Madeline Fretz - Sprout sure has had many programming block hosts over the years - from Melanie on The Good Night Show and Kevin on The Birthday Show and The Sunny Side Up Show to Carly and TJ on Sprout House. But there was one problem - most of them were girls.
The Sunny Side Up Show is no exception. Chica has had her fair share of hosts over the years, and in recent years she met Carly and Kaitlin, introduced in 2012 and 2014 respectively.
After The Sunny Side Up Show, Carly went on to do the aforementioned Sprout House, Universal Kids' The Big Fun Crafty Show and Get Up and Move, the Kiddie Pool podcast, Disney+'s Weird But True, Pinna's Hey Story Go, and Tube Town, based on a Sunny Side Up Show segment. Carly had to take a train, bus, and plane to get to the Sunshine Barn, and played the ukelele often when she first showed up. She was on for about the same time as Kelly (six years), and went on to host Sprout House, which replaced Sunny Side Up in 2017.
Carly and Chica also sang some insanely catchy songs together, including Numbers in the Ocean. Numbers in the Ocean doesn't seem to be on YouTube anymore, so I'm going to have to go with Days of the Week, which (SURPRISE!) is the most popular Sprout video on the Peacock Jr. YouTube channel.
Carly was fine, but, as you found out, she was too visible outside Sunny.
Compare her to Dennisha, who replaced Kevin in the host roster at the end of 2009. Dennisha was a mother, her son Declan appeared several times on The Sunny Side Up Show (usually during Hooray for Mother's Day), is a children's book author, and sang Miss Polly Had a Dolly with The Wiggles (she even appeared with them on Sunny in 2012). She left the Sunshine Barn in 2014 since she was moving, and was replaced by Emily. Dennisha, in my opinion, was more fleshed out than Carly.
However, like Carly, Dennisha was also known for her songs on the show. The only video of a solo number is "Working Time," as the rest of the songs that have Dennisha in them are group numbers. This song was sung to the tune of "Down Down Baby," and the video was taken during a Juicebox Pick segment on the January 14th, 2011 broadcast of Sprout's Wiggly Waffle.
After Sprout, Kaitlin went on to play Meekah on Amazon's "Blippi's Treehouse" and hosted Pinna's Hey Story Go. Along with Tim, she was one of the winners of Sprout's Host Hunt contest in 2013. The two were introduced to Sproutlets on the Sprout float in the 2013 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, where they sang the song "Kindness Counts," and sang "The More We Get Together" with Kelly and Chica on TV. Kaitlin officially made her Sunny Side Up Show debut on January 6th, 2014. Like Carly, Kaitlin was often involved in recurring sketches such as "Coach Kaitlin" and "Queen B" (a parody of Beyonce).
Now let's compare her to Kelly. Kelly, along with Kevin, was one of the first hosts of The Sunny Side Up Show in 2007. She performed Patty the Pig on The Sprout Sharing Show, voiced the Sprout Player app in 2009, and played and voiced herself on The Chica Show.
Kelly has been on The Sunny Side Up Show for six years, and provided some of the show's most memorable moments. Who's not to say the same about Carly and Kaitlin?
Now, I'm not saying that I don't like Carly and Kaitlin, but Dennisha and Kelly are the bomb! They all had their fair share of great songs and segments, but Carly and Kaitlin's sketches were too "recurring" and both are (and were) too visible outside Sprout.
So there you have it. Along with Nina and Melanie from The Good Night Show and, to a lesser extent, Liz from The Sunny Side Up Show, Kelly and Dennisha were strong hosts that made Sprout shining gold. Who doesn't love them?
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