How’s that live action doing, CARTOON Network?

According to Toon Zone, not so well:

The Los Angeles Times has taken a look at the new direction of Cartoon Network towards live-action TV shows (free registration required). The article notes that the new shows, such as Survive This and The Othersiders, have not managed to reverse a general decline in the audience watching Cartoon Network, while adding that “There is internal tension as well, with many veteran animators either quitting or being handed their walking papers” and reporting that Craig McCracken (Powerpuff Girls, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends) left the network recently because, “he no longer has any shows in the works there.”

Of course, the first voyages into live action began with a series of non-cartoon movies (although a mild case could be made for some), and then a couple of shows on their Adult Swim line-up. Their other cartoon channel, Boomerang, which is supposed to be for old shows, are showing somewhat recent shows like The Batman, Justice League Unlimited, and Teen Titans; admittedly great shows but still fairly recent. (As least The Powerpuff Girls is about a decade old, so it qualifies and I’m not saying the timeline should stop at the 80’s.) So is it helping? Not according to that Times article, which by the way I didn’t have to register with in order to read it.

Cartoon Network’s audience has been declining for years. From January to August, the network averaged 370,000 viewers ages 9 to 14 in prime time — a drop of 30% from four years earlier, according to Nielsen Media Research. The new shows haven’t reversed the slide. In July, the network had the fewest viewers in that target age range since May 2000 and its least-watched month overall since June 1998.

There is internal tension as well, with many veteran animators either quitting or being handed their walking papers. There are even whispers inside the channel’s Burbank animation studios that the network might drop “Cartoon” from its name.

. . . .

Although they are committed to their approach, they disagree on the fate of Cartoon Network’s name. (Turner executive Stewart) Snyder said he didn’t believe the name has to be changed. (Programming executive Rob) Sorcher said he expects “we will have to deal with this down the line.”

Sorcher was also involved with changing AMC from “American Movie Classics” to the network it is today, with unrelated original programming mixed in with movies that may or may not be “classics”. If that was working so poorly, then Turner Classic Movies must be taking a nosedive. Anyone have figures?

Animation giant Craig McCracken (image source: Never Forgotten, a Foster's Home fansite--click pic to visit)

There is also no good reason to lose Craig McCracken and his studio. From the aforementioned Powerpuff Girls, McCracken has put out hit after hit on the network, from the ended too soon Samurai Jack (I wish they’d at least make a finale movie so Jack could have a happy ending) to the original Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoons (now made in-house by Lucasfilm in CGI) and his other biggest hit, Dexter’s Laboratory (which I thought suffered a bit in the final season or two, but was still a great series). I wasn’t into the last show, Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends, but it did have a decent fan base, unless someone knows different.

The Griffin Family are the only toons Ted's programmers show love to.

Meanwhile, TNT and TBS stopped airing cartoons a long, long time ago (except for The Family Guy), so Cartoon Network and Boomerang are the only channels that carry all toons all the time. (Toon Disney recently redubbed itself “Disney XD”, and while still mostly cartoons they also have a lot of live-action shows. Oddly, not Power Rangers RPM or the previous shows, which did air as part of the Jetix lineup, which ABC Family dropped a long time ago, with no animated programming on the network outside of the withering Christmas event.) USA and SciFi (now calling themselves “SyFy” for whatever reason) dropped their animation programming blocks as well, although SciFi/SyFy does maintain a Monday night anime block. Late at night and not featuring kid-friendly cartoons–well, they do have The Rave Master, using the same dubs that Cartoon Network had, as of this writing but it’s on too late for kids.

(Speaking of networks losing their way, I could do a whole post on the G4 network alone, as the former geek spot has been compared more to Spike TV by its former audience.)

Throw in networks losing interest in Saturday morning cartoons, and already guilty of ruining syndicated cartoons (after Fox and Kids WB took over the afternoon market then dropped their afterschool cartoons so the local channels could air a third episode of Jerry Springer a day), the format really seems to be losing ground these days. What Cartoon Network really needs is to treat animation like any other show, and schedule the stuff properly. Come to think of it, SciFi/Syfy is guilty of this as well with science fiction programming.

Didn’t these people grow up with the same kind of programming (or in some cases the very same shows) I did, and in some cases their parents did? So why can’t they do half of the decent job with it that their predecessors did?