LOS ANGELES — On Saturday night more than six million children and their parents are expected to tune in to the 21st annual “Kids’ Choice Awards” on Nickelodeon, where the host, Jack Black, will introduce Harrison Ford, Steve Carell, Cameron Diaz and Janet Jackson, among other adult presenters, as well as performances by Miley Cyrus and Nat and Alex Wolff of the Naked Brothers Band, each too young to drive.
But for the real star of the show, the primping began on Monday, 30 miles south of here at an old wood-glue factory, Blair Adhesive Products. There the company’s president, Scott Heger, began mixing neon-green slime, enough to fill two tanker trucks. As at past “Kids’ Choice” shows, celebrities (and those in the audience perched perilously close to the stage) can expect to be doused, sprayed and, in some cases, drenched by the viscous goop, which is about as thick as pancake batter.
“Imagine being sneezed on by a giant,” is how Mr. Carell put it in an e-mail message this week, when asked about the sliming he and Tobey Maguire endured on last year’s show. “I was able to get most of it off in the shower. However, I was still finding little patches of slime days later.”
Yet for all the messy fun, the show — in which children honor their favorite performers, series and movies — is serious business. General Mills, Kia, Hasbro and other companies will spend about $50 million to advertise on the broadcast, shown live on the East Coast and on tape delay in the West. It typically draws one of the year’s biggest audiences of elementary- and middle-school-age viewers. Nickelodeon has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on promotion, including an after-party for 2,500 that would never be confused with the Oscar bash given by Vanity Fair, not least because of the caterer: Burger King.
As of Friday, a research firm retained by Nickelodeon had tabulated more than 80 million votes cast through the channel’s Web site, nick.com — twice as many as last year. For Nickelodeon, which is owned by Viacom and locked in a bitter battle for young viewers with Disney Channel, the stakes are high — and well beyond the question of whether Drake Bell or Josh Peck of Nickelodeon’s “Drake and Josh’ will best Dylan and Cole Sprouse of Disney’s “Suite Life of Zack and Cody” for best male TV actor.
In recent years Disney has reeled off a string of mega-hits that also spawned best-selling soundtracks, including the cable movie “High School Musical” and its sequel (a third film is due in theaters this fall), and the series “Hannah Montana,” which made Ms. Cyrus one of the most recognizable faces in America, young or otherwise. While Nickelodeon still has “SpongeBob SquarePants,” the wildly popular animated series, and “iCarly,” a spinoff of “Drake and Josh,” it is in need of a new hit. To that end, immediately after this year’s “Kids’ Choice,” to be held at Pauley Pavilion here, Nickelodeon will introduce “Dance on Sunset,” a series that fuses elements of “American Bandstand” with “Dancing With the Stars.”
In seeking to lure the biggest audience, Nickelodeon has had to swallow no small amount of pride and reach across the equivalent of a Congressional aisle — from its headquarters in Santa Monica to Disney’s in Burbank — to enlist the services of Ms. Cyrus, 15. Her performance on Saturday night is akin to Derek Jeter of the Yankees’ donning a Red Sox uniform for a game.
“It’s our obligation to include all the big talent for kids,” Cyma Zarghami, the president of Nickelodeon, said in an interview. “That is what Miley Cyrus is. She’s the biggest talent for kids right now.”
Among those relishing that invitation is Rich Ross, president of Disney Channel Worldwide. A former Nickelodeon executive, he was an executive producer of “Kids’ Choice” in its early years, and a talent booker on a precursor, called “Big Ballot.”
“I feel like the George Washington of all this,” Mr. Ross said. “Life can come full circle when a show that honors kids’ favorites should have, as its main showcase, one of our most popular stars. It’s an honor.”
Should Ms. Cyrus end up draped in slime — a fate intended more as an honor than as an embarrassment — she would join an illustrious cavalcade that has included Mr. Black, Nicole Kidman, Justin Timberlake, Pink, James Earl Jones and Johnny Depp.
“It tastes sweet,” Mr. Black said in an interview. “It’s like a Martian soft drink. I wouldn’t say it was freezing cold. It was room temperature.”
In a slime stunt this year, the R&B singer Usher will be armed with what is being billed as the ultimate squirt gun, a hose that will pump out slime at a rate of 500 gallons every 15 seconds.
Asked after a rehearsal on Tuesday what it felt like when his own sliming moment came a few years ago, Usher beamed.
“Your eyes see what the kids see,” he said. “From that moment on, life is just fun.”
“They say you can eat it,” he added. “I wouldn’t eat it.”
After their hazing, the stars are whisked backstage, where a shower awaits. And while it washes easily off skin, the concoction, tinted with vegetable-based food coloring, can damage clothing, a risk made eminently clear in a legal release that parents of children placed near the stage must sign.
Ms. Zarghami said no star or audience member had ever complained or sent Nickelodeon a dry-cleaning bill.
And the threat to their wardrobes doesn’t seem to deter most stars from taking part, whether to promote a new film (in June Mr. Black will be heard in the animated feature “Kung Fu Panda”) or to be lionized as a hero to one’s children. Last year Larry King and his wife, Shawn, accompanied their two young boys down the “orange carpet” (Nickelodeon’s trademark color), but only after Mr. King scrambled for tickets at the last minute by appealing to Sumner Redstone, the chairman of Viacom. (None of the 5,000 tickets are for sale; they are distributed to celebrities, advertisers, contest winners and children’s groups.)
Perhaps the most anxious man in the arena on Saturday will be Mr. Heger, 51, president of the slime manufacturer. Too thick, and it won’t slide down a target’s face and along his body. Too thin, and it won’t linger.
His company created the slime used in “Ghostbusters” and “Men in Black,” as well as the fake pterodactyl excrement in “Jurassic Park.”
When Nickelodeon turns on its backstage cameras on Saturday, viewers may even catch a glimpse of Mr. Heger. He will be the man tanned and broad-shouldered, with hands glowing green, however temporarily.
“My parents are going to be really proud of me,” he said. “I go to college to become the slime-meister.”