‘Fred’ Gets a Third Movie and 20-Episode Nickelodeon Series

Lucas Cruikshank’s first major motion picture debuted on Nickelodeon in September 2010. The movie is based on Cruikshank’s uber-popular and readily detested YouTube series Fred, was adapted for television by “entertainment management, media and content production company” The Collective, and stars the hyperactive, high pitched, prepubescent, Judy-crushin’, six-year-old titular character Fred Figglehorn. Its television premiere drew 7.6 million viewers, which made it basic cable’s top TV movie in the year of its release with the kids demographic.

Fred 2: Night of the Living Fred is Fred: The Movie’s sequel. It debuted on Nickelodeon in October 2011 and drew an audience of 5.7 million viewers. That was enough for the powers that be at Nick to order a third installment, along with a 20-episode Fred series to boot.

Nellie Andreeva at Deadline reports Nickelodeon will first shoot that 20-episode Fred series (which will be comprised of 11-minute installments) and then premiere Fred 3 on the basic cable channel shortly thereafter. Varsity Pictures and The Collective (the two companies that partnered on the first Fred film), are on board to produce both the series and the movie.

Expect to start seeing new installments of Fred on Nickelodeon in early 2012, right around the time of Cruikshank’s three-year anniversary of his first appearance on the channel. Cruikshank kicked off his relationship with Nick with a cameo on an episode of iCarly (dubbed ‘iMeet Fred‘) on February 26, 2009.