Nickelodeon celebrated its 40th birthday on April 1st with the premiere of its new prank show, The Substitute. The first series to air from the network’s recently announced content slate, The Substitute reached 4MM total viewers cumulatively across all four of its airings for the day.

The Substitute ranked as the top show with Kids 6-11 in its time period across all TV, and it scored year-over-year double and triple-digit increases with Kids 2-11 and Kids 6-11, respectively. It averaged a 1.9/454K with Kids 2-11--up +36% over last year; a 1.4/212K with Kids 6-11--up +100%; and 866K total viewers, up+14%. Additional airings also ranked as the top telecasts with Kids 6-11 in their respective time periods (4 p.m., 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. [ET/PT]).

The inaugural episode of Nick’s new hidden-camera prank show guest-starred Jace Norman (Henry Danger) as an eccentric substitute taking over a class of unsuspecting kids.

From the producers of Undercover Boss, The Substitute is a hidden-camera show featuring celebrities who are transformed by a team of special effects artists to go undercover as substitute teachers, surprising classes of unsuspecting students.

The Substitute is produced by Industrial Media’s The Intellectual Property Corporation, and Eli Holzman and Aaron Saidman (Undercover Boss), with Mike Harney serving as showrunner. Production of The Substitute for Nickelodeon is overseen by Rob Bagshaw, Executive Vice President, Unscripted Content.

Nickelodeon, now in its 40th year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The brand includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, digital, location based experiences, publishing and feature films. For more information or artwork, visit http://www.nickpress.com. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB).

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