''Teen Kids News'' (initially titled ''EKN Worldwide Kids News'', alternately abbreviated on-air as ''TKN'' since 2012 and previously known as ''Kids News'') is an American educational newsmagazine series aimed at adolescents between the ages of 13–16 years old and their parents that debuted in first-run syndication on September 27, 2003. ''Teen Kids News'' discusses important issues in a format intended to educate and inform both children and adults. In-studio segments are shot at studios in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

with field reports done on location around the country and world. The series meets

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

guidelines for educational and informational programming. U.S. television stations are required by law to broadcast three hours of children's programming each week; the majority of affiliates that run the series typically air it on Saturday or Sunday mornings depending on the station, though a few air the series on Fridays in the morning or

daytime Daytime as observed on Earth is the period of the day during which a given location experiences natural illumination from direct sunlight. Daytime occurs when the Sun appears above the local horizon, that is, anywhere on the globe's hemis ...

time periods. The series airs on over 200 TV stations covering, approximately 91% of the country, and is seen in 1,000 locations in 175 countries worldwide through the

American Forces Network The American Forces Network (AFN) is a government television and radio broadcast service the U.S. military provides to those stationed or assigned overseas. Headquartered at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, AFN's broadcast operations, which i ...

and is seen in 12,600 middle and high schools through a special classroom education feed. Beginning with the tenth-season premiere on September 15, 2012, ''Teen Kids News'' began broadcasting in high-definition. In-studio segments are broadcast in the format, though most field reports continue to be produced and aired in 4:3

standard definition Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...

, with

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ing added to fill the left and right sides of

widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...

television sets.

Background

The series was created by

Al Primo Albert Thomas Primo (July 3, 1935 – September 29, 2022) was an American television news executive who was credited with creating the ''Eyewitness News'' format. More than a hundred markets have taken the ''Eyewitness News'' name to label their ...

, former news director for

KYW-TV KYW-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside CW affiliate WPSG (channel 57 ...

in Philadelphia and

WABC-TV WABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios in the Lincoln Square neighbor ...

in New York City and creator of the popular ''

Eyewitness News ''Eyewitness News'' is a style of television news presentation that emphasizes visual elements and action video, replacing the older "man-on-camera" newscast. History Pioneered by Westinghouse The earliest known use of the ''Eyewitness New ...

'' concept. Primo launched the series as a project to give young people the opportunity to develop an interest in the journalism industry by delivering news and information to their peers. ''Teen Kids News'' was originally known as ''EKN Worldwide Kids News'' for the first half of the series' first season, before adopting its current name. The series was the first attempt at a syndicated news show aimed at children since the cancellation of the similar ''News for Kids'' in 1996.

Production and content

Educational content for the show was first provided by the child-oriented ''

Weekly Reader ''Weekly Reader'' was a weekly educational classroom magazine designed for children. It began in 1928 as ''My Weekly Reader''. Editions covered curriculum themes in the younger grade levels and news-based, current events and curriculum themed-i ...

'' publication which has since ceased publication. From its launch until the 2009-10 season, the series began each telecast with a summary of the week's news stories with footage supplied by

Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...

via its Fox News Channel in the Classroom initiative; this was eliminated in the commercial broadcast but continues to be included in the educational production as a Current Events segment. The commercial program dropped the newscast in favor of airing special-interest stories on issues important to today's children, and features of children and teenagers helping out special causes, which was already featured following the news summary prior to that point. The series is formatted similarly to a newsmagazine and features special-interest, sports and entertainment stories; before certain news segments and before most commercial breaks, the series features specialized short pieces about environmental issues and offbeat stories. Sports segments are also provided during the show also in the form of special-interest pieces, and

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its d ...

produces a segment that airs in the months leading up to the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

called "Olympic Insight" that began in 2008 prior to the

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, featuring interviews and footage of American athletes. The show also features educationally-based segments such as "Word," a game in which three words (many not commonly used in the vocabulary of the show's target demographic) are illustrated by their meaning. The program is closed captioned and is used as an

English as a second language English as a second or foreign language is the use of English by speakers with different native languages. Language education for people learning English may be known as English as a second language (ESL), English as a foreign language (EF ...

(ESL) tool in certain areas. Entertainment stories have also been a common use on the series, generally aired as the final story of the telecast, and often featured interviews with up-and-coming actors and musicians which have included

The Jonas Brothers The Jonas Brothers () are an American pop rock band. Formed in 2005, they gained popularity from their appearances on the Disney Channel television network. They consist of three brothers: Kevin Jonas, Joe Jonas, and Nick Jonas. Raised in Wyc ...

Corbin Bleu Corbin Bleu Reivers (; born February 21, 1989), known professionally as Corbin Bleu, is an American actor and singer. He made his acting debut in the 2004 adventure comedy film ''Catch That Kid''. He has since appeared in the Discovery Kids dra ...

and ''

Modern Family ''Modern Family'' is an American family sitcom television series created by Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan for the American Broadcasting Company. It ran for 11 seasons, from September 23, 2009, to April 8, 2020. It follows the lives of thr ...

