Why is Cartoon Network burying Energon?

[Raven2099]

Airing it at the hour they do pretty much ensures most kids can't watch it. It airs at 5:30 AM here and during the summer!

[Killtacular]

Shows that bomb in the ratings get buried.

[Raven2099]

I didnt think Energon was bombing though. It appeared to do well.

[Killtacular]

Appeared, but nope. It tanked. Just because Walmart had a promotion for it doesn't mean it was successful. Such promotions are planned out before the series even hits the air. It was a gamble for CN and Hasbro and it failed and now they're stuck with this series, so they have to dump it off in a timeslot where bad ratings don't matter. At least they're airing it, as opposed to not finishing it, like with Knights of the Zodiac and Zoids Fuzors.

[Rabi~en~Rose]

but how could it bomb when everyone would probably agree its way better then Armada? I know what killed it... OP powerlinxing out of nowhere every episode :(

[Sketch]

It's strange though. All this promotion and now even DVD's for a show that's ratings are terrible. It doesn't make any sense.

And I agree Energon is MUCH better than Armada but something about this show must of doomed it from the begining. Maybe people don't like the art style. The 3D TF's don't look that great.

[Killtacular]

Ever notice that there hasn't ever been a very successful 80s remake? I would say TMNT except that the movies and spinoffs have existed throughout the 90s as well, including the god awful live action show.

Maybe kids just don't like or care about Transformers like Gen X does.

[Beat]

Maybe it's just that Hasbro's version of Superlink just isn't that good...

[Mister Intensity]

Here's a theory about why Armada did better than Energon. For all its flaws you could sum up the basic concept of Armada as "Autobots and Decepticons have to gather as many Minicons as possible to gain a strategic advantage in their ongoing war," I understand that things got murkier as the show went on but that's the high concept of Armada. Energon's concept isn't as simple. Who are the main bad guys? Is it Unicron? Is it Megatron? The Quintiscions? Starscream? Or someone else entirely? Yeah it takes place ten years after Armada but what exactly is Energon about?

Is there anyone to root for? Yeah the Armada kids were annoying but at least they don't have a constant depressing disposition. As for the audience surrogates in Energon, Kicker and Ironhide, they whined too much and that gets grating on the nerves after the first time you see them that you don't want to get to know them. As for the "adults," everyone is so serious that you don't get the sense that anyone is fun to be around. Hotshot, who had the role of the kids' big brother in Armada "grew up" to be a fuddy duddy as an "adult." At least in Armada, you get the sense that it is fun to hang around the Autobots and even the Decepticons, something that's lacking in Energon.

What it comes down to is that the world of Energon just isn't fun. You could write pages about how bad Armada is but at least it seems like a fun world to visit from the perspective of an eight to ten year old boy.

Mister Intensity

[Sketch]

Ever notice that there hasn't ever been a very successful 80s remake? I would say TMNT except that the movies and spinoffs have existed throughout the 90s as well, including the god awful live action show.

Maybe kids just don't like or care about Transformers like Gen X does.
I would agree with that. TMNT is the only series to manage a good responce overall since it gave the HARD core TMNT fans what they wanted while making the series interesting to the current generation. The only people it alienated were the previous casual TMNT fans or the fans who only knew of the cartoons.

Nostalgia can't save some of these shows... period.

Transformers is still a good franchise though, they just need to come up with the right formula for this generation. Maybe Energon tried to hard to interest the hardcore TF fans and not hard enough to intrest the general audience... and that could be why Energon flopped and Armada succeeded. Armada was a series meant to interest the general newbie anime watching public and it seemed to do it's job... maybe Energon just didn't interest that crowd because it wasn't as relavent... It should have been, but it wasn't.

[Rabi~en~Rose]

Mister Intensity

you just described Gundam :eek:

Armada = SDG

Energon = Seed

or something like that!

[Tapout]

I've just recently started watching regularly (at 3:30 am. :mad: ) and it's a shame it didn't do well. So far it seems much better than the last two TF incarnations, R.I.D. and Armada. I just hope it stays on long enough for me to catch the entire run.

