The History of Sprout: The Second Generation, 2009-2015

Sprout was an instant cable-and-VOD success among kids and families. But, they had to make a few changes.

Popular children's artists the Wiggles joined Sprout on August 24th, 2009, with their new programming block Wiggly Waffle, airing from 6:00am to 9:00am, where they would tell jokes, sing songs, and play games with viewer submissions.

On September 21st, Sprout rebranded to feature new idents, promos, and block themes, coinciding with the new Good Night Show season. A few shows joined (such as Rubbadubbers), causing ones that have been there on launch day to be dropped.

In 2010, Sprout launched an HD channel simulcasting with its standard-definition counterpart, encouraging preschoolers to watch shows on the channel in HD.

Also in 2010, Sprout started to invest in original programming like Noodle and Doodle, The Chica Show (a 2012 spin-off of The Sunny Side Up Show), and full-length episode versions of Jim Henson's Pajanimals music videos. There were also new shows that have not aired on PBS nor produced by HiT or Sesame (ex: Chloe's Closet and Justin Time)

In 2011, Sprout launched the initiative Kindness Counts, designed to help teach the importance of positive values and social behaviors to younger children. Promos included such characters like Big Bird or Barney.

Comcast acquired a majority stake in NBCUniversal that year, and assume a full ownership of the company in 2013. As a result, Comcast's interest in Sprout was turned over to the company. With Apax Funds (UK) and Mattel (here) acquiring HiT Entertainment, the company decided to quit funding the network, albeit shows like Barney and Thomas still running. Same with Sesame Workshop in December of 2012. As a result, the "PBS Kids" branding was dropped from the channel's name, and operations moved to New York from Pennsylvania.

Also in 2012, Sprout and NBCUniversal launched a Saturday morning programming block for children called NBC Kids. The block lasted until 2016, when The More You Know launched.

Sprout also debuted a float called "Daytime, Playtime, Nighttime Too" for the 86th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade that year, featuring the presenters of The Sunny Side Up Show and The Good Night Show.

In 2013, Sprout announced a contest based on the Kindness Counts initiative. The winner would become the channel's "Chief Kindness Officer" for a day and visit the set of The Sunny Side Up Show.

Sprout had new graphics introduced for the 10th anniversary, convinced in an effort to compete with PAW Patrol. A few PBS shows were dropped as well. Sesame Street was removed, Barney and Thomas were also removed, although the former would return in December 2018 on Universal Kids. Bob the Builder was disposed of, and Super WHY! was axed.