Remember this past Christmas, when Cartoon Network temporarily extended its’ children’s programming an extra hour? We all thought the Stuart Snyder, the man in charge of CN, had finally seen the light and was making a genuine effort to bridge the disconnect he has with CN’s audience. Well, it turns out….
Yeah, I hope you enjoyed that bone you got tossed, ’cause that’s gonna be it for a while. This week Snyder announced that starting March 31st, CN’s Adult Swim block will be expanded yet another hour, beginning at 8 P.M. Viewers’ reaction was swift and concise:
The irony here is so delicious that it must be fattening. We all thought that after December, Cartoon Network would be GAINING an hour of programming back, but it turns out CN will be LOSING another hour. Call it Jetix Disease.
For those who don’t know, Jetix was a programming block of new and original shows (mostly action cartoons) which was implemented onto Toon Disney in 2004. In short order, the Jetix shows began scoring higher ratings than anything on Toon Disney (largely because the Jetix shows were new and the rest of TD’s schedule consisted of canceled reruns tying into TD’s nostalgia channel theme), and as a result, Jetix gradually began taking up more and more air space, spreading across the channel like some sort of virus, to the point where 85% of the channel’s programming was Jetix shows and Toon Disney seemed like a tiny block on the Jetix channel, leading the Mouse House to rebrand the entire channel as Disney X-D. It’s looking like Adult Swim is the new Jetix.
Why is Snyder doing this? According to the man himself, it’s because 6-14 year old boys are watching less TV and spending more time online, and he wants expand Adult Swim to garnish more appeal for young adults. OK, 2 things: one, I think it’s truly sad that 6-14 year old boys are the only audience Snyder cares about (talk about a 1-track mind) and two, he doesn’t think that CN’s current hits Adventure Time and Regular Show, both of which have proven to have crossover appeal to young adults, fit the bill at 8 P.M.?
I admit that my opinion isn’t an unbiased one, as I’m not the biggest Adult Swim fan there is. I’m not even a medium-sized fan. Aside from The Venture Brothers, The Boondocks and China, IL., I don’t watch anything on Adult Swim. I don’t even think AS should be on 7 days a week, since the current block is not only a dismal shadow of its’ former self but it barely has enough shows to stretch across 9 hours, forget giving them a 10th, but that’s just me. If we were going to to get decent shows like Home Movies, Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, The Oblongs, Mission Hill, Daria, Dilbert, Duckman and Liquid Television (BTW, I know some of these shows would never air on a Turner owned station, but I mean shows of this nature) during the 8 P.M. hour, then I probably wouldn’t mind this so much, since I only watch a show or 2 on CN right now anyway, but you and I know what this extra hour will contain: more FOX Animation Domination leftovers. Another hour of King of the Hill and American Dad reruns. Yay. Some are hoping that AS’ new hour will consist of an expanded Toonami, but since viewers would actually enjoy that, it’s most likely not going to happen.
(Some of the DC Nation shows would’ve also been choice to see at 8 P.M., but sadly, thanks to more CN mismanagement, DC Nation is a joke now, showing nothing but–gag!–Teen Titans Go! and filler material.)
Ironically, the 1 channel that may actually benefit from Snyder’s dumb-assery is CN’s less popular little sister, Boomerang. In the midst of all of this, Boomerang is apparently going to be remade into an ad-supported kids and family channel said to consist of both classic and contemporary cartoons. Da Boom has already began airing corporate sponsored ads. That description sounds like they’re planning to make Boomerang into a Hub Network type of channel, the prospects of which are making my mouth water. The only hiccup here is that the presence of ad support means that the channel will now depend on ratings to survive, and this will inevitably lead to the addition of new and original programming; not surprisingly, many retro fans fear that this will mean that the classic cartoons are going to be shown a lot less love, and sadly, that is a likely prospect. However, we have to keep in mind that that if things were to stay as they are now on Boomerang, we’d only ever see the same 10 to 20 episodes of the same 4 or 5 Hanna-Barbera shows aired over and over again. Forgoing this for the relaunch of Boomerang into a potentially fresh, diverse and awesome network is a sacrifice worth making in my opinion. I hope that the classic cartoons have a place somewhere on this new channel, because based on what I’m hearing this new Boom has the potential to be a mix of Hub Network and the Powerhouse era CN, and that could be great if The Powers That Be don’t drop the ball on it.
