Could AS lose Saturday?

[Dr. Anime]

With all the talk of Adult Swim exapnding in March (I still conisder it a rumor at this point) do you think it would have a huge affect on Adult Swim saturdays? I hope not, but I won't complain if it does. The thing all of my classes are in the early morning and I can't stay up late to watch my anime. Basicaly I just want to hear other peoples thoughts on this, and do you believe AS will loose saturdays?

[KojiroTakenashi]

First of all it's "Lose".

Second, I sure as heck hope not...the schedule change on Saturdays was painful to me...IMO, they had assembled the second best night in television (First best is Sci-Fridays)...

[NahMan85]

I honestly think that AS will never get the axe because what will replace it? I mean toonami tried that before it became Toonami and look at what happened with that. The way I see it is that the only way AS will looooose saturday night(just playin Dr. Anime :) ) is if they bomb out of from every show, which will never happen because when has that[/B]EVER[/B] happened to AS. But yeah for real though AS saturday will someday (I believe) go out but only if something serious happens. But AS is always full of surprises so you never really know.

There are just way too many good shows though that are out there for AS to get, in order to make AS such a success that it is now. So if you want to know if I think AS saturday will disappear, I think yes.............and no.

[Duke]

I seriously think that it's possible. The ratings have been rather poor for the most part all throughout the run, and it's quite obvious the AS anime can't survive (or won't be allowed to) without a comedy lead-in. The last really good night AS had was when FMA Season 1 ended, and it's probably why they moved new episodes of Champloo and InuYasha to weeknights, so they could get better ratings.

That may be the reason AS is getting the extra hour in March, to make up for losing Saturdays. Besides, Toonami could potentially use the extra time a lot more than AS ever did.

[One Radical Dude]

I think that it will come eventually (I mean, look at the ratings). If so, then Toonami has a golden opportunity to make Saturday nights much more interesting. Otherwise, I could see Saturday Nights/Early Sun. AM become what Late Friday Nights/Early Sat. AM once were, before the second airing of Fridays took over (with older programs or recently canned shows air).

[Draft]

i doubt it, i think they could lose 5-6 hour s-f tohugh..

[livingfruitvirus]

I don't think so. First, there's the 42 hour rule. Second, I think Saturday will be truncated before it's lost. Maybe cut back one hour. If AS lost Saturday, what would go in its place? A Toonami encore?

[Space Chief]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Action Saturday is one of the few bright spots in my otherwise meaningless life.
:( :( :(

[Jeff Harris]

I'm mixed on that issue.

Part of me says lose AS Saturday nights because all Adult Swim does is ***** about how it's not doing so well EVERY SINGLE WEEK. The action premieres could easily air on weeknights, as we've seen in recent weeks. Perhaps dropping the 12 AM weeknight action hour wasn't such a good idea afterall. And the fact that Adult Swim is considered a network for "ratings sake" never should have happened, just like Nick at Nite on Nickelodeon. It's a block on Cartoon Network that would, essentially, contain the highest-rated programs on the network. Nowadays, without counting Adult Swim with its ratings, Cartoon Network barely registers a blip. And now that Adult Swim may be expanding by another hour in March means that there is going to be space for action premieres on weekdays, probably after midnight.

(And those that says that Cartoon Network would just use the Adult Swim slot to rerun the Toonami block, well, half of Adult Swim's lineup IS a rerun.)

Also, why can't they air Adult Swim on Fridays? The Saturday block is just as accessible to kids as a Friday block would be, so that argument is just pointless and redundant. They don't cancel Adult Swim in the summer when kids could watch it every night either, so Friday night Adult Swim shouldn't be just a pipedream.

Part of me says that Adult Swim should keep its Saturday timeslot because, well, Cartoon Network would find a way to waste the 11 PM - 6 AM time period. Yeah, they could rerun Toonami again in the night, but at 3 AM, what would Cartoon Network program until 6 AM? Older shows like G.I. Joe or Batman: The Animated Series? Doubt it. They'd probably just pad out the rest of the night with reruns of the Saturday morning block or Camp Lazlo and Ed, Edd, and Eddy. And the scary part? People would probably still watch. If that becomes successful, then The Network would wonder why they encore Adult Swim in the first place. Then, the 2 - 6 AM weeknight encores would be scrapped in favor of reruns of Billy and Mandy, Kids Next Door, and Foster's.

