At a recently held animation showcase, Warner Bros. Discovery promised “so many fun and exciting shows” coming soon.
That’s all well and groovy, WBD, but we’ve been burned before. Seeing is believing.
To WB or Not to WB
At a recently held animation showcase, Warner Bros. Discovery promised “so many fun and exciting shows” coming soon.
That’s all well and groovy, WBD, but we’ve been burned before. Seeing is believing.
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How much do you wanna bet that Zaslav’s changing his tune on animation because of the writers strike, and how animation is usually under a different Union (one that is not allowed to strike, no less)
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Yeah, probably. Having endure another writers’ strike sucks, but it’s almost worth it if it gets Warner Bros Discovery to acknowledge it’s animation department. The debut of Max is 2 weeks and WBD has barely talked about it’s animated shows. I’ve seen 3 Max promos with a single cartoon clip in each. Why not make a Max promo that shows the animated content exclusively? It’s possible that the kids and family shows are being advertised on kids’ channels like Cartoon Network and I’ve just been missing them, but I doubt that because I haven’t seen any spots like that on YouTube either. I guess WBD hasn’t learned from its past mistakes and is just doomed to repeat them.
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They’re clearly not bucking their trend of promoting their animated shows horribly. Unicorn: Warriors Eternal premiered last week but I haven’t seen a single on-air promotion for it (or maybe they only run those spots on Cartoon Network). I wouldn’t have known that show debuted this past week if Vailskibum hadn’t mentioned it on YouTube and even he admitted that WBD’s been doing a piss poor job of promoting the show (yet they won’t shut up about American freaking Dad). Again, how are you supposed to attract viewers to your shows if you don’t promote them?
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I’d be surprised if that were to happen, but I’m not holding my breath if he doesn’t acknowledged it.
Zaslav is gonna have to prove himself really hard in order to convinced the animation fans that animation will be the service’s primary focus. Besides changing their family motif, from what I’ve heard from Max, it didn’t really feel like they promoted their animated content as much as they should’ve, unless its on Cartoon Network or other kids channels. Which, I though it was disappointing because HBO Max’s previous ownership with AT&T had dropped the ball really hard when it comes to their promotion. You would’ve think that Zalsav learn from their mistakes by actually making their animated content their primary focus.
Now, I could be 100% wrong, and I don’t want to come off as pessimistic, but I am pessimistic about this is because everything that happened during last year’s debacle really fucking pisses me off. While Zaslav’s actions may not be technically illegal (which I think it should be), but it’s still morally wrong, in my eyes.
Like I said before, if Zaslav really wants animation to be their primary focus for Max, then he has to prove to me that he’s actually is doing it. Actions speaks louder than words, after all. Hell, even if the animation industry wasn’t affected by the writer’s strike(I’m saying it was. Don’t twist my words; it’s sad that the strike happened last week, though), do you really think a reality TV guy like Zaslav really give a shit about animation when his “expertise” is nothing but cheap reality shows (and for what I’ve heard, the writers were non-union BTW)?
Again, cynical part of me, but I hope to be proven wrong.
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To reply to Silverstar because it won’t let me reply: Adult Swim only really gives a shit about and promotes stuff like the Fox shows because that’s what gets them views. A poor choice IMO because it’s stuff they don’t even own, and it’s a technique whose effectiveness is dwindling fast. (Futurama’s return bombed and they had to move the show to 4 AM; Family Guy left in 2021 and Bob’s Burgers is doing the same this fall; outside of American Dad, the Fox shows on Adult Swim can also be seen on Disney’s own adult animation network FXX).
And poor marketing aside, the swiped CN shows and the anime on Toonami are the only things people give a shit about on Adult Swim anymore. Rick and Morty’s reputation is rock bottom, Smiling Friends’ 15 minutes of fame have ended, Primal season 2’s been run into the ground so much on Toonami that nobody cares anymore, they dropped the ball on Tuca and Bertie, and when’s the last time you’ve seen anyone talk about Birdgirl or Teenage Euthenasia? And said swiped CN shows go so against the image of Adult Swim (especially Superman) that it’s hard to see any of Adult Swim’s typical viewer base tune in. And there’s barely anything upcoming, either, outside of several Toonami miniseries (including one that’s been held up forever) and a Rick and Morty anime.
Simply put, Adult Swim’s expansion is essentially stretching itself further and further and I feel that it’s only a matter of time until it breaks completely. I highly doubt it will shut down, but eventually it will lose all relevancy as its former audience is split between FXX and the Internet. And what happens when they LOSE the Fox shows? Half the lineup is just gone! Granted, they could air Adventure Time like they did in 2018, but that would dilute the “adult” part of their brand even further and be horrible for the mothership (CN)…
Sorry to go off on that tangent for a minute, just had to get it off my chest.
