Cartoon Counts On the Force for Ratings Rebound

BY JON LAFAYETTE

Looking for something big to reverse a ratings slide this season, Cartoon Network will be adding Star Wars: Clone Wars, spun off from one of the biggest franchises in the entertainment industry, to its schedule during the 2003-04 season.

Clone Wars represents the first time the space saga has been rendered in animation. But the series won't be a traditional 30-minute show. Instead, Cartoon Network is producing 20 three-minute vignettes that will appear at regularly scheduled times on the network.

The vignettes will help tell the story of the Clone Wars, which, in terms of Star Wars time, begin at the end of last year's Episode II of the movie series and end when Episode III begins.

Cartoon Network general manager Jim Samples said that while it may be hard to determine the ratings for programming as short as the Clone Wars vignettes, spots adjacent to them should be attractive to advertisers. He said that no sponsorship deals have been struck at this point.

Speaking at a press briefing in New York last week, Samples said a big increase in new programming ?will ensure that 2003 is a huge year for Cartoon Network.?

He said the network would be running more than 400 new half-hours of programming, both from original series and acquired shows.

The new programming, including some shows being shared with top-rated broadcast network the WB, is being closely watched by media buyers. Cartoon's ratings shortfall so far this season has tightened the spot market and could push ad prices higher in the upfront, which will begin when Cartoon Network begins presenting its schedule to ad buyers next week. Kids leader Nickelodeon's upfront presentation is March 19.

Among Cartoon's new shows is Low Brow, which will premiere in December. The show is about a New Jersey slacker who finds a robot from the future in a dump. He teams up with the robot's creator, a woman scientist, to use the robot to save Earth from invaders. Linda Simensky, SVP of original animation, said Low Brow is ?an anime show that makes sense to the average person.? With both male and female lead characters, the show appealed to both boys and girls during research.

Duck Dodgers joins the lineup in July and Teen Titans in August. Those shows had been announced previously.

Cartoon Network said that a new show from Craig McCracken, the creator of The Powerpuff Girls, would be ready for the network by early 2004. That show, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, is about the place where imaginary friends go when kids are too old for them.

Cartoon Network is also looking for ways to spice up some of its classic Looney Toons cartoons, which air on Saturday mornings. The network plans to take viewers to an alum factory, find that wrong turn to Albuquerque and perhaps even go to Seville, all of which have been featured in many memorable cartoons.

Samples said Cartoon will continue to share some shows with the WB, including Teen Titans.