(Update: Nickelodeon now says it erroneously reported that kids' viewership is up overall this season, and that overall viewership is in fact down. It still stands by its Nickelodeon data, however.)
Nickelodeon is down in the ratings, and in the dark about why.
After 16 years of dominating children's television, the network finds itself in the midst of a mysterious ratings slide serious enough to drive concerns about its parent company's stock and prompt an investigation with Nielsen.
In just-released November ratings, Nickelodeon was down 19 percent year-over-year in ratings for viewers age 2 and older. In October, its ratings fell 13 percent.
Wall Street is paying attention: This week, one analyst downgraded his rating on Viacom stock from buy to neutral and the other lowered his target price slightly. Both cited Nickelodeon ratings declines.
Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman calls the slide "inexplicable" and an "aberration" -- but so far, a coordinated effort by the network and Nielsen to find some glitch that might explain it has come up empty.
At least one Nick rival doesn't buy the idea that there's anything wrong with the way Nielsen tracks childrens' ratings -- and poked fun at Dauman's choice of words.
"We don't think there's a glitch in kids ratings," the Disney Channel said in a statement to TheWrap. "The ratings strength of Disney Channel and Disney XD is 'inexplicable' to some but we are very clear on what's happening -- it's the popularity of our programming."
Could SpongeBob -- gulp -- just be getting old?
Also read: 'Spongebob's' Latest Tormentor: The American Academy of Pediatrics
(Update, Dec. 5: Nielsen initially said viewership was slightly up this season among viewers 2 to 11, but later corrected its numbers to say it is in fact down 2.9 percent. Nielsen stands by its Nickelodeon numbers, however.)
Nick's slide comes at a particularly bad time: The last three months of the year are especially important to the network because of ads for holiday films and toys.
The stakes are also high because no cable network earns higher total-day ratings than Nick, whose closest rival is The Disney Channel. Both benefit from young audiences with plenty of spare time during the day -- and parents who use it as a plug-in babysitter.
Though it trails them in total-day viewing, the Cartoon Network is the third-most-watched kids' network after Nick and the Disney Channel, and has shared some of Nick's ratings woes. But in the latest monthly ratings it seems to be digging itself out, while Nickelodeon's latest numbers have only gotten worse.
Also read: 'Transformers' Helps Viacom Triple 4Q Earnings, Beat the Street
Nick believes the problem could lie with Nielsen's sampling of its audience, and has worked with the company behind the scenes to examine several possibilities.
"We've been doing this for 30 years, and we've been No.
