Adult Swim Spinoff Channel

[JeffreyTheMerman]

So I was thinking why does Cartoon Network not spin Adult Swim off into its own channel.

[Blackstar]

Williams Street doesn't have enough money nor enough programs for an Adult Swim channel.

The 1st thing you need to do is stop blaming Adult Swim for the lack of old shows on Cartoon Network. It's not AS's fault at all. If anything is to blame for that, it's the fact that CN is now ad supported and as such, there's the constant need for new and original programming to keep the channel afloat. Turner created Boomerang so there'd be a place for all the old shows to go so CN would have even more hours of the day to devote to new and original programming. That was going to happen, AS or no AS.

[Tobias]

Lack of the money's the only problem. I think between the originals, aquisitions, anime, and possible movies, I think they'd have enough shows for a channel. But it'll never happen, at least not for a few years.

But that's assuming Fox would let AS air Family Guy, King of the Hill, and American Dad on the channel.

[JeffreyTheMerman]

They could always make a whole bunch of new adult swim shows for an adult swim channel.

[Blackstar]

They could always make a whole bunch of new adult swim shows for an adult swim channel.

Right, and who's going to give Williams Street the $$$$$$$$$$$$ to produce all these new shows? WS is working with a limited budget as it is. If WS could afford to "make a whole bunch of new shows", they'd be doing that right now, wouldn't they? AS's 3rd party acquisitions such as The Boondocks, Futurama, Mission Hill, The Oblongs and Family Guy were all originally created for network television and were much more expensive to produce than any of WS's in-house productions. So who's going to fund these new shows? Time Warner? They won't even give Turner the greenbacks necessary to create a separate kids' channel for their live action programs. And Turner would actually benefit from such a move.

Even if Adult Swim were to become it's own channel, that's not a guarantee that CN would revert back to the way it was 10 years ago. CN is a business, just like any other, and in order for a business to work, it must move forward, not look back.

[Tobias]

Blackstar's right. If AS and CN were to seperate, then CN would only fill the 10 - 6 slot with repeats of the shows we already see during the day, maybe just adding Naruto and a few of the older Cartoon Cartoons back into the schedule. But outside of Scooby and Tom & Jerry, there's little chance of any classic show ever returning to the channel.

[Light Ichigo]

I really don't see a 24 hour [as] channel being made any time soon.

[thefreak985]

I mean, they could just have humble beginnings like CN did in 1992.

And 15 years later, CN has their OWN programs that could fill the whole day.

[Blackstar]

I mean, they could just have humble beginnings like CN did in 1992.

And 15 years later, CN has their OWN programs that could fill the whole day.

Not really. Some of CN's shows are imports from other countries and 3rd party acquisitions. And most of the 90s Cartoon-Cartoons are canceled or have ended, so they'd be more likely to air on Boomerang now.

Anyway, even if Adult Swim were to split from Cartoon Network, that's not a guarantee that all of the canceled CN shows would return to Cartoon Network. CN would more than likely just fill out the extra hours with the same 5 or 6 shows that are being rotated now, which would mean late night showings of Johnny Test and 6Teen. Yay!

[CaptainHero]

I'm sure Adult Swim has plenty of money to make their own channel. Am I correct or aren't they top rated cable channel at night? It's just a matter of quality over quantity.

[Tobias]

Being top rated and actually having the funds to start a seperate channel are two seperate beasts. Plus they'd probably have to pay out the arse to air Family Guy, King of the Hill, American Dad, and any other Fox show that's still showing new eps on network television on the channel since it'd require a whole new contract negotiation, which would mean that an AS channel would have to be ad supported from day 1, which requires even more money to produce/aquire new shows and movies to keep things fresh.

An AS channel can't just be repeats of shows that have previously aired in the actual block, at least not for long.

[JShaggy]

If an Adult Swim spinoff channel were to happen, it would probably be coupled up with another new network, which will likely not happen because (1) in the case of Time Warner, Turner's entertainment properties are treated like second-class citizens revenue-wise, and (2) it's harder to convince cable/satellite providers to carry such a channel, particularly big companies such as Comcast and Time Warner/Bright House (who cover more than just one region of the country) who have placed more emphasis on providing programming via a Video-on-Demand service rather than on its own freestanding channel.