Then we'd be sorry.

So, I'm kind of split.

[Dr. Anime]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Action Saturday is one of the few bright spots in my otherwise meaningless life.
:( :( :(

yeah that pretty much explains my life too. and for the record all I can say is that i'm really embarassed i spelled lose wronged. (I'm in college, which makes it even more sad) But thanks for the correction. What if they expanded toonami from 7-11 and ran ASA from 12-2? I wonder if that could work. My guess is that they'll probaly have anime premires on the weeknights at 12:30 or possibly at the new 10 time slot and then use saturday nights for encores.

[Andrew T. Hingson]

Loosing all of AS on Saturday isn't a great idea by any means but cutting it back an hour would probably work out okay. Toonami could air without encores until 6AM if they dig up stuff like Megas, Jack and YYH but I wouldn't expect them to do that. Toonami's expansion is only worth while if they have new material because that way CN wouldn't just scrap it or replace it with encores soon after. I could see them making 7-2AM work like SVES did but honestly more than 5 hours of shows is quite a bit. So unless they bring back some oldies that they still have it's better to just let the block expand an hour or stay the same. If nothing else it HAS to stay the same even if AS expands to 10PM on weekdays. Starting AS at 10PM on Saturday is ratings suicide given how bad 11-12AM is doing right now (which should improve a little soon I believe). But if all AS is going to do is complain about the ratings and change the schedule that much they should just let Toonami have the night. Even if it's just encores. Heck, Toonami encores would be nice to have given most of the shows only air on Toonami and in turn only once a week.

But IMO letting Toonami air 7-12AM and AS 12-6AM works best. Especially if they air AS anime in that time rather than having more comedy on Saturday. But if it comes to that then it does and weekdays can handle anime premieres for AS. Of course the first thing to do for fixing this "problem" is to get AS to stop comparing Saturday and Sunday because Sunday will almost always be favored due to adults being out on Saturday.

Heck I'm all for Friday night Adult Swim now actually.

Here's an idea... air AS 2AM-6AM on Friday and Saturday night and use that time to air less popular stuff and don't factor it into the big picture as much as they like to do with Saturday now. Or they could just use them as encore slots. Alternatively they could air on Saturdy and Friday at Midnight since CNF encores are lame... The only hang up I have is making sure YYH and SEED still have slots. I don't see why CN couldn't maybe push 5AM's shows to 6AM on Saturday and move up TMNT to 7AM. But I guess that wouldn't be burried enough for their tastes.

[ToliverChap]

I'm curious if weekday 12:30 AM airings of new anime shows get better ratings than they would on Saturday? I'm thinking a large number of the people that enjoy these action cartoons prefer to have a large weekend block that's not a "school/work" night. I think the truth is that adult swim has to be reasonable about the ratings potential of anything on a Saturday night. As many have brought up already Saturday is not a good night for television in general. Now it is competing with SNL and even in the Summer it is competing with the fact that it is a Saturday night. Still there is another level to factor in that is anime specific. I think for most if they truly dig a show they would prefer to buy the DVD and watch it uncut (since these action cartoons are better with all the blood and swearing). As such Adult Swim is in a difficult position where they need to find shows that sort of ride that line between being good but not worth buying on DVD. OR and if you all remember that poker game they had and aired on their website here awhile ago they could push to do a Comedy Central move and just go for broke after 1 AM on Saturday airing uncut anime. At that time it seemed like Lazzo (I figure he's one of the big shots over there still) seemed like he was quite intent on pushing for such a move. All these facets factored in I don't see much of a situation where the Saturday would change much. I do think the new eps of anime probably do better on Saturday (I would like to know if anyone has those numbers regarding the ratings about the weekdays sofar?) but ultimatley I think a push to sincerely advertise the action stuff within the realm of the comedy to present a cohesive idea of what Adult Swim is would be a good way to muster up some ratings for sure. I mean why not air a Full Metal Alchemsit commerical during the half point break of The Boondocks? They do it the other way around. Also I think in terms of marrying the comedy to the action on Saturday they could stick with more sci-fi/action themed comedy shows as a primer. Futurama, Robot Chicken, and Venture Bros. would be great for that. Hell they should try Futurama and Robot Chicken (two episodes) to fill that 11-12 block if they did that and aired the Full Metal commercial during Boondocks, Family Guy, etc I wouldn't be surprised if that shows ratings didn't climb by 50,000 atleast and once more you have to take into account that this is Saturday a day when no one should be watching TV anyway.

