Kids WB to end

Another "4 Kids" block, which Fox also airs...  ::) :P

Then again, today's cartoons reek month old sushi and ABC , CBS  & NBC dropped Saturday Morning Cartoons since the mid/ater 1990's and Fox some years ago.

End of an era...





CW turns to 4Kids on Saturdays

Network shutting down Kids' WB! franchise

By MICHAEL SCHNEIDER




The last network out on Saturday mornings, the CW is turning off the lights.


The CW announced late Tuesday it will shut down the nearly 13-year-old Kids' WB! franchise at the end of this season and turn Saturday mornings over to 4Kids Entertainment, which has handled Fox's Saturday morning kids block for the past six years.

Under the five-year pact, 4Kids will program five hours of children's programming between 7 a.m. and noon on Saturdays on the CW starting September 2008. 4Kids will handle all national commercial advertising, and will share in ad revenue with the CW. The CW's share will be applied against a guarantee 4Kids will pay the net.

"This is a great transaction for both the CW and 4Kids Entertainment," said CW chief operating officer John Maatta, who said 4Kids offered "substantial resources and laser-focus in this arena."

Kids' WB! had seen its workforce drop to 10 staffers, mostly in marketing; the CW said it would try to find new positions from those displaced by the move.

Kids' WB! repped the last inhouse Saturday morning network block to air original kids' fare. Once a staple of the broadcast nets alongside daytime and latenight, the webs mostly eliminated the timeslot by the turn of the decade. ABC now runs repeats from the Disney Channel, while NBC, CBS and Fox have already farmed out the timeslot to outside licensees.

"The last number of years have seen significant consolidation in the world of kids' programming," Maatta said.

In dumping the block, the nets have said they found it hard to compete against 24-hour cable networks, while the kids' ad marketplace has softened over the past decade. More recently, the government crackdown on food advertising geared toward kids -- which led to marketers like Kellogg's dropping out of the space completely -- also hit the area hard, according to CW insiders.

Warner Bros. TV Group prexy Bruce Rosenblum said the company examined the Saturday morning issue "closely with our partners at CBS," and ultimately decided leasing the space to 4Kids made the most business sense.

For example, by farming out Saturday morning, the net believes it can focus more ad sales energy toward the online world.

Rosenblum added that the move does not signify a retreat from the kids space by Warner Bros. Animation, which he said would continue to produce for cable, direct-to-DVD, broadband and wireless. The company recently announced the launch next spring of T-Works, an online animation platform.

"We absolutely intend to stay true to our heritage," he said. "This is an important business that touches many of the Warner Bros. divisions, and we have confidence that Lisa Judson and her team at Warner Bros. Animation will continue to build toward future opportunities."

Meanwhile, Fox has two years left on its deal with 4Kids, which means the children's entertainment and merchandise licensing company will program two different Saturday morning blocks next year.

Said 4Kids Prods. prexy Norman Grossfel, "We have tremendous faith in Saturday morning kids television, and with this deal, we've renewed our commitment to remain a major player in children's entertainment."

Kids' WB! launched in 1995 alongside the WB weblet, and earlier this decade -- fueled by the "Pokemon" craze and the departure of rival nets in the timeslot -- rose to the No. 1 spot among kids 2-11. More recently, Kids' WB! has ranked No. 2 in the daypart, behind ABC (which now airs repeats from the Disney Channel on Saturday mornings).

Coincidentally, 4Kids distribbed "Pokemon" to Kids WB!, as well as another hit, "Yu-Gi-Oh!" "We think the CW's outstanding affiliate lineup and young target demographic make the network a perfect fit for our programming and business initiatives," 4Kids Entertainment chairman/CEO Alfred Kahn said

This kind of sucks.

Well its not surprising. The junk they've had on wasn't worth watching anyway. Long ago cartoons, at least Saturday morning cartoons were funny, entertaining or both. Kids today watch these "cartoons" with open mouths and blank stares, and then bug mommy or daddy to buy what they see on the screen, not exactly funny or entertaining. Yes a few standouts like Spongebob notwithstanding. But nowadays, it seems that most of the cartoons are on just to sell crappy merchandise. :(

Saturday morning cartoons (as I knew it) ended somewhere mid 80's or so. When the networks started 'toon shows that were based on dolls, video games and other products that were already on the market (as sort of a half hour commercial), it was all over.

The heyday for Saturday morning cartoons was the early to mid '70 IMHO (not great animation mind you, but fun nonetheless).
Not that the '70's cartoons didn't have merchandising, but usually the toys and products came AFTER the show got popular, it wasn't all a media and marketing blitz from the get-go like it is now.

Oh, well, at least I'll have the memories. I can tell my grandkids stories about watching Saturday morning cartoons with a big bowl of sugary cereal and how it was fun and the cartoons shows were funny, and for kids. They'll just roll their eyes and groan...  ::)

You know, I just on Toon Zone (cartoon site) discussing this development.  A lot of people think this is yet another nail in the coffin of Saturday morning cartoons, which have been on their death bed for the past few years.  

