodeon.
Source: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles