Infomercials to Replace Cartoons on FOX

Yes, but judging from how exactly my particular affiliate embraced them, I'm fairly sure that they'd want to air their E/I shows over infomercials (that they're not even gaining anything off of) anytime.
 
I can't believe I'm defending infomercials here because FOX is opting out of kids Sat AM programming. I'm not pleased about that, but the sluggish economy is affecting all kinds of businesses -- including the entertainment industry. So I'm not surprised to see this either. If they aren't seeing consistently solid ratings, it makes it more difficult to sell advertising.

But not all infomercials are trash or junk. Some of them are actually legitimate and make and sell great products. I happen to work as a contracted performer doing live product demos for one of these companies, and not only does it pay well but the products they sell are legit and they offer lifetime guarantees on nearly their entire product line.

And no, I don't work for the annoying, screaming Billy Mays, or that snarky, sarcastic-sounding Shamwow guy. What's ironic is that the Shamwow guy says in his commercials to "beware of imitators" and yet his product is just a cheaper-produced imitation of another company's product.

The infomercial biz makes money because people order their products. It really is that simple. They know that people up late who are channel surfing find their shows and watch out of boredom and curiosity and then end up buying.

Then you'd be wrong. The companies that sponsor infomercials wouldn't buy the airtime if it wasn't profitable. They have minimal overhead and no "middleman" -- it's almost like buying online. And if you knew how inexpensive their manufacturing costs were, you'd understand why the infomercials companies are so profitable.
 
I found an insightful article on this today.

IMO, this guy is right. Don't blame the fall of saturday morning cartoons on cable, blame the companies who keep making these shows that have no substance.
 
It shouldn't be that surprising, the classic Saturday morning lineup has been damn near dead since about 1996. My generation was the last to really enjoy it.
 
I think that the Saturday morning cartoon block were still in fairly good shape during the late 90s and maybe a bit in the early 2000s. I thought that it was more like around 2003 or 2004 that they started to really loose a lot of steam. I say this because back in the late 90s, there were still shows that did really well in ratings, like Pokemon and Power Rangers.
 
...Kids WB was doing great from 1995 to 2001. Saturday mornings as we really knew it died when Fox Kids died, and everything after just slowly went downhill*.

* - Kids WB, IMO, was good until the fall of 2005. That was where Saturday mornings went down the toilet.
 
!996 was the beginning of the decline, mostly because shows with good ratings, like G.e.e.K.e.r, had to be replaced with a certain amount of educational programs. Also, as it has been stated before, around this time CN was beginning to emerge with it's own original programming.
 
I disagree. If a certain channel has the #1 show then obviously network TV in general hasn't lost viewers. And...quality-wise there was still plenty of good shows left like Power Rangers (Zeo season), Pinky and the Brain, Animaniacs, Superman, The Mask, Goosebumps (which was popular enough to have primetime airings), and WayneHead (something for the urban kids) to name a few.

The decline happened in 2000. FOX Kids was on life support by this point and Kids WB's Pokemon lost the #1 spot to Spongebob.
 
To be honest, the lack of Saturday Morning cartoons isn't the problem, but the fact that it lowers the alternatives we have.

Nick and CN are the only basic cable networks that air cartoons frequently, but most of their line up is the same thing repeated 5 times. Boomerang and Nicktoons are unaccessible to some of us, and Toon Disney will be changing to Disney XD, thus less animation choose from.

Saturday Morning even if not the best gives us a few titles that aren't repeat constantly.

Now if Nick and CN were to up the number of animated titles, I wouldn't see the loss of Saturday Morning as a problem.
 
If I remember correctly, KidsWB used to have a lineup dominated by Pokemon and Yu-gi-oh. Either way, I don't really care if SatAM was more of an alternative, because for the most part it was an alternative to "good". Honestly, I'd rather watch 3 hours of Chowder than the garbage dump known as "Kewlopolis".
 
So I'm a little confused. Are both 4KidsTV and The CW4Kids coming to an end or just 4KidsTV?

I mean the only show that I watch on either one's block of shows is Ninja Turtles:BTTS. But honestly, that show should've ended after the Fast Forward season. And then they could've used the upcoming DTV as a series finale wrapping up the show.
 
If they have nothing to air, why not give the whole block back to the affiliates? I can't imagine any of the affiliates are really going to want to air network infomercials. It's not that they're anti-infomercial: it's that they'd much rather air their own infomercials, and get all the profits directly. Or they might rather air actual programming, whether it be kid or adult-oriented. I can't imagine a network block full of infomercials making anyone happy.
 
Can't say I'm surprised at this. At all.

I saw that coming during The CW's deal with 4KidsTV last year. And like Kids' WB! and Toonami, it's about to finally kick that nasty oxygen habit they were dealing with. Man, I wanted Cookie Jar Entertainment (Who in turn now owns majority of the KEWLopolis block on CBS through DiC) to handle the SatAM block and bring some of their new shows like Metajets to the American market next year, but now it looks like that won't be ever happening.

FOX is now the only broadcast network (ABC, NBC, CBS, CW, PBS, FOX) that doesn't have a children's block. And I must say, it's sad, asinine and disappointing at the same time. :sad:
 
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