'' cast member

Sarah Hyland Sarah Jane Hyland (born November 24, 1990) is an American actress and singer. Born in Manhattan, she attended the Professional Performing Arts School before having small roles in the films '' Private Parts'' (1997), '' Annie'' (1999) and ''Blin ...

On-air personalities

The show's primary anchor, Mwanzaa, who had been with the series since its September 2003 debut, departed in September, 2013. All anchors and reporters for the program range in age between 10 and 20 years of age; unlike traditional newscasts and news magazine programs, the series never discloses the last names of its anchors and reporters, identifying them on a first name basis only. A number of the anchor/reporters were children of television anchor/reporters. The current co-anchors are Luke, Veronique and Christin. The series has featured over the years anchor/reporters who are children of well-known television personalities and journalists including Haley Cohen, the show's original anchor from 2003 to 2007 and daughter of former

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

and

journalist

Paula Zahn Paula Ann Zahn (; born February 24, 1956) is an American journalist and newscaster who has been an anchor at ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, and CNN. She currently produces and hosts the true crime documentary series ''On the Case with Paula Zahn'' ...

; Jenna Ruggiero, reporter from 2003 to 2009 and daughter of popular New York City anchor/reporter

Rosanna Scotto Rosanna Scotto (born April 29, 1958) is an American news anchor. She is the Co-host of ''Good Day New York'', on Fox 5 NY WNYW in New York City. She formerly hosted with Greg Kelly. Previously, she anchored the 5 and 10 pm news with Ernie Anasto ...

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

owned-and-operated station In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate ...

WNYW WNYW (channel 5) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside Secaucus, New Jersey–licensed MyNetworkTV flagship W ...

; Cody Gifford, sports anchor during the first two seasons and son of

Kathie Lee Kathryn Lee Gifford ( née Epstein; born August 16, 1953) is an American television presenter, singer, songwriter, actress and author. From 1985 to 2000, she and Regis Philbin hosted the talk show ''Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee''. Gifford is ...

and

Frank Gifford Francis Newton Gifford (August 16, 1930 – August 9, 2015) was an American football player, actor, and television sports commentator. After a 12-year playing career as a halfback and flanker for the New York Giants of the National Foo ...

; Sloane Glass, daughter of

Nancy Glass Nancy Glass is CEO of Glass Entertainment Group and formerly an American television and radio host. Career Nancy Glass is currently the owner of Glass Entertainment Group. In 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, her company was named as part of the Globa ...

and Charles Lachman served as a reporter. And Meredith Viera's son, Gabe Cohen, sports anchor during the remaining two seasons and currently the general assignment reporter for

KOMO-TV KOMO-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Seattle, Seattle, Washington, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue-licensed Univision a ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Reception

Critical reception

The advocacy group Children Now acknowledged ''Teen Kids News'' as one of eight children's programs which truly meet FCC educational requirements for children's programming and is listed as a preferred program by the group along with others such as ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...

''. ''Teen Kids News'' received a New York Emmy Award in 2013 and was nominated for a national

Daytime Emmy Award The Daytime Emmy Awards, or Daytime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the New York–based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences ...

for its series on the . The show has also been acknowledged by ''

People A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...

'', ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...

'', and the New York '' Daily News''. It has been featured on NBC's ''

Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now'' * Current era, present * The current calendar date Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 A ...

'' and

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...

's ''

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

''.

Ratings

According to

Nielsen Media Research Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

, ''Teen Kids News'' received a 1.0 national rating for the November 2009 sweeps period. The series performed well among adult viewers with an estimated 600,000 women aged 18–54 and 400,000 men aged 18–54.

Sponsorship

The series is very restrictive in its selection of underwriters for specific segments and those seen in its commercial breaks, and follows strict guidelines and maintains the distinction between editorial and sponsorship. Sponsors generally come from the fields of apparel, entertainment, health and beauty, electronics, retail and the U.S. government. Toy companies and food companies are excluded from buying commercial space for the series and are not allowed to be sponsors on the series, certain other syndicated children's series also follow this policy as well and therefore ads airing on the show generally appeal to adult viewers instead of the program's target demographic.

International versions

Impressed by the positive message of the series, a programming executive at

Rustavi 2 Rustavi 2 ( ka, რუსთავი 2, tr, "Rustavi ori") is a Georgian free-to-air television channel based in Tbilisi, that was founded in 1994 in the town of Rustavi (hence its name). It is an associate member of the European Broadcasting U ...

in the

Republic of Georgia A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...

approached Al Primo to create a version of ''Teen Kids News'' for the country. The Georgian version of the series titled ''Sabavshvo Ambebi'', debuted on March 22, 2009.'Eyewitness News' creator Al Primo helps produce kids' show in Georgia
''

New York Daily News The New York ''Daily News'', officially titled the ''Daily News'', is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, NJ. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in ta ...

'', March 11, 2009. Negotiations are underway with several countries to license ''Teen Kids News'' as an educational concept, a nation building project, a program to preserve the cultural heritage of the country and ESL tool.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Teen Kids News 2000s American teen television series 2010s American teen television series 2020s American teen television series 2000s American television news shows 2010s American television news shows 2020s American television news shows 2003 American television series debuts American educational television series English-language television shows First-run syndicated television programs in the United States Television series about teenagers