At the time of SNICK's creation,[1] traditional networks such as ABC, NBC and CBS didn't care to program for younger viewers on Saturday nights.

Previously on Saturdays, Nickelodeon themselves ceded the 8 p.m. timeslot to the vintage sitcoms[2] of the channel's late night programming block, Nick at Nite.

[3] Then-Nickelodeon president, Geraldine Laybourne, wanted to expose the myth that there is no audience for kids and teen programming on Saturday nights.

[4] Laybourne believed that the original shows on the SNICK block would double Nickelodeon's audience on Saturday night by as many as 650,000 to one million viewers.

By early 1993, Nickelodeon (according to A.C. Nielsen ratings) was the number one network among viewers ages 6–11 on Saturday nights.

SNICK debuted on August 15, 1992, with a pair of Sunday favorites (the teen sitcom Clarissa Explains It All[6] and The Ren & Stimpy Show) and the network premieres of Roundhouse[7][8][9] (a musical sketch comedy-variety series) and Are You Afraid of the Dark?

On some occasions, the block would run a series of interstitial shorts in-between regular broadcast, known as "SNICK Snack",[11][12] or special programming events.

Many bumpers and advertising promos for SNICK featured the programming block's mascot, dubbed "The Big Orange Couch," in several places, including in different Nickelodeon shows (front of the Midnight Society's campfire, Ren and Stimpy's house, the Roundhouse, etc.

It was retired in June 1999, when the iconic couch (stuffed with $25,000 and 6,000 cookies) was given away in a contest celebrating Nickelodeon's 20 years on television.

The block was now hosted by Nick Cannon, and each week, a celebrity or music group made an appearance.

[citation needed] Some of these dares included singing the National Anthem in a diaper, apple bobbing in a toilet, taking a bath in a tub of raw eggs, eating a couple gallons of blue cheese, being painted with peanut butter and licked by dogs, hanging upside down and being dipped in dog food, having buckets of worms dumped on the cast member's head, drinking a gallon of sweat, sitting in a giant bowl of chili, eating 1,000 toe nails, the cast member putting an entire scorpion in their mouth, the cast member being pecked by hungry chickens, or shaving their school principal's legs.

In 2003, design company Beehive created brand new bumpers for SNICK, featuring an orange splat morphing into a show's character.