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[via press release]

You’re Never too Young to Vote!

Nickelodeon Launches Kids Pick the President Year-Long Campaign Featuring Three Election Specials Including First-Ever Kids’ Primary, Beginning Jan. 13

Nick News With Linda Ellerbee to Present First of Three Specials, Kids Pick The President: The Kids’ Primary, on Sunday, Jan. 13, at 9 PM (ET/PT)

NEW YORK, Dec. 19 — Nickelodeon celebrates its long history of giving kids a voice with the launch of its Kids Pick The President campaign, the network’s year-long initiative aimed at building young citizens’ awareness of the election process and issues for the 2008 U.S. Presidential election. For the first-time ever, the campaign will invite kids to participate in their own primary election, as well as allowing them to cast their votes once again for the next U.S. President on www.nick.com. Kids have predicted the next President for four out of the last five national elections. Nickelodeon’s campaign will bow Jan. 13 and will include three Kids Pick the President television specials created and produced by the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning Nick News with Linda Ellerbee, and a special online election website http://www.nick.com/kpp/.

The first special, Nick News with Linda Ellerbee: The Kids’ Primary, will premiere Sunday, Jan. 13, at 9 p.m. (ET/PT) and will explain how presidents are elected in the United States; the primary system; the current candidates; and what it means to be a Democrat or a Republican. The special, which will also stream on TurboNick, will encourage kids to go online to vote in Nickelodeon’s first kids’ primary.

“Nick News has always given kids a place where their voices count,” said Linda Ellerbee. “Why should a presidential election be different? Besides, if they get in practice voting now, maybe they’ll keep it up when they’re grown. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

“Though kids can’t vote in the general election, we find that they are incredibly attuned to the issues and are paying attention to the presidential candidates,” said Marva Smalls, Executive Vice President of Public Affairs, Chief of Staff for Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids & Family Group. “The Kids Pick the President campaign is part of our mission to empower kids and respond to their interest in the world around them. We’re excited to involve them this year in the very first step of the election year process with the first kids’ primary.”

Beginning this week, leading up to the premiere of The Kids Primary, kids can log onto http://www.nick.com/kpp/ to learn about each candidate. The website will feature explanations of the election process, photographs and information about each candidate, and a calendar of the major election events.

From Jan. 13 to Jan. 18, kids can vote online for their choice in the primary election. After casting his or her vote, each participant will receive a message informing them whether they have voted democrat or republican. On Friday, Jan. 18, at 8 p.m. (ET/PT), Nick News’ Linda Ellerbee will announce the results of the kids’ primary on-air on Nickelodeon.

A second special, Kids Pick the Issues, will premiere in March and will feature a discussion with kids about the issues and policies that matter to them. In the October Kids Pick the President special, Ellerbee will take kids’ questions to the final candidates and then kids will be encouraged to go online and vote.

The campaign specials will also air on Cable in the Classroom (schedule will be announced), which airs Wednesday and Friday mornings at 6:00 a.m. (ET/PT). Cable in the Classroom provides schools with commercial-free educational television programming. To complement the Kids Pick the President campaign, supplementary materials are available as resources for teachers at http://teachers.nick.com.

Nick News, which last year celebrated its 15th year anniversary, is the longest-running kids’ news show in television history, and has built its reputation on the respectful and direct way it speaks to kids about the important issues of the day. Over the years, Nick News has received more than 20 Emmy nominations and numerous Emmy wins. Most recently, in 2007, “Private Worlds: Kids and Autism” won the Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Programming. In 1994, the entire series, Nick News, won the Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Programming. In 1998, “What Are You Staring At?” a program about kids with physical disabilities, won the Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Programming. In 2002, “Faces of Hope: The Kids of Afghanistan,” won the Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Programming. In 2004, two Nick News Specials, “The Courage to Live: Kids, South Africa and AIDS” and “There’s No Place Like Home,” a special about homeless kids in America, were both nominated for the Outstanding Children’s Programming Emmy. In 2005, it won the Emmy for Outstanding Children’s Programming for its show, “From the Holocaust to the Sudan.” Nick News, produced by Lucky Duck Productions, is also the recipient of three Peabody Awards, including a personal award given to Ellerbee for her coverage for kids of the President Clinton investigation. The series has also received two Columbia duPont Awards and more than a dozen Parents’ Choice Awards.

Nickelodeon, in its 28th 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 company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, online, recreation, books, magazines and feature films. Nickelodeon’s U.S. television network is seen in more than 96 million households and has been the number-one-rated basic cable network for more than 13 consecutive years. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B).

SOURCE Nickelodeon