We also had a discussion about whether today's kids are turning away from cartoons.  Not just Saturday morning cartoons, but cartoons in general.  After all, just look at this:

Top 10 Combined Broadcast/Basic Cable shows among Kids 2-11 for the week of 9/17-9/23/2007 , 6a-6a:
K2-11 Total Delivery (000)
DSNY*: Hannah Montana (9/21; 8:30p) 2808
DSNY*: Cory in the House (9/21; 8p) 2208
DSNY*: Adventure of Shark Boy & Lava Girl (9/17; 8-9:40p) 2138
DSNY*: Freaky Friday (9/21; 9-10:45p) 2081
DSNY*: Hannah Montana (9/23; 7:30-7:55p) 2057
NICK: SpongeBob SquarePants (9/22; 9:30a) 1980
NICK: Fairly OddParents (9/22; 11a) 1953
NICK: iCarly (9/23; 11a) 1931
NICK: SpongeBob SquarePants (9/23; 9:30a) 1921
NICK: iCarly (9/23; 11:30a) 1840
Source: Disney from Nielsen Media Research Data
*Disney Channel is not an ad supported cable network, unlike the others in this listing.

Top 10 Combined Broadcast/Basic Cable shows among Kids 6-11 for the week of 9/17-9/23/2007 , 6a-6a:
K6-11 Total Delivery (000)
DSNY*: Hannah Montana (9/21; 8:30p) 2267
DSNY*: Cory in the House (9/21; 8p) 1857
DSNY*: Hannah Montana (9/23; 7:30-7:55p) 1709
DSNY*: Freaky Friday (9/21; 9-10:45p) 1659
DSNY*: Adventure of Shark Boy & Lava Girl (9/17; 8-9:40p) 1626
DSNY*: Holes (9/22; 9-11:05p) 1470
NICK: iCarly (9/23; 11a) 1495
NICK: iCarly (9/23; 11:30a) 1404
DSNY*: Cory in the House (9/22; 8:30p) 1404
DSNY*: Hannah Montana (9/23; 7p) 1365
Source: Disney from Nielsen Media Research Data
*Disney Channel is not an ad supported cable network, unlike the others in this listing.

What with Disney's live action shows ruling the roost, Nick putting more emphasis on TeeNick, and Cartoon Network incorporating live action into their network (the definition of oxymoron), combined with a general lack of cartoons of the ratings list, we had a discussion about whether the kids of today are starting to abandon cartoons.  Also notice the complete lack of cartoons on broadcast tv on the list.  Just shows how poorly Saturday morning cartoons are doing.  No wonder Kids WB is getting out.

In the end, the discussion was full of pessimism and the general feeling of how the past was better for cartoons.  Most of us are hoping that this Disney Channel live action dominance is just a trend that will be gone in five years when the characters in the shows have all grown up and once High School Musical (the main cause of all this) loses popularity, which is inevitable.  It may take awhile, but if even NSync, who sold 2.3 million albums in one week in 2000, can lose popularity, then hopefully the same is true for High School Musical and the other shows on the market currently.

Then again, Spongebob is still on there and thats a terrible cartoon.

What with Disney's live action shows ruling the roost, Nick putting more emphasis on TeeNick, and Cartoon Network incorporating live action into their network (the definition of oxymoron), combined with a general lack of cartoons of the ratings list, we had a discussion about whether the kids of today are starting to abandon cartoons.  Also notice the complete lack of cartoons on broadcast tv on the list.  Just shows how poorly Saturday morning cartoons are doing.  No wonder Kids WB is getting out.

In the end, the discussion was full of pessimism and the general feeling of how the past was better for cartoons.  Most of us are hoping that this Disney Channel live action dominance is just a trend that will be gone in five years when the characters in the shows have all grown up and once High School Musical (the main cause of all this) loses popularity, which is inevitable.  It may take awhile, but if even NSync, who sold 2.3 million albums in one week in 2000, can lose popularity, then hopefully the same is true for High School Musical and the other shows on the market currently.

Then again, Spongebob is still on there and thats a terrible cartoon.


true and not much difference than most discussion here (past vs. present/generation gap)

The "High School Polka" and "Hannah Barbarian" will eventually fade and their fanbase will get tired of them when something new comes along.

This is kinda sad. I used to watch this back in the '90s.

I cant say i'm very surprised though. I remember getting up on Saturdays, back in the early and mid '90s, and watching cartoons from 6 AM until after 12, but unfortunatly Saturday morning cartoons have been dying out for about 8 or 9 years now.

Doesn't bother me I'm boycotting the CW anyway because....

everyone say it with me now...

THEY CANCELLED VERONICA MARS!  :\'(

This network has no idea what its doing.

This is kinda sad. I used to watch this back in the '90s.

I cant say i'm very surprised though. I remember getting up on Saturdays, back in the early and mid '90s, and watching cartoons from 6 AM until after 12, but unfortunatly Saturday morning cartoons have been dying out for about 8 or 9 years now.

I actually watched some of those programs in the late 90's as well...as a teenager. That's when they had some decent programs out, like "Animaniacs" and "Pinky and the Brain". I remember during the 1999-2000 they launched a "Big Cartoonie Show", which combined cartoon shorts from "Animaniacs" and "Tiny Toons" and "Pinky & The Brain" and "Looney Tunes"...usually with a common theme to them. Since mid-2000, however, I've just been disinterested cuz' they got rid of all that.

So it doesn't really matter to me that they're gonna cancel their Saturday morning block. I'm surprised they didn't axe it last year, when the WB network became the CW. I guess "Kids' CW" might've been too complicated?