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Warner Bros. Discovery has decided to have Adult Swim start at 7PM (EST) and in September, the block will pivot up to 6PM. It’s sad. We’re watching Cartoon Network slowly transform into the Adult Swim Channel, and I wouldn’t feel so bad about that if AS didn’t rely mostly on FOX reruns.
We’re almost 5 months into 2023 and there have been ZERO new show premieres on CN, and I’m not counting Unicorn: Warriors Eternal because that’s airing under the AS banner. Right after Michael Owleween assures the public that Cartoon Network isn’t dying, CN proceeds to spam the same 3 shows to death and keeps giving AS more hours.
Now, it’s possible that WBD does indeed have some new CN projects in the planning, but none of them are ready to air just yet. Obviously, being in the middle of a writer’s strike isn’t helping production. I just wish that WBD would make a bigger deal about their kids and family oriented content if they truly want to attract kids and families to Max.
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You wanna know what’s funny? With the exception of American Dad, ALL of Adult Swim’s Fox shows are on FXX as well, both current (King of the Hill, Futurama, and the soon departing Bob’s Burgers) and former (Family Guy, The Cleveland Show). And that’s all there is to Adult Swim until almost midnight.
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Meanwhile Nickelodeon still runs until 9PM. Perhaps it’s not so much that kids are abandoning cable in general (though people are; make no mistake), but they’re avoiding Cartoon Network, and they have no one to blame for that but themselves, since CN hasn’t updated their schedule in years. The only CN originals that are airing currently are Teen Titans GO!, The Amazing World of Gumball, We Baby Bears and Craig of the Creek, and the latter has already been canceled and is just burning through its’ remaining episodes. (Jellystone! and Looney Tunes Cartoons don’t air every week.)
By contrast, Nickelodeon has been stepping its’ game up lately; sure they still milk their old standbys SpongeBob Squarepants and The Loud House, but they’ve been adding other new shows and IPs as well, yet we’re almost halfway through 2023 and CN has had ZERO new shows premiering or even anything new being announced (Unicorn and My Adventures with Superman are for [adult swim] not Cartoon Network). I haven’t even heard of any new family-friendly cartoons being announced for Max except for Tiny Toons Looniversity, and that’s not happening until autumn.
*ADDENDUM: Apparently Villainous is premiering on Max the day if its’ launch, May 23rd. I just found out about this and honestly had no idea this was happening until I read it on Vailskibum’s Community post. I’ve never seen the show (this will be its’ American debut) so I don’t know whether it qualifies as for kids or not, but this recalls the question we raised earlier: how in the blue hizell are kids going to come to watch these shows if WBD never announces or promotes them? You would think they’d at least give Villainous a casual mention in their ads for the service, but I guess they figured since it’s not a known IP here in States that no one here would know or care. This level of hubris and lack of awareness could potentially lead to WBD’s downfall.
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Adult Swim getting bigger and bigger and having to rely on Fox shows more and more would be so funny if Disney decided to just pull ALL of their stuff, including American Dad, from AS. They won’t- licensing revenue and all- but if they did, it’d be really bad for Adult Swim.
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Yeah, building their early evening schedule around American Dad is a really stupid idea; after the Disney acquisition they should know that any FOX show they have is there on borrowed time.
That said, I’m not ready to play taps for CN just yet. My feelings about this ‘new direction’ depend on what WBD does with their platforms and what kind of shows we get. The idea of expanding [adult swim] to more hours than Cartoon Network sticks in my craw, but I also remember that many of the Cartoon-Cartoons, despite being tailored for kids, were watched by adults as well. As long they keep the weird, stoner-y, experimental stuff in the wee hours, we get some new original shows and concepts and not just endless rehashes of the same old IPs and the whole lineup isn’t just action cartoons and Family Guy clones, I won’t complain much.
I just want some new, good, clean, fun episodic animated comedies that aren’t so young-skewing that you feel embarrassed watching them. I don’t think that’s an unreasonable request. Does everything have to be either super-kiddie or super-adult? Surely there’s room for something in between.
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But you see, they’re looking to keep the Family Guy market desperately, as well as the market for their other shows. That’s why they’re keeping American Dad. That’s why they brought back KotH and Futurama (and look how that turned out for the latter). That’s why… Royal Crackers. That’s why FXX is gaining on them fast. Adult Swim knows the “normies” come to Adult Swim for Family Guy and it’s kin, and if they lose that market, they lose.
Also, animation takes a long time, and if Disney pulls their stuff before AS has enough of their new Family-friendly content to air on weeknights, it might just be a case of too little too late.
Or they could air some lighter anime on weeknights, but I think outside of Toonami Adult Swim straight up hates anime, so that’s not happening.
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