Network Decay: Cartoon Network vs. Disney Channel vs. Nickelodeon

[TMC1982]

Which channel has changed for the worst in recent years? I'm not in the mood right now in spending a whole lot of time giving forth my own personal feelings, so I just post this link (to better articulate my point of view):
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NetworkDecay

 

[Fresh Prince]

Disney they have better shows.

 

[Mr.Webs]

Easily Cartoon Network, if for just the fact that it's a CARTOON, repeat, CARTOON channel...and they've lot live action playing constantly.

And I don't care if 'Son of the Mask' is cartoony in essence...that **** don't fly by me.

 

[Fresh Prince]

Cartoon Network the wrost out the 3 for sure.

 

[Brainiac 8]

Cartoon network, followed by the Tweeny channel aka Disney.

 

[Fresh Prince]

Cartoon network, followed by the Tweeny channel aka Disney.

You saying Nick is better then all 3?

 

[Cmill216]

Oh, Cartoon Network. By far. Especially after the Toonami days.

 

[Fresh Prince]

Oh, Cartoon Network. By far. Especially after the Toonami days.

Yeah sad how far CN sunked!

 

[GamerSlyRatchet]

You saying Nick is better then all 3?

Considering they haven't changed their formula of airing a mix of live-action and animation without catering to a specific group/gender, yeah, they are probably better than Disney or CN.

 

[Watchman]

Cartoon Network has Adult Swim. The other two are just black holes of crap.

 

[Mr.Webs]

That is a decent argument, Watchman.

 

[Watchman]

That is a decent argument, Watchman.

Who can argue against this?

 

[Mr.Webs]

That is me every morning.

 

[TMC1982]

Considering they haven't changed their formula of airing a mix of live-action and animation without catering to a specific group/gender, yeah, they are probably better than Disney or CN.

Nick's biggest problem right now is their tendency to milk their biggest shows for all that's worth via constant marathons. They've have also stooped to trying to copy Disney's present formula (rather than doing something more original or cutting edge).

 

[Milu]

Definitely Cartoon Network.

And it was my favorite, too .

 

[kane9321]

Its no doubt cartoon network

 

[BlackLantern]

Disney is just doing what it always does....and being successful at it

 

[Fresh Prince]

Disney is just doing what it always does....and being successful at it

Agreed. Nick and CN copy and fail epicly.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

Cartoon Network has Adult Swim. The other two are just black holes of crap.

Agreed. Nuff Said.

But I think people who voted Cartoon Network probably see Adult Swim as a whole different channel. Kinda Like Noggin/The-N a few years ago before the split.

 

[jdogg willie]

I watch Disney XD (a hybrid of The Disney Channel) it has Gargoyles, Aaron Stone (a surprisingly good show) Phineas & Ferb...

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

I watch Disney XD (a hybrid of The Disney Channel) it has Gargoyles, Aaron Stone (a surprisingly good show) Phineas & Ferb...

Yeah but I assumed that channels other than the flagship channel shouldn't be included becuase they're all actually pretty good (Disney - Disney XD, CN - Boomerang, Nickelodeon - Nicktoons).

Disney XD/Boomerang/Nicktoons > Disney, CN, Nickelodeon

 

[Soapy]

Agreed. Nuff Said.

But I think people who voted Cartoon Network probably see Adult Swim as a whole different channel. Kinda Like Noggin/The-N a few years ago before the split.

Cartoon Network has Adult Swim. The other two are just black holes of crap.

Actually...Adult Swim is it's own seperate network. It just shares a channel with Cartoon Network.

 

[TheDreamMaster]

Cartoon Network has Adult Swim. The other two are just black holes of crap.

I agree with this. Cartoon network however has gained a lot of live action recently. Also, as an anime fan, Toonami used to be the place for that stuff, and mos tof it was pretty good. Now CN doesn't even show Naruto and it originally had a huge American push for it, not to mention the dubbing was actually decent, and the edits were pretty minimal overall. We'll probably never get Shippuden on TV now. Disney is worst in my book. I can't stand that f'ing Hannah Montana. Nickelodeon I actually miss the live action it used to have, like Pete & Pete, Salute Your Shorts, Hey Dude, and Are You Afraid of the Dark. Not to mention, Nick at Night 10 years ago was pretty awesome versus 12 episodes of George Lopez and Family Matters.

