Earlier this week an article popped up on Cord Cutters News that ratings on both Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon were down over the past decade.
Industry figures show that combined ratings for the two networks have fallen more than 85 percent since 2016. Both channels once dominated after-school and weekend viewing for millions of children. Today they compete with streaming services, short-form video on YouTube and TikTok, and a steady decline in traditional cable subscriptions. Advertising revenue tied to linear kids programming has softened as brands shift spending toward digital platforms that offer more precise targeting. The drop has left both networks with thinner schedules, reduced production budgets, and growing questions about how long they can operate as separate linear businesses.
Just out of curiosity I decided to check on what their programming is. Even since we dropped cable and satellite and went almost fully ad-sponsored free sites (HBO Max and Frndly being the exceptions for different reasons) and digital antenna, which is about to come with its own issues thanks to DRM, and the home video library I’ve made over the years, I haven’t kept up with either network. And when I did I could immediately tell you why both stations are doing so badly: the scheduling.
I’m going to go over those two specifically, but it’s not like the livestreaming kids channels do any better. Luke Bouma, owner and contributor for Cord Cutters News, also reports that the new Skydance conglomerate is hoping the upcoming Warner Brothers and Paramount merger will benefit both channels. If this is how they plan to compete, they’re already in trouble because they’re both making the same mistake. Let’s look at the schedule:
Let’s start with Cartoon Network’s weekday schedule (not including Adult Swim):
- 6AM: one episode of Batwheels, not even lasting the full half-hour
- 6:15: Bugs Bunny Builders, because building shows are apparently popular: see also Disney’s Pupstruction and Nickelodeon’s Rubble & Crew, both of which are a full half hour
- 6:28-7:28 on the sampled Tuesday: Regular Show, interrupted by Tom & Jerry (I don’t know what year) half-way through
- 7:28-8:24: The Amazing World Of Gumball
- 8:24-9:24: Teen Titans Go!
- 9:44-10:00: Apple & Onion
I could go on, but you start to see a problem that repeats during the day. Scooby-Doo shows up in various forms from 10AM to Noon (all times Eastern, by the way) before resuming this odd scheduling. It’s not just a case of TV Insider separating each short. They do that with Looney Tunes and some of the other ones, even though a half-hour may contain numerous short episode, three tops. Looney Tunes doesn’t always get grouped together, but Gumball does, at least when I saw it. It also appears more normal starting at 1:00, where they marathon MORE Teen Titans Go, Gumball, and Regular Show, an hour of The Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy, and then turn it over to Adult Swim, where the adult shows come up, with Bob’s Burgers…AT 6:00 PM! When are you putting your kids to bed? Because that’s usually suppertime, then you watch a bit more before going to bed to get up for school tomorrow. Then the parents can watch their shows. Plus you know how many kids have a smart TV in their rooms?
It gets worse on the weekends. You know, when kids have MORE time to watch TV. Adult Swim starts at 5 PM with Bob’s Burgers. Meanwhile, kids only get more Gumball, Regular Show and Teen Titans Go, interrupted by Craig Of The Creek, Tiny Toons Looniversity and Grizzy & The Lemmings. Sunday throws in Jellystone, We Bare Bears, and Clarence, plus Over The Garden Wall, which I assume they only have for Halloween like the Scooby marathons, but still has as much of the same shows as they can during the day. I don’t care what you think of those shows, we’re talking about a very low amount of shows for kids to watch. No wonder they look elsewhere just to find something else. Even little kids want to watch something else eventually.
So what does Nickelodeons offer, not counting Nick At Nite?
- Spongebob Squarepants at 6:30
- Paw Patrol from 7 AM to Noon, then ONE episode of Rubble & Crew before going back to Paw Patrol until 3:00
- 3:00-9:00 PM random family movies, sometimes sequels to each other
That’s it for weekdays. I didn’t even know there were that many Paw Patrol episodes despite being..14 seasons? Really? It’s that old? By the way, there are a few streaming options for Paw Patrol so it’s not like it’s a hard show to marathon. Weekends are mostly movies, with a few Paw Patrol, Spongebob and The Patrick Star Show tossed in with one episode of the Boss Baby series and one episode of The Loud House. Even Nickelodeon’s ad-supported free livestreamed channels usually have more variety. If you want to know why nobody’s watching, it’s because the only diversity in your lineup is your cast. (One of Rubble’s friends on his show is non-binary.) Again, regardless of what you think of the quality of these shows, there are so few of them.
Television, and those streaming channels that act like television, weren’t designed for the binge model outside of special event marathons. Livestreaming, and apparently Cartoon Network, also suffer from odd timing. I can’t go to these channels at 10:00 and find the same show at the same starting point every day unless that’s all the station airs, and you still miss the beginning or may get an episode that spoils one you haven’t seen yet. By a certain age kids know how a clock works and have some idea how to schedule to watch their favorite shows, or at least we did. If kids are going to on demand, it’s so they know when a show starts and ends and what episode they’re on, something we had no problem with. I used to set up my Saturday morning and home from school TV time based on what was on and what I could watch while doing my homework. (That’s what commercial breaks are for, right?) Dedicated start and end times seem to be beyond everyone in the TV and livestream channels’ programming department.
