Nick Clawback?

Earlier in the month there was this:

... Viacom has seen ratings at key network brands return to growth in recent weeks, president and CEO Philippe Dauman emphasized at a big year-end investor conference here Monday.

Speaking at the 40th annual Global Media and Communications Conference, he said: "I'm happy to see that our [programming] investments are paying off" at Nickelodeon, as well as MTV, emphasizing ratings are up at Nickelodeon and MTV year-over-year over the past few weeks. ...

Asked about Nickelodeon, he cited the success of the rebooted Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a key turning point for ratings. Asked about SpongeBob Square Pants, Dauman called it "a perennial" and "a very strong franchise." ...

Then there was this ...

Dec. 11, 2012– Nickelodeon rang in the holiday cheer this weekend with the original It’s a SpongeBob Christmas! special (Saturday, Dec. 8, at 10 a.m. ET/PT), which drew 4.8 million total viewers. Nickelodeon’s first-ever full-length stop-motion animated special won its time period across all TV and posted strong, double-digit gains over last year with K2-11 (7.8/2.6 million, +30%), K6-11 (7.7/1.5 million, +45%), T9-14 (5.7/1.2 million, +84%) and A18-49 (1.2/1.3 million, +33%). ...

And lastly this:

Dec. 18, 2012– Nickelodeon notched another winning week with the premiere of the brand-new “Peter Rabbit’s Christmas Tale,” which drew 3 million total viewers and ranks as the top preschool telecast for the week. Peter Rabbit also was the highest-rated show among both preschoolers and kids 2-11 across all TV in the time period. Additionally, SpongeBob SquarePants and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) took the top spots with K2-11, respectively, and rank as the top two animated series with K6-11 this week. Victorious was the week’s number-one telecast with T9-14.

With the understanding that the paragraphs above are the Chief Executive Officer and press releases talking, Nickelodeon might be getting some of its momentum back.

Sure, the network is dabbling in a wee bit of spin, but the ratings are what they are. So maybe Disney and Cartoon Network will discover Nick walking across the top of their ratings some bright Tuesday afternoon.