[Lord Dalek]

Heres how I see it. The current Toonami lineup cannot and will not sustain itself to midnight. Heck it cannot sustain to 10:00 as of late. Their target demographic just doesn't hang arround that late to bring in the ratings, that's partially why Gundam Seed flopped. So if Adult Swim Saturday vanishes/gets cut back an hour they're going to have to do what they did with the old Midnight Run and just keep airing reruns until they bleed.

[Duke]

I'm curious if weekday 12:30 AM airings of new anime shows get better ratings than they would on Saturday? I'm thinking a large number of the people that enjoy these action cartoons prefer to have a large weekend block that's not a "school/work" night.
That's already been proven. Inuyasha's weekday premieres (and reruns) have gotten better ratings than much of the Saturday lineup week in and week out. It's likely the same thing is happening to Eva too.

[Chad Bonin]

Just give Toonami Saturdays from 6PM-2AM. Put some of the Toonami reruns from 6-7 (Megas XLR and Samurai Jack, looking at you). Toonami remains the same from 7-11. 11-2 is the "lost shows" block that Friday nights had at one point. Once again, Yu-Yu Hakusho joins the block. Justice League Unlimited gets it's final run through. DBZ Uncut gets to air at a late block. Etc. Adult Swim Instant Rerun airs (well, it's not as instant) from 2AM-6AM, featuring what is essentially last week's Evangelion, Inuyasha, Samurai Champloo, and Ghost In The Shell: 2nd GIG (and we'll throw in FLCL as well), along with forgotten AS originals (Space Ghost, The Brak Show, Mission Hill, Baby Blues).

And thus, Miguzi from 4-6, Toonami from 6-2, and Adult Swim from 2-6.

[Kagetsu]

I really don't like the new trend of putting a single anime for three nights. It was much easier to record the whole block saturday.

[William C. Maune]

I really don't like the new trend of putting a single anime for three nights. It was much easier to record the whole block saturday.

It was probably easier for most of the folks around here (it was certainly easier for me), however, the wider audience wasn't tuning in. If the weeknight anime premieres can get the wider audience to tune in, perhaps it can increase the chances of AS continuing to pick up anime in the future.

[Master Moron]

That's already been proven. Inuyasha's weekday premieres (and reruns) have gotten better ratings than much of the Saturday lineup week in and week out. It's likely the same thing is happening to Eva too.

Ummmm...didn't Vegetable say that 12 Ounce Mouse was getting better ratings than Eva? That's bad.

[vegetable]

Ummmm...didn't Vegetable say that 12 Ounce Mouse was getting better ratings than Eva? That's bad.

In November it was, yes. Now, who knows?

[Dr. Anime]

It was probably easier for most of the folks around here (it was certainly easier for me), however, the wider audience wasn't tuning in. If the weeknight anime premieres can get the wider audience to tune in, perhaps it can increase the chances of AS continuing to pick up anime in the future.

that's probaly the reason. my guess is that weeknights will be used for premieres and hopefully saturday will be used for encores. you know have toonami from 7-11 and ASA encores from 12-2. if adult swim does lose (i spelled if right this time) saturday i hope it isn't until FMA is done.

also i remeber reading in an interview with Anime Insider (I think it was the issue with Zatch Bell! on the cover) that Kim Manning pretty much said they've (William Street) is trying to make Saturday an all anime night but the ratings don't justify it (duh) she then said to tell your friends to start watching it on saturday. I told some of my friends and now they love ASA. so i guess its up to us to spread the word. tell your friends to watch ASA on saturday nights.

also for the record i'm not worried about AS giving up on anime, they are huge fans of anime at WS and they did let paranoia agent air, so they might just pick up short anime series in the future (ones that are only 26 episodes)

[NahMan85]

so they might just pick up short anime series in the future (ones that are only 26 episodes)
Hey for real though, I have no problem with it at all, in fact I love it. But what is the deal with picking up short term anime like S-cry-ed, SC, FMA and them all being anime. I mean doesn't AS like to have have long term anime? Has AS always done this before, do they even have any anime that has more then 70 or so episodes? Besides from the obvious ones like Inuyasha and Rurouni Kenshin, Yu Yu Hakusho and the short lived Case Closed/Detective Conan(I know they only bought 50 eps but the series itself has over 500 eps) from back in the day. (Those are the only ones that I remember at the moment.)