 

[TMC1982]

To be more specific, this is how Television Tropes & Idioms explains how or why each respective network is decaying:
Nickelodeon:

Nickelodeon. Full stop. Over the years, the network has severely narrowed its demographic by increments. It originally prided itself as being essentially a family network, with an emphasis on programming for children in the daytime (preschoolers in the early morning on weekdays), teens in early evening, and parents at night. Now, however, most if not all of the teen and adult programming (SNICK, Nick At Nite, and the last vestiges of children's game shows, to name a few) has been dumped in favor of cartoon-y cartoons and tween and preteen "hip" live action series (and about 12 hours of SpongeBob reruns daily). The worst and most obvious example of this is the recent live action show on the so-called "TEENick" lineup (which retains only one or two shows about/directed towards actual teenagers), The Naked Brothers Band, which essentially is a Hannah Montana ripoff about two 9-year-old boys. Really.

• Interestingly, you can see how Nick was trying so intensely to narrow down the age of people watching the network when you look at the failure of shows like Invader Zim. And by "failure," we really mean "it was being watched primarily by teens and college kids, not the 6-11 year olds that Viacom wanted." In this troper's opinion, Avatar: The Last Airbender would've gone the same way as Zim if it weren't for the fact that it was just as popular with the target age as it was with the teens (and the college kids, and the adults). Even then, the network seemed to resent the attention it got from older viewers, as new episodes came out at a snail's pace and reruns are almost never shown now that the show has ended.

Disney Channel:

The Disney Channel abandoned Vault Disney, The Ink and Paint Club, and most other broadcasts of classic Disney cartoons in order to turn into a preppy, suburban tween-oriented network whose M.O. seems to be "promote every last one of our child stars as the next great actor/singer/songwriter/dancer/Idol Singer". However, this is not so much network decay as it is a reflection of what Disney itself has become in the last several years, making this more of a case of Company Decay. And admittedly, it is a very powerful marketing tool for its mother company.

• Note that, before this period, the Disney Channel was arguably worse, interspersing about three hours of cartoons at 1 AM with hours and hours of QVC-type hawking of Disney merchandise (Minnie Mouse tea set, only three payments of $11.95!) and... Guns N Roses concerts? On Disney Channel? The worst part was that, originally, the Disney Channel was a premium cable service, like HBO or Cinemax, and unlike Nickelodeon, which was basic-cable from its conception — although both channels initially had a similar approach to the programming day. Then, they hit a low point in programming quality just as Nick hit a high point in The Nineties. The only way to stop mass cancellation of subscriptions was to move it to basic-cable. Read that again. Nickelodeon actually forced the Walt Disney Corporation to change a business model. That hardly ever happens...

Cartoon Network:

Cartoon Network originally began as a showcase for classic (or at least old) Hanna Barbera and Warner Brothers cartoons. These were eventually replaced by an increasing number of original productions and anime, with the Boomerang network taking over Cartoon Network's old role. This, however, was largely perceived as a golden age for the network. More recently, though, the network has begun focusing on live-action movies and TV shows; Out Of Jimmys Head (billed as "Cartoon Network's first live-action series"), the live-action Made For TV Movie of Ben 10, reruns of Goosebumps, etc. There were signs of improving, with Out Of Jimmys Head and the Goosebumps reruns being cancelled, but the latter was brought back for Halloween, and then they decided to torture viewers with Batman & Robin. And now, they've announced a half dozen live-action reality TV shows, most of them ripoffs of adult reality shows like Ghost Hunters, Battlebots, Cash Cab, Mythbusters, and the like — most of them blatantly stolen from the Discovery Channel and its sister networks. This is in addition to two scripted live-action shows (as opposed to four completely new cartoons and spinoff cartoons). But what really takes the cake is that not only is it keeping the live-action programming (which has performed badly — no surprise there), but rumors have started floating around that, in autumn 2009, it will change its name to something else entirely, which will move it up to Total Abandonment (though fortunately, this rumor has been debunked for the moment by the creator of The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack). In a sense, it's become MTV Junior.

• They have just cancelled Long RunnerToonami, and rarely show anime anymore, with only Bleach and Bakugan getting any love. People can't help feel the reason that Toonami was cancelled was due to its anime past.
  • There have been many rumors flying around regarding the massive reduction in anime. Although, considering that most of the programming that's been replacing it has been Western animation, it's not really a case of Network Decay. Quality decay, however...
• Considering that various shows were canceled on flimsy pretenses, when the new CEO came in, it was a matter of time.

 

[The Question]

People are forgetting that Nick, which used to have a lot of really quality shows and was more interested in using good TV to entertain kids without talking down to them, has for the past couple of years been using the same formula as MTV.