What gets me is that both networks have a ton of shows already produced, even if they don’t make new shows. We’re talking programming going back to before the kids’ parents were born in Cartoon Network’s case, and shows from when their parents were kids in Nickelodeon’s case, all shows today’s kids haven’t seen. Cartoon Networks is airing Looney Tunes, Scooby-Doo, and Tom & Jerry, so it’s not like they don’t know this. All three have recently produced shows but also shows going back to theatrical shorts (not Scooby, but I still think a dedicated Scooby channel would make money). And yet other channels are using their vast libraries better than they are. MeTV Toons is doing what Cartoon Network started out as and stopped doing as they produced more shows, moving old shows to Boomerang, which they also screwed up. And with Cartoon Network’s own library.
I’ve said before that Warner Brothers arguably has the largest animation library on the planet. Hanna-Barbera, Ruby-Spears, Warner Brothers Animation (shows AND movies), and in the previous merger Discovery Kids/Family/Hub leftovers were already there. They even have Filmation shows based on their libraries, and they’re about to get more of those with the Paramount spinoffs of Star Trek and the two Gilligan’s Island spinoffs, plus their doing nothing with the DC shows outside of the DCAU and SOME of the direct to video movies. Paramount isn’t known for a wide variety of cartoon series on their own, but they have movies, and Nickelodeon’s “Nicktoons”, which had its own TV channel, Nicktoons Network. They also bought the Ninja Turtles and made three of their own shows, plus one of the two animated theatrical movies was made under their ownership. That means there is less argument that Skydance will have THE biggest animation library on planet Earth. Maybe somebody points to an anime studio, but that would only counter one library, and Skydance is about to have five or six, some going back to black and white theatrical shorts.
Did they ever finish that show?
Nickelodeon has a bunch of live-action shows and movies as well, but they stopped doing anything that isn’t starring dogs with high-tech backpacks or underwater misadventures with a sponge and a starfish with a combined IQ lower than the real world animals. With WB and Nickelodeon it couldn’t be hard to take another try at The Tomorrow People, or re-air their kids sitcoms, or game shows, or shows of kids doing amazing things in their lives to inspire other kids. They don’t even have to license more British or Australian shows, but why isn’t that an option? They already did the heavy lifting and Bluey is probably the biggest show Disney has right now…which they don’t even technically own. They have more stake in Miraculous. No, we need 10 episodes of one show because that’s the only way we get any ratings apparently. Such a misuse of so many large media libraries at their disposal.
I’ve already gone over what Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon should do if they want to maximise their libraries for the nostalgic people and their kids. It’s so easy even I can see conceptual potential. You’d think the smart guys who get paid to schedule television could see what they have and try to use it among their TV and streaming options. Apparently they can’t. MeTV, Tubi. and YouTube do more with their stuff than they do. I got to watch Clue Club this morning. I haven’t seen that in years and I love that show, and two weeks ago I got to see Captain Caveman & The Teen Angels again for the first time in a long time. I saw a Sugar Bear cartoon that wasn’t an ad for Super Sugar/Golden Crisp for the first time…and admittedly I was better off when I hadn’t, but I still got to see it.
Traditional television and livestreaming shouldn’t try to be on demand streaming. This is where dedicated schedules for channels that aren’t one lone show are important. Even Cartoon Rewind, which binges the same five cartoons over and over, exist as something to put on, not to be must-watch TV. It’s background noise that doubles as entertainment when you need to sit down for a moment. That’s not what TV or a movie you picked for on demand should be. I can play music for background noise. I have the Lofi Girl “Synthwave Boy” channel on for background music right now. TV should be different. That’s how it competes with on demand. You just turn it on, and it’s there. If anything is there, it’s not the same and if there’s something specific I want to see, I’ll go on demand or to a recording because I couldn’t be there when it aired originally. TV isn’t a babysitter, the only reason these stations still exist (if they cared about giving kids entertainment they wouldn’t have taken everything off the other channels and dumped it on a handful of kids channels), if kids can’t find anything that is worth watching, and they all have their own tastes even at a young age. Not everyone is a fan of the butchered Teen Titans cartoon as the programmer appears to be.
If Skydance really wants to use Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and their various libraries, merging won’t help if the same programmers are still airing the same fractions of a fraction of what they have at their beck and call. They need someone who doesn’t think of children’s television as an afterthought. If they don’t care about kids, and Hollyworld doesn’t seem to, at least have people that understand how to program for them, because that’s why Nickelodeon was successful while Cartoon Network also played to the nostalgic. Stations are only as good as what you put on them.
Also find people who want to make the new shows that will appeal to kids, not some maturity-stunted adult wanting to make everything about them and their narrow, stereotype-ridden lives and worldview. Entertainment’s first job is right in the name: to entertain, and that goes more for kids. We used to teach them sneakily. Now we just use them for a cause, and kids know when they’re being talked down to or being taken for granted. That’s why they left, to find the shows they can enjoy. If it wasn’t for Adult Swim and Nick At Nite there wouldn’t be anything to watch, and those are not kids shows. We go where the entertainment is, and if those stations aren’t doing that, no merger will stop them from continuing to fail.
