The Ameobazation of Cartoon Network

Older Viewers Watch More Than Adult Swim

Action animation is good, but it shouldn't take center stage of Cartoon Network primetime.

I LOVE Teen Titans. It is probably one of my favorite shows on television, mainly because I'm a DC Comics fanboy at heart. I just don't see the need to air Teen Titans at every open slot you have. As of the time I'm writing this, Teen Titans airs at the following timeslots (all times Eastern/Pacific):

Every Night: 6:30 PM
Sunday - Thursday Nights: 10 PM
Saturday Nights: 8 PM Saturdays and Sundays: 12 Noon

Comedy is also good, but most of what's seen in primetime is seen throughout the day on Cartoon Network. I like Ed, Edd, and Eddy. I can't say that I like Ed, Edd, and Eddy as much as I love Teen Titans. It has its moments, but the show is pretty suburban. It is a fun diversion, but if I miss it, I won't pull out my hair. It comes on at:

Sunday - Friday Afternoons: 3 PM
Monday - Friday Mornings: 8 AM
Monday - Thursdays Evening: 7:30 PM
Saturday Overnight: 3 AM

Two different shows with the same problem. They make up a good chunk of the total 168 hours per week. Together, they make up 15 1/2 hours of the entire lineup. And other shows like Codename: Kids Next Door, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Totally Spies, and Static Shock also take up significant channel space. Nickelodeon has been guilty of this as well, making a mint off of merchandising from their characters. Like I said, there's nothing wrong with making money or using your characters to make money. The problem is that kids, the demographics desired by the network, aren't drawn to a majority of the current crop of shows on the network. Why? Dunno, maybe it's because Nickelodeon succeeds in making their original characters toyetic and marketable to kids. When Cartoon Network announced they were going to make newer products, what was the first thing they offered?

A maquette (read: statuette) of Ed, Edd, and Eddy.

Not really a product aimed towards the target demographics of the network, but rather older viewers of the network, mainly the gen-Xers and the internet generation. They're watching those shows, but the kids aren't. But since older viewers don't count, they're worried.

Cartoon Network could learn a lot from its past schedules. If the current audience that didn't have access to the older pre-2000 lineups would check it out, a lot more people would enjoy it. Start out primetime with a rotating pair of Cartoon Network originals, follow it up with the tandem of The Flintstones and The Jetsons (or, better yet, a family-friendly series like, say, Futurama or Home Movies which is family-friendly and older-audience skewing to boot [seriously, even though they're on Adult Swim doesn't mean that they wouldn't fit in the primetime schedule, and since TV-PG doesn't really translate to adults-only, they could be safe on the lineup]), then air an hour of Bugs and Daffy, then in the pre-Adult Swim hour, air original and/or acquired programming that would draw in the target demographic for that block, something comedic and action-oriented that isn't on the regular lineup. Case Closed, a fine show Cartoon Network acquired but couldn't fit in on any of the current established blocks or the current mentality of the network, would fit in nicely in a refocused 10 PM hour that would be a strong lead in to Adult Swim.

Just because you have a lot of episodes of one particular show doesn't mean that you have to rerun the living heck out of it. And even shows with a large order don't air on Cartoon Network as much as they used to. However, what can one do with an influx of library titles?