SB-06: Cartoon Network 2.0 | Step Two: Relaunch Cartoon Network

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This step doesn't need to take a lot of work because, in essence, this is exactly what Cartoon Network has been doing May 2010. What they've been doing post Hall of Games is saving face, refocusing what the network is all about, and really returning to their animated roots. The upfront season put more emphasis on animated fare, block-building, going with things that worked, and forging ahead with projects based on preexisting properties.

I don't have as big problem with live-action as I did many years ago when I wrote the original Cartoon Network Scratchbuilding article. Yes, I feel that animation should dominate the Cartoon Network lineup, and guess what? It does. Even with all the experiments, all the live-action disasters that aired, and the silly game shows that are the air right now, animation still rules 95% of Cartoon Network's weekly lineup.

That said, there could be some tweaks to the lineup:

The network is divided into three dayparts, Mornings, Afternoons, and Prime-Time:

Mornings: Transform the 9 AM - 2 PM lineup into Boomerang, a classic cartoon block that's the alternative to the preschool lineups on Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, but just as family-friendly. The original Looney Tunes, Scooby-Doo, Tom and Jerry, The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, The Smurfs, and others.

Afternoons: Create an interactive three-hour block with a random selection of 15-minute shorts every day for the 1st 90 minutes and an "action pack" of three action cartoons. Twitter questions of the day, online games, contests, and the daily lowdown (interviews and clips from new productions and previews of what's on CN tonight). Right now, there's no other block of programming like it. Plus, it would help create a daily programming destination that will utilize the library of shorts of Cartoon Network/Turner/Warner Bros. Animation Afternoons will be Cartoon Central on Cartoon Network, and more or less the heart of what the network is all about.

Prime-Time and [adult swim] are still relatively the same as they are now, and I'm okay with that. Why? Well, they've pretty much created a decent lineup for prime-time. Comedies on Mondays and Tuesdays, action on Fridays, DC Nation in 2012, even the reality smeg on Wednesdays work as a center point. The one thing I'd do is expand the prime-time lineup to 10 PM on Fridays and Saturdays. I'd shake up the [adult swim] lineup at the 9 PM hour by airing shows that older audiences would appreciate that are actually in the Warner Bros. Animation/Cartoon Network library, particularly in the initial two hours. By displaying and putting . . . wait, this isn't the time to talk about scratchbuilding [adult swim]. That's another conversation for another time.

Meet the new Boomerang, which isn't Boomerang.