Saturday, June 11, 2011

TV Land

Cartoon Network and Warner Bros. Animation continue to thunder along nicely in the ratings game:

... Earning dramatic double-digit gains vs. the same week last year, Cartoon Network’s weekly early evening (7-9 p.m.) delivery increased between 30-40% across key kid demos: kids 6-11 delivery (623,000) increased by 34%, kids 2-11 delivery (917,000) increased by 30%, and kids 9-14 delivery (447,000) increased by 40%. In Total Day, kids 6-11 average delivery (396,000) grew by 7%, kids 2-11 delivery (594,000) grew by 2% and kids 9-14 delivery (303,000) grew by 10%.

As I've said before, this is a dandy turn around from a couple of years ago, when CN's live-action offerings were falling flat and other shows didn't appear to be gaining much traction.

What a difference thirty-six months make:

Adventure Time (8 p.m.), Regular Show (8:15 p.m.), and MAD (8:30 p.m.)—also ranked #1 in their timeslots among kids 2-11 and kids 6-11. Tuesday night’s The Looney Tunes Show (8 p.m.) stood out as the #1 ranked show in its timeslot on all television among all kids and boys demos ages 2-11, 6-11 and 9-14. ...

Sucesses and failures seem to go in cycles. In the course of the two decades, most every studio in L.A. has ridden high and then come crashing back to earth. But it's nice to see a couple of time-honored cartoon factories doing well. (Scuttlebutt has it that Cartoon Network is looking at space inside the Yahoo Building next to the Burbank Airport. Disney Television Animation is already in residence.)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Looney Tunes show is still finding its footing, but overall, it's pretty fun. Daffy's just about perfect, and Porky's adorable. Oddly, it's Bugs who seems a little off. Hopefully that'll get fixed with time.

Some things do hinder me from fully enjoying the show, however. One is that the duck and the pig and the rabbit apparently enjoy equal status with all of the humans running around. Which seems very bland and a little disappointing (where's the comic conflict?) Witch Hazel's new voice is AWFUL, totally destroying the original character's charm ("Modesty is one of my girlish qualities"). I love that character and it sucks to see her so radically changed. She doesn't have to be evil, but she doesn't have to sound like Oprah Winfrey either. And Pepe Le Pew's had a multitude of wives? But that would imply that he finally caught an object of his affections. What fun is that?

Anonymous said...

The "writing" is as bad as every lame episode of tiny toons or animaniacs or mr. belvedere. It's a piss-poor cartoon with no wit, charm, or reason for being.

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