Gephyrophillia | Watch This Space #132

Originally Posted on 06/21/2005 by Jeff Harris

For the second year in a row (click here for the first time), Adult Swim has put Futurama back on Saturdays at 11 PM EST, ending the all-action lineup Cartoon Network had in place since November 2004. And they announced the change by mocking the action viewers in the process.

Perhaps the comparisons between the performances between the all-comedy Sunday night and the all-action Saturday night lineups led to the decision. The whole ratings card got old after a few weeks since they don't really mean anything. Comparing ratings of a comedy-only block to an action-only block is like comparing apples to oranges. Of course, comedy rules at Adult Swim. On Sunday nights, they're flying high on a trio of shows, two they didn't make (Family Guy and American Dad), and Robot Chicken. The other shows aren't bad, they're just not doing as well as the other three.

If Cartoon Network (see, here's the thing - as much as the Adult Swim fans don't want to believe it, Adult Swim is a part of Cartoon Network, not the other way around) didn't have Family Guy, American Dad, and Robot Chicken, the Sunday lineup would be extremely weak. The original shows from Adult Swim are popular, but not super popular. Some of them are just downright bad. And yet, the viewers, mostly the mainstream viewers, only watch the Fox-produced shows and the pop-culture skewering Robot Chicken. I should know, I'm one of those viewers as well.

If the Fox shows ever migrated to FX, Adult Swim wouldn't last another month, and that's a fact.

Another thing is that more kids and teens than adults are watching the Adult Swim action shows than adults are. Why? Because of two reasons: it comes on after Toonami and kids are always curious about what they "aren't supposed to see." The whole "no Adult Swim on Fridays because kids might watch" excuse is invalid and inane because they'll still watch on Saturdays, which is the day after Friday. If they're not going to watch on Fridays, what makes you think that they're not going to not watch on Saturdays? The logic is baffling to say the least. If you could schedule a Saturday night Adult Swim, you could just as easily schedule a Friday night Adult Swim.

And there's my problem with Adult Swim. Structurally, it's a flawed block. With no advertisement of the block until an hour before the block actually airs, you'll only have a fraction of likely viewers watching. Dragon Ball Z "Uncut" advertises in the daytime without complaints, and it's TV-PG, the first regular TV-PG series on the air outside of Adult Swim in the AS era of Cartoon Network. TV-PG shows could have a bigger audience if they aired outside of Adult Swim. Case Closed, Futurama (for the most part), InuYasha (for the most part), and Home Movies would succeed if they weren't on the block.

Maybe, Adult Swim should just spinoff their mature action franchises into another block. No, I'm not saying that Adult Swim Action should become Toonami by any stretch of the imagination, although TV-PG-rated fare like S-Cry-Ed, InuYasha, and maybe Case Closed would fit in that block. They could easily create a mature action block in the tradition of Toonami (that way, the action programs wouldn't be competitive with the comedy programs (you don't see Toonami's ratings compared with Cartoon Network Fridays on a weekly graphics card, now do you?]). Or, better yet, just end the all-comedy and all-action nights altogether and create a 50/50 Adult Swim block, like what they have on weeknights. Genre elitism is getting kind of old.

Maybe I'm just overreacting. Maybe there is a method to their madness over there at Adult Swim.

Then again, maybe they're just a bunch of egotists wanting to get a rise out of the action viewers who they feel don't appreciate and respect the action offerings they have.

I've been wrong before.

*end transmission*

Jeff Harris,
Webmaster/EiC/Lead Writer, The X Bridge
June 21, 2005