Cartoon Network loses its 8pm hour, with more Adult Swim

[tutter_fan]

and COURAGE THE COWARDLY DOG, and COW AND CHICKEN, and JOHNNY BRAVO, among others... but most of them have been dumped onto Boomerang by now (and I'm still just a little peeved Comcast/xfinity refuses to carry it because it's, "Commercial free", yet they had no problems with carrying Noggin).

Yeah, I agree with you there!

 

[mr3urious]

Just as I expected, the "Parents" Television Council is female dogging about this change instead of actually being responsible parents. This YT ranter chimes in on this, all of which I wholly agree with.

Yet not a peep from them about reality bullcrap like Dummy Poo Poo.

 

[Drtooth]

The less said about the PTC, the better. They're nothing but a bunch of religious zealots that want to keep dated 1950's values (the bad ones) indoctrinated into future generations, who would otherwise stop caring like the rest of humanity. I also really hate left leaning parental groups as well, so I'm very even handed at that.

And I agree. It's always scripted television (cartoons, mainly, but everything else is fair game) that these parental/moral groups go after when most reality shows are simply the most immoral, horrible things humanity has to offer. Like in Big Brother when they had that racist bimbo, and they kept her on because the ratings were up? Where are the moral groups on that filth?

But to think that AS will run anything less tame than King of the Hill at an 8PM hour is ridiculous. Which is where my argument stands. There is no way we'll see anything like Rick and Morty, Robot Chicken, or any of their popular adult programming airing any earlier than 10. Which makes you wonder exactly what they're planning for 8 PM. And if it's anything stupid for irony purposes (say, Full House reruns), that would be awful. What they REALLY need to do is rethink cancelling MAD. That was the best as transition show they had, as it's essentially a lighter version of Robot Chicken. Just, maybe, make it slightly more adult.

 

[Drtooth]

Sigh....

This just started this week, and surprise surprise, I'm right. King of the Hill's the 8PM slot. All it does is give The Cleveland Show an hour.

 

[Drtooth]

So...uh... without any fanfare or warning, [AS] lost the 8 PM hour, giving it back to CN originals. This week, Regular Show Halloween specials and Over the Garden wall will be rebroadcast with a new RS Halloween special Thursday. Next week, a full week of new Adventure Time shows.

Now...this vexes me. I never cared much for the 8PM KOTH showings. I like KOTH, but it's a poor fit for [as] even in the weird internet meme-y sort of ironic way. I checked it out last night, and unfortunately the show to get screwed by the hour long reduction is Bob's Burgers. Yep. Not "wasn't even popular when it was on Cleveland Show," not "pity acquisition" KOTH. The up and coming cult show that pretty much thrived on having a cable channel re-broadcast. Heck, they can't even stand to lose a half hour of Family Guy (then again, I only checked last night when they rebroadcast Sunday's Rick and Morty episode at the 10 PM slot).

To be fair, I actually am one of the few people on Earth that actually liked Cleveland Show, and found it to at least be more entertaining than the Family Guy episodes at the time. But it's only 3 seasons worth of footage they have run nightly twice since the acquisition. I think they're only running the thing until the license runs out.

And then there's the fact that it puts their cartoons back in direct competition with actual prime time programming. Now, at the risk of flip flopping my position, I actually felt the 8PM cut off was beneficial. They weren't running against anything I was watching, and I'm sure that also helped the ratings of the shows as well. On the other hand, freeing up another hour of CN programming should be a good thing, but all it does is push shows out of their already TTG heavy, completely screwed up line up. If it meant that all their shows could regularly air weekly, that would be beneficial. Instead, it just means extra episodes of shows they show enough already of a day, and still long scheduled hiatuses between show airings (SU is going on break again for example).

 

[The Count]

I agree with these sentiments. I would love to watch all five RS Terror Tales, and probably will if/when repeated on the weekend...
But I have The Muppets already slated in the dominant Tuesdays 8 PM spot, so much that I'm not watching The Flash Season 2.
And then there are other Halloween programs the rest of this week to consider, like the Bones/Sleepy Hollow two-episode crossover on Thursday.

But back to CN's screwed lineup. The problem could be easily fixed so all their shows air daily within the 5-7 or 6-8 PM or even 5-8 frame since they're just fifteen-minute long episodes and don't really require a second episode bundled together to chew up an entire half-hour.
Look, this is just an example of what could be.
Gumball: 5 PM.
Uncle Grandpa 5:15 PM.
We Bear Bears: 5:30 PM.
Clarence: 5:45 PM.
Teen Titans Go: 6 PM.
Adventure Time: 6:15 PM.
Steven Universe: 6:30 PM.
Regular Show: 6:45 PM.