[shogunthethird]

it's the law of diminishing returns, look at G1, then Beast Wars, then Beast Machines, then the last three? see how the quality begins to lower? what's bugging me though is the utter lack of new TF figures in Miami, nevermind Energon (I want Shockblast, Megatron rocks and so do most of the decepticons) I haven't seen any new alternators either (and those things are the shizz-NITE!)

[Razor]

You know, Transformers is the 3rd highest selling toy-line.

Take that as you will.

[Beat]

I have a simpler theory about expectations. (Note- This only applies to Armada and Energon, not Micron Legend and Superlink)

Armada was generally thought of as a bad show. But no one knew that when it aired. People held out for the eventual turning point where the series would get good, but it didn't happen.

When people starting seeing Energon, they were prepared for the worst. When they saw that the show was bad, and confusing to boot with all the dub errors, they snapped it off. Ratings dropped.

[Razor]

Beatdigga, you extremely over-estimate the attention spans of the viewing public, AND children. Not many people would "hold out" for the span of two years and several month-long hiatuses. Your theory is full of holes.

[Rabi~en~Rose]

not to mention Energon hasn't had nearly as many dub errors as Armada did

maybe its the opposite! people watched Armada to bash it but when they saw Energon was pretty good they went away? I don't mean casual people umm I mean like all those old Transformers fans like hear at the boards that no matter what say old > new. they could have been a large part of Armadas audience

[bigddan11]

Energon's animation is better. The storyline is better. The characters are better. They just didn't get the support in primetime. If it had aired on Toonami fro mthe beginning, I think it would have, but SVES basically buried it. At least they are going to air new episodes occassionally on the Saturday Block Party.

[Killtacular]

Advertising it every day in almost every ad break and running Walmart promotions and sweepstakes and Transformers videogame giveaways, is a funny way of 'burying' a show.

[Red]

Maybe when school starts up again and they keep it's timeslot kids will wake up and watch it...or maybe not.

[Sketch]

Energon's animation is better. The storyline is better. The characters are better. They just didn't get the support in primetime. If it had aired on Toonami fro mthe beginning, I think it would have, but SVES basically buried it. At least they are going to air new episodes occassionally on the Saturday Block Party.
Energon had a very good slot in prime time on SVES. I don't think putting it on Toonami would have made a difference... not the weekday Toonami anyway. The Saturday Toonami could save it though.

[bigddan11]

Friday Toonami would have saved it if it had debuted there, or so I think.

[PaQ]

It still amazes me that Energon failed while Armada was able to show itself completely through at a decent time.. Too bad Energon didn't come first..

At least those block parties exist for the few that can't or won't get up that early to see Energon.. It's only 20 or so episodes in, but it's already a lot more interesting than Armada was..

but like Matt pointed out, at least it's airing.. Too bad KotZ nor Fuzors got that chance..

[Sketch]

Friday Toonami would have saved it if it had debuted there, or so I think.
You mean the Friday Toonami where He-Man's ratings were piss poor? But that was also do to those being encores of the SVES episodes.

Still... putting it next to Dragonball GT no doubt would have helped the ratings.

But not much...

Really Energon got a good slot and was treated quite well at the begining but probably stopping after 4 episodes killed it.

[Obi]

They stopped after seven episodes, actually. :p

[Sketch]

7? Well never mind then. That was enough on a once a week basis.

I think maybe they should have aired it on weekday Toonami. That could have boosted the ratings a little since the show kinda drug on and needed to get through the begining to get interesting.

There other reason I think it's on so early is probably because it didn't do well in prime time so they wouldn't want it on weekday prime time or Toonami and Miguzi wont air anime of that kind... so there really was no other place to put it.

[Obi]

Are you insane? Airing it on weekday Toonami? It was bad enough when they did it to He-Man and Armada and we saw reruns ad nauseum for weeks on end.


The reason they stopped at 7 was probably because Voicebox hadn't shipped any more episodes. Therefore, we would've ended up waiting even LONGER to see more episodes of Energon if they aired it every WEEKDAY.