MasterMoltar

Or they might just be putting MHA at 12 AM and putting the second Family Guy episode back at 10:30 considering they still haven't announced anything yet (and its getting pretty late in the game to do so).

I was waiting to see what the new pre-Toonami schedule would be before saying anything about the schedule change. 8:00 - Dragon Ball Z Kai 8:30 - Dragon Ball Super (rerun) 9:00 - Ballmastrz: 9009 x2 9:30 - Rick and Morty 10:00 - Family Guy x2 Not too surprised they're keeping Kai at 8 PM, as outside of King of the Hill, which they no longer have, it has worked the best in that 8 PM hour. Adding a Super rerun should only help the hour as well, even though it's not the best for variety. 9 PM does mix it up a bit, but I can't see it doing great and that might get swapped out for a more consistent performer after a while. Rick and Morty and the FG hour should do well as always and provide the strongest lead-in to Toonami. Basically from this, it's clear that the 9 PM experiment didn't work out the way they wanted to, as Toonami fans aren't inclined to tune in before Super starts. Therefore it makes more sense to get as many people watching Adult Swim before Super starts, and they plan to do that with their strongest comedy shows. They're falling back to what they did in 2017, which was the last time the Saturday night ratings were in line with the weekly average.

If Kai and Naruto do well in prime time, which it does seem like that's the case, then that's only going to fuel the idea that shounen is what brings in the casual audience. If we see the same consistency after 11:30/12:00 when the new schedule takes effect, then it's clear that what they put in the later slots doesn't matter too much and I could see them using those for other genres.

Casual viewers will be there early at 9 PM to watch DBZ, rerun or not, whereas MHA doesn't that kind of drawing power. Most of these changes actually make sense to do (putting strong franchises like DB and Naruto up front to boost primetime, sandwiching MHA between them to keep that show strong, keeping Super and Titan in the later, stronger hours to hopefully keep people watching later in the block, etc.), it's just shocking for them to do it all at once.

My guess is that this strategy to keep people watching the block longer, since front-loading the block isn't working as well as it used to. After midnight, things are really stable, so this move might remedy the large drops after Super at the front of the block. MHA will be helped out by having Family Guy (which is still one of their strongest shows) before it. People will tune in to Super regardless as that's still going to be the highest-rated Toonami show, and then AoT benefits from airing right after. Then maybe those people that stayed for AoT will stay for Alternative, PTE, and the rest of the block (at least for the premieres). It also makes me rethink where they're going to put Boruto, as that seems like it might be more of an anchor for the middle of the block and end up around midnight when PTE ends to try and get more people to stick around even longer.

Backdoor schedule

Yeah I'm very interested to see what the August and rest of Fall schedule looks like without Cleveland and the addition of all these new anime acquisitions. Block expansion does seem likely, especially since Saturday is going to need to fill those Cleveland slots and FG still can't be encored. Expansion on 8/18 guess, with FG/Venture/Rick and Morty/FG as the pre-Toonami lineup and Ballmasterz/Venutre/Rick and Morty/comedy buffer as the post-Toonami lineup: 10:00PM - Dragon Ball Super 10:30PM - Boruto 11:00PM - Attack on Titan (10:30 until 9/29) 11:30PM - My Hero Academia (11:00 until 9/29) 12:00AM - FLCL Alternative (11:30 until 9/29) 12:30AM - JoJo Diamond is Unbreakable 1:00AM - Hunter x Hunter 1:30AM - Black Clover 2:00AM - Naruto Shippuden 2:30AM - Rerun 3:00AM - Cowboy Bebop 3:30AM - Lupin the 3rd No expansion is tougher to work with, but still doable. They'd have to pull something else out of the comedy library to fill the pre and post Toonami slots in addition to the shows mentioned above. 10:30PM - Dragon Ball Super 11:00PM - Boruto 11:30PM - Attack on Titan (11:00 until 9/29) 12:00AM - FLCL Alternative (11:30 until 9/29) 12:30AM - My Hero Academia (11:00 until 8/18, 12:00 until 9/29) 1:00AM - JoJo Diamond is Unbreakable 1:30AM - Hunter x Hunter 2:00AM - Black Clover 2:30AM - Naruto Shippuden 3:00AM - Cowboy Bebop 3:30AM - Lupin the 3rd

If I were to take a guess at what the 'original plan' was, this probably wasn't going to come until late June with DBZ Kai ended. The line-up would have been Super -> Kai -> FLCL 1/2 -> Black Clover -> JoJo -> Gundam/Gundam replacement -> rest of Toonami until then. BC underperforming caused them to change plans and push MHA up to be Gundam's replacement instead to bolster the front of the block. This is probably more schedule shifting than they wanted, but I do like the idea of having this line-up until the likely Memorial Day marathon. Then FLCL Progressive premieres at 11:30, which moves MHA to 11 PM (going back to the original plan on where to slot it) and bumping DBZ Kai back to 12 AM until it ends and the next premiere (which would have likely been the original replacement for Gundam) takes its place there.

