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Baby Shark Run Continues With New Tour Dates

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By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY AP Entertainment Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Most viral videos have a finite shelf life, but the “doo doo doo” of “Baby Shark” shows no sign of abating.

The little ditty and dance about a family of sharks that captivated the toddler set and beyond will still be with us as we go into the next decade, with a “Baby Shark Live!” tour launching a new set of concert dates after recently wrapping up dozens of performances in its first run in North America. The second leg of the tour kicks off in Independence, Missouri on March 1.

“Our target demographic is 2 years old all the way up to 6 years old. That’s sort of the main sweet spot. But it’s family. It’s a family show. It’s parents with their kids. It’s grandparents with their grandchildren. It’s a show for the whole family,” said Stephen Shaw, co-president of Round Room Live, which is putting on the concert tour. “It’s a great night out. And we’re really pleased with the response we’ve seen and how broad the actual audience has been.”

And while the concert, the first for most kids, may include the earworm of “doo doo doo,” the 90-minute event features music beyond that song, including nursery rhymes around for far longer than “Baby Shark.”

“`Baby Shark,’ which is obviously the title and the main song of the show, only sort of appears twice,” said Shaw. “And the rest of the show is filled with great high-energy fun.”

“Baby Shark” has been around for a few years but it took the world by storm last year when the song and video by Pinkfong went viral with the nursery-school set, with little kids imitating the handclapping dance that went along with the video. Books, plush toys and other merchandise inspired by the song were hot-ticket items for the holidays and the “Baby Shark” tour was soon hatched.

“It’s one of those that has truly been a phenomenon where I think there’s any number of people who suspected it might start to fade a little bit, and it seems to be gaining steam,” said Jonathan Linden, Round Room Live’s other co-president. “It’s a lot of fun. It’s a fun song that sort of brings people together and everybody seems to know it.”

Getting exposure during the World Series as Washington Nationals fans adopted it as their rally song certainly helped extend that shelf life. And more “Baby Shark” is on the way as Nickelodeon has a cartoon series in the works.

Ramsey Naito, executive vice president of animation production and development for Nickelodeon, said the network sees “Baby Shark” as an opportunity to “develop bigger stories around these characters that everyone is falling in love with.

“What’s great is what we’ve seen with ‘Baby Shark’ is it appeals to everyone,” she said. “It’s just an unexplained phenomenon.”

The tour, which played to crowds of about 3,000 during its initial run, was popular with some dates selling out, said Ryan Borba, managing editor of the trade publication Pollstar, which tracks the concert industry.

Ticket sales only represent a portion of the show’s success, with merchandise bought for little tykes another key component. There’s even a VIP package where they can rub fins with Baby Shark characters.

The tour represents the continued growth of the live music scene for children, said Borba.

“It’s definitely becoming more sophisticated and the production quality … is really ramping up in recent years,” he said. “The appetite for live music is always growing … (and) kids shows are along for the ride.”

Build A Bear Reveals Christmas Themed Bears

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Popular toy retailer Build-A-Bear is getting a jump on the holidays by revealing a new line of bears based on popular Christmas movies.

The new series will feature bears inspired by “A Christmas Story,” “National Lampoons Christmas Vacation,” “The Polar Express,” and “The Grinch.” Predictably, they’re adorable as all get out. The bear dressed as Ralphie from “A Christmas Story” is particularly charming.

The catch is, that most of them are only available pre-stuffed and online and run about $50.00 each.

BLOOMINGTON, MN – SEPTEMBER 1: Build-A-Bear Workshop celebrated the launch of its new store format today at a grand opening ceremony at Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota on September 1, 2015. The new store was designed to make Build-A-Bear Workshop’s iconic experience even more memorable for guests. Build-A-Bear CEO Sharon Price John revealed the new look and feel for the brand, complete with an updated storefront, fresh new logo, and a seven-foot-tall stuffer. (Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images for Build-A-Bear)

Survey: Number of kids watching online videos soars

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By MARTHA IRVINE AP National Writer

The number of young Americans watching online videos every day has more than doubled, according to survey findings released Tuesday. They’re glued to them for nearly an hour a day, twice as long as they were four years ago.