[Andrew T. Hingson]

FMA should be done mid March. AS is suppose to expand sometime in March. I wager they plan on waiting until FMA is over.

Then they move GitS 2nd Gig to Monday or Wednesday and add a new anime on the other day. I say Monday because FLCL's 2nd run should end the monday after FMA does. Coincidense? Probably. But they could use it to their advantage. Infact since Champloo will end before FMA they could move GitS over that week (or have filler on Wednesday for a few weeks) and have filler after FMA a few weeks before Saturday changes in some way.

Toonami sustains it's audience 8-11PM maybe just 8:30-11PM after TT leaves since Wulin is well Wulin... And with the right shows they could sustain it until far later. Toonami shouldn't expand to 6PM though. It's pointless. It'd be better to start the block at 8PM than at 6PM due to when kids would be tuning in. Weekend Miguzi is gone afterall. 6PM-7PM wouldn't be something good like Jack and Megas. The best we could hope for is more DBZ edited reruns and Transformers Cybertron. Heck I wouldn't put it past them to air Battle B Daman in the 6-7 hour and I really don't want that garbage on Toonami.

Toonami will expand only if there is something to highlight that expansion. A new mecha series would fit the bill (Eureka and or Destiny). Otherwise expansion isn't worth it and Saturday AS should just stay as long as it is while weekdays expands 10-6 like on Sunday. Hopefully we'll at least have Naruto pre-AS on weekdays by then (with Zatch Bell or Bo-Bobo).

[Andrew T. Hingson]

Hey for real though, I have no problem with it at all, in fact I love it. But what is the deal with picking up short term anime like S-cry-ed, SC, FMA and them all being anime. I mean doesn't AS like to have have long term anime? Has AS always done this before, do they even have any anime that has more then 70 or so episodes? Besides from the obvious ones like Inuyasha and Rurouni Kenshin, Yu Yu Hakusho and the short lived Case Closed/Detective Conan(I know they only bought 50 eps but the series itself has over 500 eps) from back in the day. (Those are the only ones that I remember at the moment.)

Kenshin never aired on Adult Swim. YYH did but only about a "season" or less.

Case Closed actually hasn't even aired 52 episodes. The only series over 50ish Adult Swim has is Inuyasha. I imagine it'll remain that way. Adult viewers are too fickle to stick around with the same show for all that long and it ALWAYS hurts the ratings when AS takes a break (such as the break for FMA and Champloo - Champloo BTW never should have had a break that early that was a very poor choice which I'm sure Geneon influenced for the DVD's sake). AS should stick to 13, 26 and 52 episode anime. Especially since anime can't seem to catch a break on that block to air before Midnight (if that) anymore. And with Toonami able to air TV-PG-V regularly, AS shouldn't need to pick up any shonen.

[Skank]

From the way it looks now it looks a though as saturdays could go. However, AS does have a way of pulling things out of it's ass when you least expect it. They will need to do something drastic though. First step would be to kick The Boondocks and Stroker and Hoop and place something a little more suitable in there. We'll see where it goes from there.

[Pepperidge]

Why are so few people toying with the idea of anime actually taking the 10-11pm hour? If they did that, then the anime could reach their highest possible audience, and they could maximize ratings in the later hours by playing all comedy shows.

Sorry to sound repetitious, but I'd really like to encourage this idea a little more.

[livingfruitvirus]

Why are so few people toying with the idea of anime actually taking the 10-11pm hour? If they did that, then the anime could reach their highest possible audience, and they could maximize ratings in the later hours by playing all comedy shows.

Sorry to sound repetitious, but I'd really like to encourage this idea a little more.

I think because of editing concerns. Shows like GitS 2nd Gig might not be able to air before 11 PM, and some others might be "too" TV-14 for 10 PM like NGE or even FMA during its torso hole moments.

[Pepperidge]

Well, I never figured that FMA or GitS would work, but it certainly would be a better time for Inuyasha. But then again, that one's pretty much out the door now.

Well... they should at least get as early as 11:30pm.

