Apr 23, 2015

Nick Greenlights "Welcome to the Wayne," First TV Series Based on Digital Series [Exclusive

Stars of Nick's TV series "Welcome to the Wayne": Ansi Molina, Ollie Timbers, Saraline Timbers, and Rafe Bornwell III. Click to enlarge. (Photo: Nickelodeon)

EXCLUSIVE: Reflecting the shifting nature of the animated children's TV industry, where cable networks must cater to a generation of digitally driven kids and compete with shows from Netflix and Amazon, Nickelodeon today announced that the digital short series based on the announced its first greenlight to a TV series. [The network has ordered 20 episodes of "Welcome to the Wayne," a comedy-adventure series created by Emmy Award-winning writer and composer Billy Lopez ("The Wonder Pets," "Phineas and Ferb"). The show, scheduled to debut in 2016 will follow the adventures of Ollie Timbers and Anssi Molina, who live in the Wayne, an action-packed New York apartment building with mysterious characters and unpredictable events on every floor and behind every door.

The high-rise housing in which the show is set provides ample opportunity to introduce supporting characters, and their stories will be detailed in "The Wayne" app, which will be released and updated simultaneously with the series. Says Russell Hicks, president of content development and production at Nickelodeon, "While the TV show essentially tells the story, the app allows people to explore the story at their own pace." In addition to expanding the world, the app provides an interactive experience consisting of games, puzzles, and clues that unravel the larger mysteries about the show.

"Welcome to Wayne" launched last August as the first web-exclusive series produced by Nick, with six four- to five-minute episodes available on Nick.com and the Nick App, and high ratings on these platforms have helped Nick upgrade the show to a 30-minute series (each episode consists of two 11-minute animated episodes).

"Welcome to Wayne" grew out of a Nickelodeon New York short program directed by James Stevenson. True to its New York roots, pre-production for the series will take place at Nick Digital's Hudson Street Studios in Manhattan. Animation production will be handled by Toronto-based Switch Animation (formerly Yowza.Animation).

Hicks credits the show's creator, Billy Lopez (brother of "Anna and the Snow Queen" lyricist Robert Lopez), for envisioning the series as a transmedia property from the beginning. Says he, "This is the first time we've had someone come in who was actually mapping out the whole world for us."

Hicks doesn't go so far as to say that cable is a thing of the past, but his words suggest that networks are betting on cable's shrinking role in the entertainment ecosystem. 'In the future, we're going to have access to assets everywhere,' he said. It won't just be on TV as our generation perceives it; we'll be watching it on our iPhones, iPads, computers, or watches." (Nick Jr.'s app was released on the Apple Watch just a few days ago.)

"What we are doing is testing the site everywhere to see where it goes. What we know is that when someone likes a property, they go everywhere: they watch YouTube videos, they create their own short-form content, they draw pictures and put them on their own website, they just send the love everywhere."

Creators pitching TV shows today may not necessarily plan for the variety of multi-platform experiences that viewers can experience, but they will have to recognize this reality in the coming years. Hicks says, "Creators need to keep an open mind to the possibilities."

He sees adapting to this multi-platform mindset as less of a problem for young artists. The new generation of kids coming into the studios," he says, "have grown up with this. They've spent half their lives on multiple platforms. That's all the next generation knows. They are already thinking this way. For those who haven't adapted, we have a digital department that can actually train them to think broadly about their work."

With the launch of Welcome to the Wayne, Nickelodeon is trying to bring a new paradigm to animation audiences and creators. In other words, Welcome to the Future.