'SpongeBob SquarePants' Soaks Up A Renewal For Season 15

Are you ready kids? Season 14 premieres in November

Mr. Sun has smiled again. Nickelodeon’s juggernaut animated series SpongeBob SquarePants has been renewed for a 15th season, ahead of the premiere of season 14 in November, and, surreally, the show’s 25th anniversary.

Season 15 will consist of 26 episodes, just as the fourteenth does. It’s actually pretty typical for SpongeBob, whose seasons can be stretched pretty long to the point that they overlap. The original three seasons did so too. Season 13 still has one and a half episodes to air, despite beginning in October 2020 and Season 12 took just under 3 and a half years to finish from November 2018 to April 2022, so it’s been a bit ridiculous. The 26 episodes have been the norm since season 6, which premiered in 2008. These in particular bring the total half hours to 345.

Premiering in May 1999, SpongeBob SquarePants is a global phenomenon, and celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2024, presumably not only promotionally but with another special akin to 2019’s 20th anniversary “SpongeBob’s Big Birthday Blowout”. The cast was under NDAs as of March about it. Called not just a cornerstone of Nickelodeon but all of Paramount, SpongeBob has been the most-watched animated series for 21 consecutive years and is one of Paramount’s most widely-distributed properties. The 2020s has seen the franchise grow with two spinoffs, Kamp Koral and The Patrick Star Show, and the feature films grow to five, with the upcoming Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie for Netflix next year and a theatrical film, The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants in 2025. Paramount+ is allegedly getting two other films focused on other characters.

Marc Ceccarelli and Vincent Waller are the current executive producers over all current SpongeBob series. Production is overseen by Nickelodeon’s Claudia Spinelli, SVP Animation for Big Kids, and Kelley Gardner, Vice President of Current Series in Animation.

Source:Variety