MovieChat Forums > The Othersiders (2009) Discussion > What is with the live action shows?

What is with the live action shows?


What is the deal with all these real person shows that CN has been doing lately, after all the name of the channel is CARTOON NETWORK.

And just to clarify i do understand that they are trying to create shows that will bring in viewers, but still it is not in standing with the concept of a network that got its start by showing only Animated Shows.

"Till All Are One" Optimus Prime Transformers

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Agreed and the shows are all ripoffs of something that has been done before...

I like Toast.

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I think these things are a disaster and I hope they fail. It is a pretty cruel thing to say, but it's what I want.

I know they think with these shows they can get more younger viewers, but I think that is all they are going to get. I mean, you can get teens and adults to watch shows like Chowder or Flap Jack, but you won't find them ever liking Hanna Montana. Those kind of shows are hyper focused on the pre-teen and under demographic that they will get a lot in that group, but that will be all they get.

Personally, I find targeting for certain demographics as the highest priority as a horrible idea. It can grow audiences, but in turn it alienates your other audience at the same time. It also can have a wall effect, suddenly kids in High School dislike Hana Montana who once liked it, or they grow out of it, etc. That is a big red flag in my book.

They've also seem to have given up completely on teens. Sure there is adult swim, but Teens should not be watching Adult Swim (because that can lead to the censorship of Adult Swim programming) Plus having the reality tv shows (I believe they are all reality TV shows) is the worse possible situation for fans that want quality programming and cartoons. Reality Shows are cheap and easy to make and don't require many fans to be a hit.

This is kind of just some wild rant, but I really, really, really hate what Cartoon Network has become, and I notice that I only watch 10% of what I normally would watch 10 years ago (and that has nothing to do with changing taste or time). I know they've been having trouble with ratings, so maybe that is a reflection of what they should be worrying about.

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It's the trend in cable television. In the beginning of cable, there were a bunch of movie channels. Then, they branched out by creating a ton of niche channels (like CN, SciFi, etc). Now, as those niche channels need to grow, they are trying to convert from niches to demographics and compete with the broadcast networks.

So you get Cartoon Network airing things that aren't cartoons, but that should appeal to the same kids who watch their cartoons. Sci-Fi starts airing wrestling, not because it fits the niche, but because it's popular with their young male demographic. G4 almost totally abandons tech and video games to become a Spike clone, and Spike itself used to be "The Nashville Network". And when was the last time MTV aired programming that had anything to do with music?

The trend will likely continue until we have 200 channels which are really just 20 different clones targeting each of 10 demographics. Then, they'll start combining and consolidating. Then, in the void, new niche channels will spring up and the cycle will repeat. Unless the Internet takes over and destroys conventional TV first.

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Part also of the problem is the age-old copy-cat trend in TV productions. If something seems to be popular then you can pretty much bet that there will be one or possibly a dozen copies of that within a year or two, sometimes very quickly after. The endless "CSI" style copies are one current example and Im surprised CN didnt try to trot out one of those, with kids, too. ugh!

I agree that CN has gone steadily downhill. Much like Sci-Fi has. Nickelodeon is virtually unrecognizable now from what it originally was. Dont expect things to improve any time soon. Even Disney is showing some degredation in its production standards. Though at a much much slower rate than the rest.

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I miss the days of Samurai Jack,Dexter's Lab, and Ed,Edd,n'Eddy. Almost every show on CN nowadays is stupid. (there are a few exceptions, like TFA. i love to watch TFA. But Hasbro and CN never gave it any respect)

I was never here.

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