We asked Snyder himself to comment on his mode of thinking, and here’s what he had to say:
Twin Images 
“DC Nation is a joke now, showing nothing but–gag!–Teen Titans Go!”
I…I like TTG! :'(
Anyway, I just have to ask myself: why? I'm sorry the target you like do other stuff, but showing episodes of King of the Hill people have watched eight times already isn't going to help you, especially since because your originals will air earlier, that means less eyeballs, and while there's less competition, there's less viewing hours, and even with competition in primetime hours, does any 6-14 boy watch NCIS, or 2 Broke Girls?
While Nick has some scheduling issues (how much Sponge do you people need? And where's my TMNT?), at least their Nick @ Nite shows can actually be watched by kids, and they know that kids are up on weekends. That's as crazy as cancelling shows that appeal to girls; that would be stupid, wouldn't it? T_T
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Oh. Almost forgot to ask: who's the “I am Mo-Ron” guy from? I swear I've seen him before, but I don't know where.
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Mo-Ron is from 'Freakazoid!'. Interestingly, in his second appearance on the show, the episode “Next Time, Phone Ahead” (an E.T. spoof) the character's name was mysteriously changed to Bo-Ron. The confusion over his name was even joked about in a later episode.
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Snyder has to go. This idiot was the one that brought live action on CARTOON Network. And now this? That has gotta be a joke.
Maybe if AS was using the 8pm hour more valuable, say something like The Simpsons or an expanded Toonami, I wouldn't mind that much. But instead, it will use it for more—King of the Hill and Family Guy reruns. Online content isn't going to cut it either for CN. Some kids can't even afford internet at all.
IMO, AS should be on Sun-Thurs from 9pm-6am and Fri-Sat (and during summer months) from 10pm-6am. If Synder has the brains, he shouldn't put AS on EVERY night at 8pm, especially at a time where a lot of kids are awake. But no…
And I like your idea of a 90s CN/Hub Network type of the revamped Boomerang channel. That would be a channel I'll be begging for to place it on my Comcast lineup. As long as shows like Flintstones and Looney Tunes stay and if the original programming looks good quality, I would rather take that Boom instead of the current one we have now.
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If Cartoon Network truly is losing it's 6-14 year old boy audience to the internet, then instead of giving yet another hour to Adult Swim's programming, perhaps it's time for Stuart Snyder to expand Toon's audience beyond the “booger-eating boy/dude-bro” crowd. Or maybe Toon needs to replace SS with someone who actually wants to program for animation lovers channel rather than trying to change CN into Nickelodeon Too.
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Apologies in advance if this sounds too morbid, but I'm beginning to think that perhaps Cartoon Network should be like the phoenix of legend; perhaps CN needs to die so that a better channel can emerge from it's ashes.
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As I wrote on my own blog and at ToonZone, Snyder is ignoring boys 15-17, since [adult swim] is targeted for 18-up. That's where an expanded Toonami can come in. As for the remnants of what was DC Nation, they would go to Boomerang, but then, that would defeat Snyder's purpose, wouldn't it? And he can't have that. Apparently, these geek went to the same school as that infamous wrestling scribbler, Vince Russo. If you know anything about wrestling in the last 15 years associated with Russo, you'd understand the correlation.
As an executive, Snyder is right up there with that other Vince—McMahon, that is, who's pushing 70 and already senile insofar as the TV audience is concerned.
That clip from Freakazoid had me laughing. Good one, Silverstar.
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So now that we know who's succeeding him, care for an update?
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Fast forward 9 years and now Adult Swim is getting 7 PM. And taking CN’s new family shows with it.
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What new family shows did CN have? I’m not exactly mourning the loss of Family Mash-Up or Tweety Mysteries. Also, My Adventures with Superman is being a little loose with the definition of “adult”.
