Miranda Cosgrove, the sprightly star of Nickelodeon's iCarly, is sitting on the floor of the show's fictional Ridgeway school set during a lull in production - practising lines and adjusting the collar on her bright blue jacket. Try as she might, though, she can't ignore the inevitable.
Looking up at her character's locker that towers above her - a veritable landmark among the tween-set - the brunette wunderkind summons a cornball glance at costar Jennette McCurdy sitting beside her. "Think of me fondlyyyy/ when we say goodbyeeee," the twosome mirthfully croon to each other, calling up a ballad from The Phantom of the Opera.
The charmingly goofy off-screen moment between the friends and costars mimics the shenanigans viewers have come to enjoy on the teen-centred show about three pals who produce a popular online series. But the clownish antics are in the closing stages: After five seasons, one of the network's preeminent shows is wrapping its run. On this June day, Cosgrove and McCurdy are in the thick of the show's swan song, filming the one-hour send-off, "iGoodbye," which will run Friday.
For the generation that grew up on iCarly, this was a show that spoke its language - before Gossip Girl or Awkward tried to do the same. The half-hour comedy, from Nickelodeon sire Dan Schneider, soared to popularity in no small part because of the way it converged the television and computer screen - a radical notion in 2007. It was a well-timed concept that resonated with a young constituency mesmerized by cellphones, computers and iPods. The show was also unusual in portraying young children on their own with no parental nemeses or guardians.
The ending of one of its longest-lived hits comes at a crucial time for Nickelodeon. The network - which will also lose hit teen sitcom Victorious (also created by Schneider) - saw its audience levels fall nearly 30 per cent over the past year.
By its second season, iCarly had overtaken Disney's Hannah Montana, the seemingly untouchable ruler of tweens, as TV's No.1 series among kids (ages 2 to 11) and tweens (ages 9 to 14). Its current season is averaging 3.2 million viewers, down nearly 32 per cent from the previous season. It now clocks in at No. 7 among kids and No. 3 among tweens, with Disney's Good Luck Charlie taking up the crown.
Marjorie Cohn, the network's president of original programming and development, doesn't minimize the task that lies ahead. "It's a hurdle," Cohn said. "It's always sad to lose a ratings workhorse. But our job is to replace it with another one, so that's what we're going to do."
Viacom, which owns Nickelodeon, has invested tens of millions of dollars into development of new programs to find that replacement. Its recent launch of a revamped Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has already helped the network make gains.
On Saturday, Nickelodeon will roll out Marvin Marvin, about an alien trying to fit in as a human teenager.
