Clone Wars 3D Animated Series on Cartoon Network Concerns

With the announcement that the Clone Wars 3D Animated Series will air on Cartoon Network, I'm both relieved (that we know where it will air), and deeply concerned, given Cartoon Network's programming decisions over the past couple years.

The thing that concerns me about The Clone Wars is that Cartoon Network won't show it enough to develop a following amongst the younger crowd. Sure, they've announced it'll air on TNT as well, but we don't know the particulars of that at this time. Cartoon Network has been known to give short shrift to programming they don't directly have a hand in its creation, like the recent He-Man cartoon, the three recent Transformers series before the current one, Justice League/Justice League Unlimited, among other examples.

Unless it becomes a ratings smash, I fear for The Clone Wars. Worst case scenarios: One episode will air a week on Saturday night with no reruns throughout the week, or it'll air weekdays at 6 AM.

Let's hope Uncle George has enough pull to make sure those don't happen.

 

From what I saw of the first cartoon series on Cartoon Network here in the UK, it got plenty of exposure. The episodes aired on Toonami first, then Cartoon Network. In addition they were also run as a block of all the episodes a few times on both channels. Toonami is now gone, however, and we have CN Too in its place.

 

They specifically mentioned how CW should appeal to all ages, so I'm sure LFL and Cartoon Network negotiated a timeslot that would work for a variety of ages.

 

I could see this very well playing on CN's Toonami block on Saturdays, probably 9 or after, with perhaps an encore presentation on Sunday nights before Adult Swim (I can't seem to recall anything on at that time that couldn't be preempted for this).

Despite Transformers, He-Man and JLU, with the ammount of money Uncle George is willing to put into this and the former success of the past CW series, even though CN doesn't have a hand in it I doubt they'll screw too much with a show that could bring in the kind of ratings this could.

As well, on its debut night, if it is on Toonami, I would expect it to replay once or twice. They do as much for Naruto when it has special episodes. I also wouldn't be surprised if, after the show gets enough episodes under its belt to warrant it, that Clone Wars will start replaying in the timeslot shortly before Adult Swim.

We've recieved mixed signals that this show is and isn't for kids, so I'll assume the target audience is early teenagers and up, thus my choice of Toonami as its host timeslot.

 

I'd bet it's like all the Star Wars movies- for 15 year olds... and pretty much everybody else.

 

Well, that would certainly put more credence to my theory. ;-)

 

I can only hope that the international broadcasters give it as much a showing as what will be seen in the US. My ultimate desire is that one of the free-to-air broadcasters in Australia will air it, but I heavily doubt that it will happen. The only time cartoons are shown on free-to-air channels is Saturday morning, so that's where I'll be looking.