Coming as no surprise to anyone, it looks like 18-34 males don’t stay in on the weekends to watch cartoons anymore.
Saturday’s Animation Domination, home of Fox shows such as “Axe Cop,” “Golan the Insatiable” and “High School USA!” is saying goodbye to its late-night block in favor of digital outlets and shifting its focus to Sunday nights.
The 11 p.m. home of “alternative animated series, shorts and user-adapted material” will be taken off the schedule June 28. It debuted with the idea of creating 15-minute series aimed at young, male audiences, built on an already vibrant animation tradition at Fox, but ratings just didn’t stack up that late on Saturday nights.
The Animation Domination High Def brand will continue on Fox’s digital platforms, on Hulu and at FoxADHD.com, with an added focus of developing more content for on air. Fox says that the point of the Animation Domination unit was to incubate talent, and hopes to bring two of its animated projects to Sunday primetime next year. Sunday’s version of Animation Domination, which airs “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy,” will stay as is.
Read more at Broadcasting & Cable.
Brief Take: The targeted audience of Animation Domination didn’t quite match up with Fox’s goals, with the average viewer closer to 47 than 18-34. Because of this disparity, Fox is reining in its animation brand in favor of its more successful Sunday night block that has a far better chance of attracting those audiences.
[Image courtesy of Fox]
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