Various news sources are reporting that The CW is ending the Kids WB! Saturday morning programming block, instead licensing it out to 4Kids, which already programs Fox’s Saturday morning fare. The deal with 4Kids runs for five years.

Rival 4Kids Entertainment will handle programming and marketing of the block starting with the new season in September 2008. Some current Kids WB programs may continue to air after the changeover, but no decisions have been have yet.

4Kids will continue to run its own block of Saturday morning programming on FOX affiliates nationwide; it recently renewed a deal with the network to do so until 2009.


The CW was the last network to formulate its own Saturday morning line-up– the rest are all farmed out already, due to increased competition from 24 hour kids cable networks and of course the demon internet

Warner Bros. TV Group president Bruce Rosenblum insisted this isn’t the end for WB kids animation:

which he said would continue to produce for cable, direct-to-DVD, broadband and wireless. The company recently announced the launch next spring of T-Works, an online animation platform. “We absolutely intend to stay true to our heritage,” he said. “This is an important business that touches many of the Warner Bros. divisions, and we have confidence that Lisa Judson and her team at Warner Bros. Animation will continue to build toward future opportunities.”


Developing, as they say.

8 COMMENTS

  1. Damn. Hope this doesn’t mean the end of LoSH, The Batman, and the new Spectacular Spider-Man cartoon. They looked to be revitalizing the line-up for this season. I wonder why they’re changing course all of a sudden. Maybe they’ll move some of these to Cartoon Network. Personally, I think the CW is a sinking ship anyway. We never watch it anymore. We used to at least watch Smallville and Gilmore Girls, but Smallville has been pretty stinky (and kept moving timeslots there for a while) the past few years and GG is over. Didn’t help that the UPN station, rather than the WB one, changed to the CW in Atlanta. We never flip by that channel. We did enjoy Reaper, though.

  2. Ok – That’s strange. I recently read in my Sony Employee newsletter that the Spectacular Spider-Man got renewed for a additional 13 episodes for the 2008-2009 season on Kids WB.

    What the hell’s going on around here?

    ~

    Coat

  3. Spidey will probably end up on Cartoon Network, I assume. Where else can they peddle their cartoon wares?

  4. OK let me just say this –

    We have CW on my Cable and I hope in September 2009 we have a Saturday morning block.

    Next to ABCK and Power Rangers I usually watch 4 Kids TV for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Fast Forward and Kids WB on CW for Scooby-Doo.

    I’m surprised we’ll have two 4 Kids TV blocks next year in 2008. But after Power Rangers Jungle Fury on ABC who knows what’ll happen with the Saturday block on CW.

  8. What about the people that don’t have cable and they used the convert box to watch tv , and for those people who have kids cartoons is the only way to calm them down , and my kids only get up early to watch cartoons on Saturday morning

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