SB-06: Cartoon Network 2.0

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Many, many moons ago on The X Bridge, I challenged myself to transform both Boomerang and Cartoon Network. I looked at it and left it alone. In hindsight, it was a failure because of one thing:

I killed Cartoon Network.

The very first thing I suggested in relaunching Cartoon Network was to actually replace it with the general family entertainment channel the people in charge of Cartoon Network want it to be. Essentially, I gave in to THEIR demands and created a channel THEY wanted while launching a third channel with the Cartoon Network brand. That was a mistake that it took me a long while to revise.

Years passed, and I've seen Cartoon Network get good, bad, great, and now in its current state of normacy. It's bland, and yet this is the best they can do, and truth be told, it really is, on the surface, in a better state in 2011 than it was in 2007 when they really embraced banality.

The second thing I suggested was to give Williams Street oversight over the channel's timeslots beyond 9 PM E/P. Okay, Cartoon Network did that suggestion, probably the only one they did, but the results skewed more towards Adult Swim than a true middle-ground programming agenda at the network. Though to be fair, Cartoon Network's current programming agenda is doing just that, though shows aimed towards younger audiences and older audiences who aren't in the Adult Swim demographic have all but completely disappeared.

The thing is Cartoon Network under their current mentality and their current direction is stuck in a permanent third place behind Nickelodeon and Disney Channel. Cartoon Network needs to change the way they do business to keep up with Nickelodeon and Disney. Even The Hub, Discovery and Hasbro's joint venture, is gaining some momentum in this new age of media convergence. Utilizing their combined strengths and focusing on all demographics, Nick and Disney are in the head of the pack, fighting each other while completely taking Cartoon Network down in the process.

They've forgotten where they came from. A pitch where Turner plotted out the direction of the network was revealed by Cartoon Brew. Here's an edit of that pitch updating it a bit and showing what has happened minus the gory details. Now that you've seen what has happened, you have to go forward, evolve, and change.

When I say they need to change the way they do business, I think they need to embrace the mentality that Disney and Viacom has adapted and honed to an artform. The "cradle to grave" mentality has created generations of viewers, consumers, and fans. Parents who love Disney products have kids who love Disney productiions. Nickelodeon's current core audience is the second generation of viewers and about 4/5 of their parents were the first generation of Nickelodeon viewers.

While kids watch Nickelodeon shows, the parents watch it even more. For example, the 2011 edition of their annual Kids' Choice Awards had 7.3 million total viewers, about 3.5 million kids between the age of 2 and 11 watchedm meaning the majority of viewers, about 3.8 million viewers were actually OVER the desired demographics of Nickelodeon. About 4 million viewers between 2 and 14 actually watch. About an equal amount of viewers older than 14 watched too.

And that's something the current management of Cartoon Network still doesn't get.

Cartoon Network has put themselves in a dangerous position by not clearly identifying what they are to the audiences they want to reach as well as ignoring the audiences they've had for nearly 20 years. Slowly, they're trying to refocus on what works and trying to regain much of the audience they have lost over the past five years. I think they'll find their voice again.

But not under the current management.

The Synder/Sorcher team has largely invested their time to making Cartoon Network anything BUT a Cartoon Network. In 2009, they focused on the CN Real reality push, even having a promo song promoting they were more than just cartoons and conducting interviews stating that kids will accept the live-action direction of the network and critics were "just being mean."

Audiences didn't watch those shows and began a mass exodus away from Cartoon Network.

In 2010, they focused on a pair of hour-long dramas, Unnatural History and Tower Prep, an alternative block featuring two of the CN Real shows and a family version of Hole in the Wall, and an awards show they promoted since August of that year, Hall of Game Awards, which aired in February 2011.

In between that, the year's biggest successes were Adventure Time, Regular Show, MAD, Mystery Inc., and the animated film FireBreather, a special that hrought in a large audience for the network, one of the biggest of the year (about double the number of what Hall of Game had). 2010 was the year Warner Bros. Animation's influence in the direction of the channel was really felt, for the first time in the Cartoon Network's history. With a group of individuals with strong ties to the network's past glory in the head roles of Warner Bros. Animation, their impact was felt throughout the past year.

You have a group of people that actually appreciates and respects the animation medium on one side and you have a group of operators who manages the network and not really all that knowledgable of the direction it should take. Another one of the suggestions I made in the original article was for Cartoon Network and Warner Bros. Animation to bury the hatchet, work together, and create better projects together, and they're doing just that. Their alliance is only getting stronger with projects like ThunderCats, Young Justice, Green Lantern, and The Looney Tunes Show. And it's only getting better than that.

Thus the whole genesis for the first goal of the master plan:

A restructured hierarchy at Cartoon Network, effectively creating a great entertainment brand that could rock the industry for generations.

Enter: Cartoon Network Entertainment.