Even though there's not much of a point in getting worked up over ratings these days, especially after hearing DeMarco's recent comments on them, the non-DB numbers haven't looked all that great recently. We used to give Toonami a lot of praise for maintaining its audience throughout the block, but now that has worsened in the recent months. TV overall doing worse is one thing, but I also believe getting rid of the earlier Super airing is also responsible since the Toonami airing audience is no longer being split. This just makes Super's dominance over the rest of the shows even more prominent. It's also pretty clear that Black Clover is having problems keeping that DB audience (though to be fair, nothing except OPM has done that well). The question of which show can hold that audience isn't an easy one to answer. Kai is okay with it, and Shippuden would probably do fine considering even it holds up even in the back part of the block. If you're looking for a new show that could do it that could also get people to want to stick around after, then it's tough to say.

They can, but it's likely that the contract they have states they can only show Bob's/AD/FG/Cleveland a limited amount of times per week, so if they wanted to show more FOX on Saturday, they would have to show less on some other day in exchange. It does look like they are doing just that and putting a Cleveland episode on Saturday at 8, plus moving a FG episode up to 8:30. This eliminates the Super hour and sandwiches Rick and Morty between Family Guy. Very interesting move.

The fact that they probably cant air any other FOX shows on Saturday, Family Guy isn't the powerhouse that is used to be, and that Rick and Morty reruns in primetime arent doing great means that they have nothing else to fill Saturday with that isn't anime. At least a new show like Black Clover has a chance of bringing some new casual viewers in. Guessing it was a deal they couldn't pass up too since they just shoved it in after DBZ on such short notice.

Strange week of numbers. Primetime Rick and Morty actually did well and both episodes gained over the Super premiere, which could be the start of a trend. Family Guy unfortunately didn't lift numbers too much after that, which is unusual. Also some real fuel to the "8:30 Super is hurting the Toonami showing" theory this week as the 11 PM episode was virtually even with it, and the 8:30 premiere beat out everything after on Toonami. Between that and the drop between 11 PM Super and Family Guy, it's easier to make a case saying people are watching the 8:30 airing and not sticking around for Toonami. Might be time to put a true premiere at 11:00 PM. Jojo retained Kai just fine this week, but it doesn't look good since Tokyo Ghoul weirdly overperformed this week. If it was consistently beating Jojo, like Naruto is consistently outrating Lupin, then that might call for a switch. I think it was just a one-off week though, and TG is almost done at this point anyway so its not a huge deal.

8:30 DBS is quickly picking up steam. If they replace the 9:00 Rick and Morty and are able to put an airing of Bob's Burgers or American Dad there instead, that might be enough to optimize ratings for primetime. Toonami line-up seems fine looking at the retention. Most shows are going to drop a fair amount following Dragon Ball since that audience is a little unique, so you can't blame Jojo too much for that. They might be thinking of sliding Lupin back since it looks like Shippuden and maybe even Outlaw Star are stronger shows, but the small gain might not be worth it.

FG is only going to exceed at 11 PM if it's lead-in doesn't crater the ratings before it. One of the reasons they moved it into primetime is because none of the other AS originals aside from Rick and Morty do well in the 9 or 10 PM hour. This idea works if they have other Fox shows like Bob's Burgers and American Dad at 9 PM and 10 PM, but it looks like they can't air those shows there right now, possibly because all their allotted airings for those series are tied up on weekdays and Sunday.

Yep, premiere-wise, DBS isn't something like Samurai Jack or Rick and Morty that can bring in a lot of outside viewers and beat FG regularly. They might even have data showing that the 8 PM showings aren't significantly hurting the Toonami showing which could be a reason they're doubling down on it. What they're hoping for with this schedule change is that 8:30 DBS builds off the 8 PM rerun, and then the Rick and Morty S3 encores build off of that. FG is going to build off of whatever the 9 PM hour gets, so the better that hour does, the better FG does. Then the better that FG does, the better that the start of Toonami will do, and since Toonami usually has great retention between shows, that momentum carries throughout the night. We've seen that it's rare for a Toonami show to bring in a large amount of outside viewers that match or beat Family Guy. So the strategy has to revolve around building up the entire night instead, and that means a stronger primetime will hopefully lead to a stronger Toonami.

Well I guess adding another DBS showing and expanding/moving Toonami earlier is one way to address this...

Yeah if anything, the ratings for the pre-Toonami line-up are of bigger concern than Toonami itself. If 8 PM DBS is outrating the next 2 hours after it, and the 10 PM hour can only draw a 0.2 in 18-49, then even Family Guy is going to have problems recovering enough for Toonami to benefit. The fact that it barely got 1 million and a 0.46 in 18-49 speaks to that.

