Nickelodeon will produce Pinky Malinky, a social media influenced comedy that Nickelodeon greenlit three years ago, produced, and then never aired, which is now slated to debut on Netflix.
The middle-school-aged sausage and his best friends made debut on Nickelodeon in 2016. The series follows the humorous, everyday adventures of Pinky, a positive hot dog living in a human world who navigates school and life with his two best friends.
The series will have two seasons totalling 59 episodes wherein Netflix will distribute the Nick-branded show and Viacom will retain the licensing rights for consumer products.
Viacom is planning to turn its brands towards developing shows for OTTs and other third parties with its major strategic shift. Viacom president and CEO Bob Bakish told investors on an earnings call, “Building on the success of Paramount Television and Telefe’s quickly growing production business, we’re going to much more aggressively tap into the huge demand for content and unlock more of our IP and production and creative capabilities to drive incremental revenues from third-party platforms.”
Produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studios in Burbank, Pinky Malinky is co-created and co-produced by Chris Garbutt and Rikke Asbjoern (The Amazing World of Gumball) and executive produced by Scott Kreamer (Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness).