Guest Star John O'Hurley is Bamboozled by 'Doctor' Drake in Season Premiere of Nickelodeon's Drake & Josh, Saturday, October 1

Guest Star John O'Hurley is Bamboozled by 'Doctor' Drake in Season Premiere of Nickelodeon's Drake & Josh, Saturday, October 1

Josh Winces While Drake Poses as Hospital Doc to Woo Nurses Foot Surgeon (O'Hurley, Dancing with the Stars) Taps Drake to Operate

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Sept. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- John O'Hurley (Dancing with the Stars) guest-stars as a hospital's chief surgeon who treats Josh's (Josh Peck) toe and mistakes lab-coated Drake (Drake Bell) -- dressed to impress a bevy of nurses -- for a visiting wunderkind, in the season premiere of Nickelodeon's hit comedy series Drake & Josh. The screwball episode titled "Paging Dr. Drake" airs Saturday, October 1* (8:30 p.m. EDT/PDT) as the centerpiece of the TEENick trio of season openers including Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide (8 p.m.) and All That (9 p.m.).

After a botched weightlifting routine, Josh lands in the hospital, where Drake clings to his side on spotting some bodacious nurses there and dons doctor's duds to attract them. The masquerade backfires when Dr. Carlson (O'Hurley) pegs Drake as the eagerly awaited teen prodigy Dr. Nussbaum and enlists him to demonstrate surgery for a group of medical students. Swept into the mad, comic scenario, the title teens manage to "tap dance" out of it with skill rivaling any terpsichorean twirl of O'Hurley's.

Drake & Josh is second only to Nickelodeon's Zoey 101 among cable TV's highest rated shows with tweens. It has posted double-digit improvements among tweens over last year with +41% (4.1/827,000). In addition, this hit series ranks fourth among cable TV's highest rated shows both with Kids 2-11 and 6-11.*

The series from executive producer/creator Dan Schneider's Schneider's Bakery centers on an odd couple of teen stepbrothers who share shenanigans that somehow cement a brotherly bond. And it is singer-musician/ladies' man Drake who pulls responsible Josh into the high jinks. Miranda Cosgrove hoodwinks them both as little sis Megan. (Drake Bell and Miranda Cosgrove star in the November '05 feature-film release Yours, Mine and Ours from Paramount Pictures/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures/ Nickelodeon Movies/Columbia Pictures.)

Nickelodeon, now in its 26th year, is the number-one entertainment brand for kids. It has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does. The company includes television programming and production in the United States and around the world, plus consumer products, online, recreation, books, magazines and feature films. Nickelodeon's U.S. television network is seen in 89 million households and has been the number- one-rated basic cable network for ten consecutive years. Nickelodeon and all related titles, characters and logos are trademarks of Viacom International Inc.

* Please note that "Paging Dr. Drake" replaces previously announced Drake & Josh season premiere episode ** Source: Nielsen Cume Data - 2Q05

Source: Nickelodeon

CONTACT: Margo Zinberg, +1-310-752-8207, Lauren Sklar +1-212-846-7653, both for Nickelodeon

Web site: http://www.nick.com/

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