On one hand, I wouldn't expect great numbers on a night when Family Guy only gets 1.2 million and 0.55 18-49. Still, like most people thought, leading Toonami with an hour of reruns doesn't look like its going to pay off. Jack lost a quarter of the audience after FG, and DBS also split strongly with its primetime airing. The only saving grace is that some viewers did come back for Kai afterwards. Unfortunately, Titan continues to disappoint ratings-wise, and the rest of the night was low. Now that could just be an off-week and the numbers recover this week, but I'm not quite sure what they would do to change the line-up if the low numbers continue. I don't see them cutting the block in a big way since Adult Swim's regular line-up wouldn't do that much better as evidenced by the ratings of the non-FG shows on Saturday. Losing 11:00 to FG wouldn't be a huge deal, and depending on whether or not Super has to contractually air at 11:30, they could try leading the block with Kai. Of course this all assumes they don't have something big planned for 11:00 sooner rather than later. The ship has sailed with Titan, so no point moving that until it finishes next month. Moving up HxH might help a little, but I don't see it doing gangbusters this late in the game. I believe Naruto could also help the middle of the block if they moved that up too, but they've got too many newer shows to do that.

Not much considering its all the way at 1:30 AM. It'll do good if it can hold whoever is left after Tokyo Ghoul, but I highly doubt it'll grow the audience at that time.

A couple interesting trends to note as of late: The gap between the 8:00 PM and 11:30 PM showings of DBS is closing with the earlier airing improving and the later airing dropping. That doesn't do Toonami any favors, but removing the earlier airing doesn't seem like an option. Kai seems to be picking up the slack, and I'm guessing AS doesn't care too much as long as both showings of DBS continue to hold up well. Jack is doing very well, but 11:00 is most likely gone after Jack ends. The DB shows or Titan can't hold that audience, so unless they've got a big surprise coming soon, FG should be getting that slot back. That might be for the best since Family Guy tends to do better in the 11 PM slot anyway, and that could help lift the block overall. Titan S2 doesn't look to have the hype or buzz after S1, so 12:30 might have been the right call for it after all. It's also only 12 weeks of content, so it wouldn't have even guaranteed that Toonami would keep 11:30 if it premiered there. At least with DBS, it looks like that can hold down 11:30 indefinitely. The rest of the line-up is down, but so is everything else. As long as it remains in line with the AS average, Toonami will be fine.

Yeah if the 11 PM airing didn't even crack a million, then the ratings for the rest of the night are understandable. Looks like it was a low night across TV in general too, so a one-off night like this doesn't mean anything in the long run. The fact that there was barely any drop in 18-49 from Jojo's through Gundam is also a bright spot for a low night.

Well, now we know what show is replacing Jojo and why Tokyo Ghoul didn't bump it down. 12:30 does seem a bit late for AoT S2, but Jack isn't going to budge for it so 11:00 is off the table. There is a chance they air it at 11:30 before the DB hour or at midnight between the two Dragonball shows though.

On top of this, it makes the most sense to put it in the slot where it's most likely to succeed, even if it's only for a month or so. They most likely already had JoJo's replacement picked out and Tokyo Ghoul was expedited due to the whole One Piece contract situation. For example, if Mob Psycho 100 is replacing JoJo, then they'll either keep TG at 12:30 and air it at 1, or air it at 12:30 and move TG to 1:00 (which means the people that were watching it after Kai can choose to stick around longer and keep following it). There are benefits to doing it either way, so it really just depends on which show AS thinks can reach a larger audience (aka which show they think that retain DB's audience better)

So uh...I see some news got dropped. Based off the ratings we've seen so far this year, my guess for the new line-up on the 25th is: 11:00 - Samurai Jack 11:30 - Dragon Ball Super 12:00 - Dragon Ball Z Kai 12:30 - Tokyo Ghoul 01:00 - Jojo's Bizarre Adventure 01:30 - Hunter x Hunter 02:00 - Gundam Unicorn 02:30 - Naruto Shippuden 03:00 - Ghost in the Shell Makes sense to put the new show behind DBZ Kai. I also wouldn't be surprised if they sandwiched Tokyo Ghoul between the DB shows. Swapping HxH and Unicorn is the only real mix-up that I believe has a real shot of happening.

While no one was expecting Jojo to do as well at 12:30 as OPM, I was hoping it would do a bit better than it has been. There's no point in swapping it with Gundam at this point since it wouldn't do that much better. With all the stuff that's potentially coming soon (AoT S2, IBO S2, JoJo Part 3, other surprises), it's hard to say if they should try putting something new at 12:30 to try and retain that DBZ Kai audience better, even if that means pushing Jojo, Gundam, and HxH back (which kind of screws over HxH, but I'm also not convinced it should leapfrog everything and air at 12:30/1:00). The retention after 1 AM is very good overall, so those shows should still do high 0.3 or 0.4 adult ratings even 30 minutes later. Even Family Guy only got 1.4 million/0.7 adults again last weekend, so the fact that Super and Kai got 1.3/0.6 and 1.1/0.5 respectively is very good for them. The other shows on the other nights don't do that well following FG. If FG can't regularly draw 2 million anymore, then nothing on AS is reaching it.