There is NO Variety in Childrens Entertainment Channels, and Pokematic Explains Why That's Bad.

I'm a bit disturbed by the lack of variety on channels like Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Disney XD, and Disney Channel.

If it's not a good game or catholic...who do you call?...why Pokematic "hi."

Before I jump in, this is NOT going to be a "everything was better in the 90s" blog, or about the quality of the shows on children's entertainment channels. There will be some mention of it, but this is true for all channels (except maybe FXX).

So I was walking to class one day and I had the realization that there is next to nothing on air on children's entertainment channels like Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Disney XD, and somewhat on Disney Channel. What am I talking about? Well I have shows that I watch on those channels. I like Steven Universe, Star VS the Forces of Evil, Girl Meets World, and...well I don't watch much Nickelodeon anymore, but I checked the schedule and it holds true; these channels don't show a wide variety of shows anymore, and that's a VERY bad thing.

At the time of writing this, Cartoon Network is going to air 3 different cartoons in a 9 hour period; Clarence, The Amazing World of Gumball, and Teen Titans Go, with TTG occupying about half that time.
In that same 9 hour period, Disney XD will air 6 different shows. Better but on other days I've seen it when it's just 4 shows.
Disney channel will air 5 shows, and Nickelodeon will be airing 6 shows.

Now obviously Cartoon Network is the worst, but the REAL problem is that most of the time these guys air 5 episodes in a row, and then mix in some stand alone episodes to bump up those numbers. For example, Nick is airing 9 episodes of Spongebob in a row. Now this is bad.

Here's what I'm talking about. Back in my day, these channels had 15 shows in their arsenal, many times more. Many series wouldn't air more than twice a day (once in the morning and once in the afternoon/evening). Maybe a Spongebob would air 3-4 times, and some only aired once a day. There were even a couple that didn't air every day and only aired a couple times a week. And the channels were MUCH better for it.

So why is it better? Why is it better to have 15+ series air in a day when you could focus on a couple core series? First off, more diverse viewer base. A common practice among professional investors is to diversify their assets; don't invest everything in 1 or 2 companies, put it into 20 different companies, or more if you can afford to. If all you have on is teen titans go, or COPS, or Spongebob, people won't switch to your channel to see what's on. If they don't like the 1 or 2 shows you're airing, they won't go to your channel. EVERYONE had that issue with G4 in it's late years. All they aired was COPS, and everyone that didn't like COPS stopped checking in on G4 because they knew it was just going to be COPS. If you have many different series, people will just turn away from the channel for that 30 minute period if there's a show they don't like, and then check back to see if it's something they like. If all you ever show is that 1 show they don't like, then they won't tune into the channel. If you bet everything on a couple series, you risk alienating potential viewers. If you air a wide variety of series, there is a much higher chance that a viewer will find something they like and stay loyal to the channel.

OK, but maybe you have the most popular series ever that all the kids love. Maybe you have a Spongebob that 90% of the target audience likes. Then why not air it all the time? Well now you're running into the risk of people getting episode burn-out. I love Star VS The Forces of Evil. I enjoy Teen Titans Go. However, won't watch the same episode 10 times. Back when Nickelodeon only aired Spongebob, iCarly, and Victorious in 2012, I liked all 3 series, but I began to dislike iCarly and Victorious because it was the same 20 episodes over and over again. Spongebob was OK because there were over 100 episodes available, but eventually it would get old because I would see the same episodes day in and day out. I'm getting the same experience with TTG and Star. I'm sure I'm not the only one. All the shows airing right now only have a couple seasons, which means 30 episodes at most. If you're airing the show 8 times a day, you're going to burn through your backlog in less than a week. If the series only airs twice a day, you're good for half a month before you have to rerun. And at that point, you were kind of ready to see the episode again.

Now one of the largest losses from this is the special that is the Marathon. When I was a kid, it was special to get 6-12 episodes in a row. It was something that was advertised. Recess back to school bash, spongebob summer splash, the nicktoon beach party; all marathons of 1 series, and you looked forward to it. Now, it's just normal.

Now here's the truly sad part, the channels don't have to limit themselves to a few series. They don't have to regularly marathon a couple series, cartoon network especially. All of these channels have a giant backlog of TV series in their arsenal. I'm not saying "bring back the 90s," but cartoon network could definitely air reruns of young justice and batman the brave and the bold. I'm not saying "revive the series and make new episodes," but you can rerun the hundreds of old episodes you have. After you air all the episodes, just take it off the air and replace it with a different series. They're alienating viewers and they don't have to. I just wish they would have a little more variety. Well this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.

OK, I need to address FXX and Every Simpsons Ever Forever. For those of you who don't know, FXX is currently airing episodes of The Simpsons over and over again, in a perpetual marathon 5 days on and 2 days off. Here's why FXX can get away with it with the Simpsons forever; because there are 522 episodes of the Simpsons. When they did every Simpsons ever, it went on for 2 weeks strait, and no episodes were aired more than once. After that finished they do 12 hour marathons of The Simpsons 5 days a week. They continue to do every Simpsons ever because it's almost impossible to get episode fatigue when there are over 500 episodes to watch. I tune in and I don't think I've ever seen the same episode more than 3 times.