The Original 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Has Departed Nicktoons's Schedule

It was mayhem while it lasted

That was an interesting month. The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series which arrived on Nicktoons at the end of July has now left after just over a month in its late night hours, according to several schedule trackers.

The series’s arrival on Nicktoons happened on July 31, 2 days before Mutant Mayhem’s theatrical release, and 11 days after the announcement. It aired every night encompassing the midnight hour that first week, including weekends. Friday’s airings actually finished out the broadcast day with a full 6 hour marathon ending at 6 AM. However, that didn’t last. Within weeks, the airings were down to Monday-Thursdays, still in that midnight timeslot. Eight episodes a week. The final airing was Thursday, September 7, therefore early September 8. They did get pretty deep into season 3, with the last episode aired being “The Big Rip-Off”, which was the 45th of 47 episodes that season.

In its place is SpongeBob SquarePants, which now stretches from 11 PM to 7 AM most nights, with 7-9 PM being SpongeBob as well, with the hours in between being Kamp Koral and The Patrick Star Show. The Loud House and The Really Loud House covering 7 AM to 7 PM. Otherwise the first Nickelodeon Turtles series still has its weekend morning blocks, and the week’s new episodes of Young Dylan and NFL Slimetime, which just returned for new seasons. NFL Slimetime gets three repeats, Young Dylan none. Yeah the Nicktoons schedule markedly…isn’t great.

The show’s arrival was highly publicized, as original co-creator Kevin Eastman announced Paramount’s acquisition of the series at the Mutant Mayhem San Diego Comic-Con panel in July, the megacorp having owned most of the rest of the franchise since 2009. The series’s 193 episodes originally aired from 1987-1996 on CBS. It would be made available on several outlets, including the Totally Turtles Pluto TV channel and while it hadn’t made it to the main Nickelodeon channel, the first season was put on Nick.com and the franchise’s YouTube channel, all by the time the Nicktoons stint began. The first two seasons were relisted on iTunes over this period with newly-applied Nickelodeon branding, and are set to arrive on Paramount+ on September 19.

Eastman’s announcement stated that rollout would start next year, but it still looks to be when full rollout will be complete, especially by the way things are going for iTunes and Paramount+. Maybe it’ll be back then, on either channel, to mark it. As for Totally Turtles, it’s cycling back through again after season 4, however the weekends have been taken over by Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra.

Sources: Flixed, HyperSchedules