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Adult Swim is specifically gaining Unicorn: Warriors Eternal AND that Superman series. Unicorn I can sorta get, but the Superman series? Does “adult” now mean “anything for anyone over the age of 9”? And if so, can we expect them to air Adventure Time on Adult Swim again, while retconning it into an Adult Swim show? Will the same thing happen to Regular Show and Steven Universe? Is Adult Swim seriously going to cannibalize Cartoon Network to justify its new hours?
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Ouwleween seems to be trying to blur the lines between Cartoon Network and [adult swim], tying into his earlier interview in Variety where he stated that he wanted to transform CN into a general animation network rather than continue to chase the kids’ market to compete with Nick and Disney, with Cartoonito being the only block deemed strictly for tykes. IMO, that’s not necessarily a bad thing if we can get some decent new shows from it. [as] started out as just a programming block on CN, after all.
Shows like Unicorn and Superman, in addition to bringing action cartoons back to Cartoon Network proper, can potentially serve as a bridge between CN and [as]. Side Bar:No doubt the fact that FOX shows are dropping like flies from [adult swim] due to Disney’s acquisition of FOX is playing no small part in this recent decision. End Side Bar.
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It’s fine with me if this is the direction that Michael Ouwleweeen wants to take Cartoon Network in (CN’s schedule has been so mediocre and stagnant lately that just about any change would be an improvement at this point), but having shows aimed at 10-15 year olds airing under the Adult Swim banner makes the entire branding seem like a joke. I mentioned this earlier on “Anime Superhero, Were You At?”, but if Michael Ouwleween is going to define anything skewing older than age 8 as being fit for ADULT Swim, then CN needs to take the word “Adult” from the block’s name. Call it CN PM or something similar.
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Or at the very least, move the beginning of AS back to 11 and bring the tamer AS shows and the 7-11 PM hours under the CNPM name. Maybe even the edgier CN shows since now “tamer AS material” = “anything for anyone over the age of 9”, as Superman proves. Basically, the OG Detour to AS’s Teletoon Unleashed (the first name for Teletoon’s adult block after a few years of going unbranded; the OG Detour was instead for teens)
I’ll demonstrate with a potential schedule, NOT INCLUDING Bob’s Burgers since it’s gonna leave this year.
WEEKNIGHTS (new episodes of the few currently running shows here on Saturday or Sunday with encores on Thursday)
7 PM: Adventure Time
7:30 PM: Regular Show
8 PM: Steven Universe
8:30 PM: Naruto Shippuden
9 PM: My Hero Academia
9:30 PM: One Piece
10 PM: King of the Hill
10:30 PM: Futurama
“PREMIERE” NIGHTS (Airs Monday and Friday, with new episodes airing on one of the nights and encores on the other)
7 PM: Total Drama Island (revival)
7:30 PM: Infinity Train (de-purged)
8 PM: My Adventures with Superman
8:30 PM: Adventure Time with Fionna and Cake
9 PM: Unicorn: Warriors Eternal
9:30 PM: Young Justice
10 PM: RWBY (yeah, WBD owns that)
10:30 PM: Close Enough (de-purged)
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Cool!
I figured this is where you were talking about.
Cool lineups! I’d watch the crap outta that!
And I’d make Fridays the premiere night for obvious reasons.
And we need a better name than CNPM.
CN NITE???
CNX?
[nc]???- the CN initials backwards, idea came from a Jeff Harris(nemalki)concept of his.
But yeah. Great job!
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CNX sound like the name of an action block to me. We might as well just call the block Toonami. CN Nite sounds too much like Nick at Nite. NC is interesting, but I don’t know how many people would get it.
The return of Cartoon-Cartoon Fridays or You Are Here would be cool.
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NC would actually be pretty easy to get- it’s CN but backwards. Most people might get the connection.
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So, “Network Cartoon”? I dunno. I’m just not feeling that name I hear NC and I just think of North Carolina.😄
Personally, I like CN PM more than any of those. Another choice of mine would be CN Prime. However, you all can give the block whatever name you want. It’s all good.
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