Saturday Morning Nicktoons was an early 2000s Saturday morning block that aired reruns and premieres of various Nickelodeon animated series. While no new episodes of the series premiered, various other shows (such as many of the final batch of Rugrats episodes) made their American debut here. Running between 8:00am and 1:00pm, SpongeBob SquarePants stood as somewhat of a headliner for the block - holding charge of the high-rated 9:00am time slot that previously belonged to Rugrats. The block's presence also stood as somewhat of an accompaniment to "Friday Night Nicktoons," often giving viewers another chance to catch up on a series by encoring recently premiered episodes that ran there.
Schedule changes
Despite SpongeBob standing firm at the 9am hour for the entirety of the block's run, every other series that aired alongside it went through various timeslot alterations and removals.
November 2 - 23, 2002; December 7, 2002; December 21, 2002 - February 1, 2003; February 15 - April 5, 2003; May 3 - July 26, 2003; August 16 - August 30, 2003
September 6 - October 4, 2003; October 18 - November 8, 2003; November 22, 2003; December 13, 2003 - January 10, 2004; January 24 - 31, 2004; February 21 - March 13, 2004; March 27, 2004; April 10 - May 29, 2004
The title of this event is a spin on the phrase "Saturday Morning Cartoons" (with "Nick" replacing the "Car" in "Cartoons," noting that this is Nickelodeon's own version of the age-old concept.)
Both "Friday Night" and "Saturday Morning" Nicktoon blocks have somewhat of a yin-yang dynamic - the former being a primetime premiere event, while the latter being a morning encore event; however, both are connected by airing the same programming.
SpongeBob was the only show to have a consistent timeslot on the block, not moving anywhere outside of the 9am hour; ironically, it is also the only show that aired on the block still running today.
↑Starting today, a revised Saturday morning line-up would be used, signifying the start of the block - Rugrats and SpongeBob would both shift back an hour, (to 8:00am and 9:00am respectively) while The Fairly OddParents! and The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius would split the 10:00am hour.