And often, the survey found, they’re seeing the videos on services such as YouTube that are supposedly off limits to children younger than age 13.

FILE – In this Wednesday, April 25, 2018, file photo, the YouTube app and YouTube Kids app are displayed on a smartphone in New York. A new survey confirms what a lot of parents already know: Teens and tweens are consuming a lot of online video, often on services such as YouTube. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)

“It really is the air they breathe,” said Michael Robb, senior director of research for Common Sense Media , the nonprofit organization that issued the report. The group tracks young people’s tech habits and offers guidance for parents.

The survey of American youth included the responses of 1,677 young people, ages 8 to 18. Among other things, it found that 56% of 8- to 12-year-olds and 69% of 13- to 18-year-olds watch online videos every day. In 2015, the last time the survey was conducted, those figures were 24% and 34%, respectively. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.

Overall screen time hasn’t changed much in those four years, the survey found. The average tween, ages 8 to 12 for the purposes of this survey, spent four hours and 44 minutes with entertainment media on digital devices each day. For teens, it was seven hours and 22 minutes. That did not include the time using devices for homework, reading books or listening to music.

But the findings on video-watching indicate just how quickly this generation is shifting from traditional television to streaming services, often viewed on smartphones, tablets and laptops. Among the teens surveyed, only a third said they enjoyed watching traditional television programming “a lot,” compared with 45% four years ago. Half of tweens said the same, compared with 61% in the last survey.

YouTube was their overwhelming first choice for online videos, even among the tweens who were surveyed — three-quarters of whom say they use the site despite age restrictions. Only 23% in that age group said they watch YouTube Kids, a separate service aimed at them and even younger children. And of those, most still said they preferred regular YouTube.

“It puts a lot of pressure on a parent to figure out what they can reasonably filter,” Robb said.

When presented with the findings, YouTube said that, in the coming months, it will share details on ways the company is rethinking its approach to kids and families.

For now, Farshad Shadloo, a spokesperson for YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, reiterated the company’s terms of use on age: “YouTube is not a site for people under 13.” Among other things, the company also cited its restriction filters and YouTube Kids.

Even so, many children with online access are adept at getting access to regular YouTube or other streaming content — partly because their parents are overwhelmed, said Sarah Domoff, an assistant professor of clinical psychology at Central Michigan University who studies tech’s impact on youth and families.

Those parents could certainly be doing more to track screen time, she said. But, as she sees it, filters on services such as YouTube also aren’t adequate.

“It’s really hard to block out certain things unless you’re really standing over your child,” Domoff said. That’s especially hard to do when devices are portable.

Some are skeptical about how much YouTube will really change a service that easily leads its users, young and old alike, down a “rabbit hole” of video content, much of it created by everyday people.

“If your model is built on maintaining attention, it’s really hard to do something,” said Robb, of Common Sense Media.

His advice to families: “Protect homework time, family time, dinner time and bed time. Have device-free times or zones.”

Domoff added, “There needs to be a game plan.”

Martha Irvine, an AP national writer and visual journalist, can be reached at mirvine@ap.org or at http://twitter.com/irvineap.

2nd Sesame Street Place park opening in San Diego

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By MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — There are plenty of sunny days to sweep the clouds away where SeaWorld is opening its next theme park.

Officials with SeaWorld Entertainment and Sesame Workshop announced Monday that they are opening the country’s second Sesame Place park in San Diego in spring 2021. The first Sesame Place theme park opened almost 40 years ago outside Philadelphia.

The announcement continues a pivot by Orlando-based SeaWorld away from live animal shows.

This undated artist rendering provided by PGAV Destinations shows a depiction of the new SeaWorld and Sesame Workshop theme park, which is scheduled to open in San Diego in 2021. The new 17-acre Sesame Place park will be adjacent to their Sea World San Diego location. (PGAV Destinations via AP)

The new 17-acre (6.5-hectare) Sesame Place will be located south of SeaWorld San Diego. The space is currently occupied by the water park, Aquatica San Diego, which will have its final season next year.

