Why Cartoon Network Killed Itself
I am sorry, I mean Teen Titans Go Network.
When I first heard that Teen Titans was getting a reboot, I was elated. This was a show that I adored. It was filled with great storytelling, dark motives, as well as a way of bringing out truly admirable aspects of a character’s mentality.
I waited with bated breath for it.
Then it came: Teen Titans Go…and at first, I honestly thought this was a joke series. I watched one episode, and thought, “Okay, this is a funny prank. Where’s the real thing?”
The real thing was the prank. That was actually what Cartoon Network greenlit. At the time, the network was known for great animation, like Steven Universe and the like. This new show just didn’t make sense!
Like many Cartoon Network fans, I was a devout viewer until the network jammed up their programming with TTG.
People often talk about MTV replacing most of its programming with Tosh.O, but we don’t talk about how bad it got with Teen Titans Go. This show was literally put on repeat for days — or even weeks at a time.
When they weren’t playing, one single animation series would get the spotlight for an hour. Then, boom. Back to TTG.
These are not “joke schedules,” by the way. These are actual, real TV schedules the network made. It was literally nothing but Teen Titans Go for years on end. Even the most devout fans were chased off.
Fans tried to complain about the schedule.
The network did not care.
Needless to say, the Cartoon Network that won me (and so many other viewers) over was gone. It was replaced by the Teen Titans Go Network and viewership has been tanking — and it is not even a debate about why the network died.
Even a toddler could figure it out: play a show on repeat enough, people will lose interest. We’ve seen it with MTV and now, we’ve seen it with Cartoon Network.
At one point, CN had about 2.12 million viewers, outpacing Nickelodeon! Today, Cartoon Network has around 61,000 viewers. People are actually searching for bootleg vintage Adult Swim clips because they miss what the network used to be.