PARAMOUNT+ LAUNCHES
Paramount+, 12:00 a.m. ET
STREAMING SERVICE LAUNCHES: Actually, it’s a relaunch. What used to be CBS All Access, with a backlog of CBS series and such new fare as a Twilight Zone reboot, a sequel to The Good Wife (the excellent The Good Fight) and more than one spinoff from the Star Trek canon, is now Paramount+. Those former CBS All Access series still will be there, but so will many new editions, as parent company Paramount extends its corporate brand, and reach. From the MTV arm, it’s presenting a reunion of the original cast of The Real World, which launched the modern reality TV craze back in 1992. From Nickelodeon, it’s got a new movie, and a prequel series, tied to the phenomenally popular and durable animated series SpongeBob SquarePants. The series is a different type of computer animation (pictured), and is a prequel series, introducing younger versions of the familiar SpongeBob characters as they meet at an underwater summer camp called Kamp Koral. This may seem to be an outside stretch for Paramount+, but this long-running cartoon series is one of the most familiar and beloved TV franchises among the newest generation of young adults… so it’s anything but, uh, poriferal…