Monday’s announcement is part of an expanding partnership between SeaWorld and Sesame Street, which is celebrating its 50th birthday this year. SeaWorld’s Orlando park opened a Sesame Street section earlier this year. Officials wouldn’t disclose the cost of the park.

Steve Youngwood, president of media and education and chief operating officer of Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind Sesame Street, said the two brands have common objectives.

“We want to engage and educate families. We mutually respect each side’s expertise and we collaborate together to make it work,” Youngwood said.

SeaWorld announced the end of its breeding program in March 2016, after years of pressure from animal rights advocates and shifting public opinion about orcas being held in captivity.

The protests intensified after the release of the 2013 documentary “Blackfish,” which focused on the life of Tilikum, a killer whale responsible for killing a trainer when he dragged her into a pool in front of shocked visitors in 2010.

The company in the past year, though, has seen a reversal of fortune. Attendance was up 8.6% during the 2018 fiscal year, as was revenue. For the first half of this year, attendance was up 1.7%.

In the past year, SeaWorld also has been offering specialized services at its parks for visitors with autism, and Sesame Place San Diego will also offer those services.

The San Diego park will be slightly larger than the Sesame Street park outside Philadelphia. Construction will start in Aquatica’s offseason and resume after Aquatica closes for the season next year.

The park’s opening in San Diego will open the Sesame Street experience to the western U.S., as well as to visitors from south of the border, said Marilyn Hannes, president of SeaWorld San Diego.

Trump rule may mean 1 million kids lose automatic free lunch

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By CANDICE CHOI AP Food & Health Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Nearly a million children could lose their automatic eligibility for free school lunches under a Trump administration proposal that would reduce the number of people who get food stamps.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has released an analysis that says as many as 982,000 children could be affected by the change. About half would have to pay a reduced price of 40 cents for school lunch and 30 cents for breakfast. Around 40,000 would need to pay the full price, which varies depending on the district.

(Ellen O’Nan/The Paducah Sun via AP)

The rest — 445,000 — would remain eligible for free meals, but their families would have to apply to qualify.

Children automatically qualify for free lunches if their families receive food stamps, but the Trump administration has proposed tightening eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which was once known as food stamps. The USDA is not proposing changes to the income rules for the program. It says it is addressing a loophole that gives eligibility to people who would not have otherwise qualified.

The agency said the vast majority of affected children would still be eligible for either free or reduced-price meals.

But Lisa Davis of the advocacy group No Kid Hungry said the application to qualify could be a barrier.

“We hear from schools all the time about the challenge they have with getting families to understand the paperwork or to get it back,” Davis said.

The National School Lunch Program serves roughly 30 million students, including about 20 million free meals daily. For those who don’t qualify for free or reduced price meals, the average price of lunch was $2.48 for elementary school students in the 2016-17 school year, according to the School Nutrition Association, which represents cafeteria employees and vendors.

The group says about three-quarters of school districts have students with unpaid meal charges.

The prevalence of school lunch debt shows even small amounts of money can add up over time and become a burden to struggling families, said Giridhar Mallya, senior policy officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Earlier this year, a Rhode Island district at the center of a controversy around “lunch shaming ” — singling out students who owe lunch money — said $12,000 of its $77,000 in unpaid meal charges were owed by children who qualified for free lunches. The district said the charges were incurred before the families’ applications were approved.

In details released late Monday, the USDA said its proposal could cut $90 million a year from the cost of its school lunch and breakfast programs, which last year was more than $18 billion. It noted the actual number of children who could lose automatic access to free lunch could be less, since some schools offer free lunches to all students regardless of their eligibility.

But those schools do so under a program that requires 40% of students to be eligible for free meals, and the rule change could mean some schools no longer meet that threshold, Mallya said.

The USDA released the details of its analysis after it was criticized for failing to report the impact its SNAP rule change could have on children’s access to free school meals. The agency has said the change is intended to make eligibility rules more consistent across the country, since states can grant people eligibility if they were enrolled in other assistance programs.

The USDA said it would reopen the public comment period on the rule for two weeks to allow feedback on the estimated impact to school meals.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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