[Rabi~en~Rose]

scryed could work at 10/10:30 :)

saturdays real problem is rap intros :p champloo wasn't a stellar lead in and boondocks seemed to be doing better at 12 then 11 now

[Kagetsu]

scryed could work at 10/10:30 :)

saturdays real problem is rap intros :p champloo wasn't a stellar lead in and boondocks seemed to be doing better at 12 then 11 now
I really don't understand where this "hiphop" idea has come from. I like anime but wouldn't go within a mile of hiphop on my own. People I know(granted very few)who like hiphop, don't even know what anime is. I like both SamuraiChamploo and BoonDocks, but it's in spite of hiphop culture, not because of it.

[KefkaFloyd]

I want SVES back.

/me ducks.

[Andrew T. Hingson]

Yeah... that's refered to as Toonami now. Because obviously what that thing is on Saturday night isn't Toonami given no custom intros and pretty much no fan interaction. Just SVES in Toonami wrapping paper cut shorter to accomdate the collosal failure that is AS Saturdays.

[Dr. Anime]

FMA should be done mid March. AS is suppose to expand sometime in March. I wager they plan on waiting until FMA is over.

Then they move GitS 2nd Gig to Monday or Wednesday and add a new anime on the other day. I say Monday because FLCL's 2nd run should end the monday after FMA does. Coincidense? Probably. But they could use it to their advantage. Infact since Champloo will end before FMA they could move GitS over that week (or have filler on Wednesday for a few weeks) and have filler after FMA a few weeks before Saturday changes in some way.

Toonami sustains it's audience 8-11PM maybe just 8:30-11PM after TT leaves since Wulin is well Wulin... And with the right shows they could sustain it until far later. Toonami shouldn't expand to 6PM though. It's pointless. It'd be better to start the block at 8PM than at 6PM due to when kids would be tuning in. Weekend Miguzi is gone afterall. 6PM-7PM wouldn't be something good like Jack and Megas. The best we could hope for is more DBZ edited reruns and Transformers Cybertron. Heck I wouldn't put it past them to air Battle B Daman in the 6-7 hour and I really don't want that garbage on Toonami.

Toonami will expand only if there is something to highlight that expansion. A new mecha series would fit the bill (Eureka and or Destiny). Otherwise expansion isn't worth it and Saturday AS should just stay as long as it is while weekdays expands 10-6 like on Sunday. Hopefully we'll at least have Naruto pre-AS on weekdays by then (with Zatch Bell or Bo-Bobo).

yeah I would say that makes the most sense to me. if this does happen which I hope it doesn't but it looks like it will, I hope they at least let satuday show encores. anyway here is a scheulde post FMA if AS still has saturday

11:00 The Boondocks
11:30 Strooker and Hoop
12:00 Ghost in the Shell
12:30 Inyuasha (one of the older episodes
1:00 Neon Genesis Evangelion
1:30 Cowboy Bebop

and by may new anime should be arriving. hopefully

also I don't think WS will give up on saturday, they probaly will turn it into an encore night.

[KefkaFloyd]

Yeah... that's refered to as Toonami now. Because obviously what that thing is on Saturday night isn't Toonami given no custom intros and pretty much no fan interaction. Just SVES in Toonami wrapping paper cut shorter to accomdate the collosal failure that is AS Saturdays.

I was being tongue in cheek, but I can see your point.

But Toonami doesn't have GI Joe and the other reasons I watched SVES. :P

[Chad Bonin]

I was being tongue in cheek, but I can see your point.

But Toonami doesn't have GI Joe and the other reasons I watched SVES. :P
Toonami had GI Joe on the final Midnight Run Weekdays. It was actually presented well.

[NahMan85]

Toonami had GI Joe on the final Midnight Run Weekdays. It was actually presented well.
It was presented good enough that they even showed the movie. Which was weird because they spanned it over an entire week. :confused:

[Dr. Anime]

if AS did lose saturday, then what would they air during that timeslot? an encore of toonami? some of their kid progams? so i really don't think they'll get rid of the ASA block, granted we'll probaly have more comedy and the anime would be encore from the weeknight blocks, but I don't think they'll get rid of saturday, another thing is the ratings, but who watches tv on saturday, isn't that one of the lowest rating nights?

[KefkaFloyd]

It was presented good enough that they even showed the movie. Which was weird because they spanned it over an entire week. :confused:

The movie had a version that was set up to be shown like that, believe it or not.

But I stand corrected. I do remember it being on midnight run.

Wish the damn DVDs weren't so expensive (or that I was less broke), else I would buy them.