Then add Wabbit at 7 PM and Be Cool Scooby-Doo at 7:30 PM to finish off the night, both shows which make full use of the entire half-hour.

 

[Schfifty]

I don't regularly watch Cartoon Network anymore, but I check the schedule daily, and I am for one glad CN reclaimed the 8PM hour. One reason is because here in the Midwest, Adult Swim would start at 7:00 Central, meaning that Cartoon Network's target demo would essentially have to watch other programs or do other activities instead of watching their favorite channel. I'm not saying that some kids who may actually like King of the Hill or Bob's Burgers can't watch it, but those programs are both intended for maybe ages 12 and up. Plus, Adult Swim has hardly changed their FOX rerun schedule on weekdays for at least several months, I think, so this is fresh.

I checked it out last night, and unfortunately the show to get screwed by the hour long reduction is Bob's Burgers. Yep. Not "wasn't even popular when it was on Cleveland Show," not "pity acquisition" KOTH. The up and coming cult show that pretty much thrived on having a cable channel re-broadcast. Heck, they can't even stand to lose a half hour of Family Guy (then again, I only checked last night when they rebroadcast Sunday's Rick and Morty episode at the 10 PM slot).

I'm okay with a full hour of Family Guy, because it's one of the block's top shows and I can see how fans would like two episodes in a row. But I can understand why you or others aren't happy with the weekday pullings of Bob's Burgers. Now, what I think they should do is something like this:

9:00pm: King of the Hill
9:30pm: Bob's Burgers
10:00pm: The Cleveland Show
10:30pm: American Dad
11-12am: Family Guy

See? That way, we don't have to get treated to three hours of BB, AD and FG, and go down just to one in this time being. It's kind of like returning to TV in the early 2000's, and in my opinion, scheduling then was better because they (especially CN) had better variety.

Then add Wabbit at 7 PM and Be Cool Scooby-Doo at 7:30 PM to finish off the night, both shows which make full use of the entire half-hour.

But aren't those Boomerang shows? Wasn't Cartoon Network originally going to air them as previews, then leave the channel and stay on Boomerang? What would take their place?

 

[The Count]

Good idea. The problem is that the AS schedule also got screwed when they added Bob's Burgers. Before, the main AS primetime lineup consisted of King of the Hill, Cleveland Show, American Dad, and Family Guy. And that worked fine, because each show got two episodes for one full hour each weekday night. But with the addition of Bob's Burgers from 8:30 to 9:30 PM plus Ric and Morty at 10 PM on Mondays, the lineup's out of whack. So even if there's enough episodes of Ric and Morty that it could be expanded to six shows on all weeknights, we're still looking at six shows to fit somewhat equally within a four-hour window from 8 PM to 12 AM. Even if AS expands this to 1 AM, it would punt one of those shows out so the other five could have two episodes an hour-long block; something like this:
KOTH: 8-9 PM.
Bob's Burgers: 9-10 PM.
Cleveland: 10-11 PM.
American Dad: 11-12 AM.
FG: 12-1 AM.
Then Ric and Morty at 1 and Robot Chicken at 1:30 AM. (Which incidentally without this expansion is what happens to me once DST expires for the current year).

 

[Drtooth]

As far as I'd go, the ideal line up is getting the heck rid of KOTH or at least cut it back to a half hour, giving the 9:30 slot to Bob, then having Cleveland and AD share an hour, and leaving the rest as is. Beyond that, it would be nice to have a rotating daily slot featuring different shows at 12 till the time they go all time shift and rerun the block from the first half (which I HATE!) That way all their shows could share some spotlight, not just what's popular on the block at the moment.

But in the case of CN's current line up, there isn't much more that I didn't already say. Except I HATE the concept of "New Titans Thursdays." Bad enough scheduling gimmicks are what keep some shows in airing hiatus, as I really miss seeing a line up of new shows on Thursday instead of 1 15 minute block. But I did like that there was always at least that extra 15 minutes of the show so that if you missed the previous episode, it would always follow the new one. Not with New Titans Thursdays, where they'd shoehorn in another 15 minutes of TTG if they didn't air the show enough already. Now, I applaud shows like Wabbit and the new Scooby series for putting a little variety back on the network. The line up sorely needed some fresh blood...err...ink and paint of classic characters. But it feels like as the two shows took out a collective hour of TTG, they have to make it up at the expense of other programs.

 

[The Count]

Hmm, that's not so unreasonable. You could give Bob's Burgers a full hour, making it the lead-off hitter from 8 to 9 PM; then Ric and Morty at 9, KOTH at 9:30, Cleveland at 10, American Dad at 10:30, and the full hour of Family Guy at 11 to get to Robot Chicken at 12 AM.