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I think it’s a bit disingenuous to say the majority of the people watching DBS reruns don’t stay for the other shows currently. When DBS was dub premieres it couldn’t be touched, the ceiling was too high. Lately however, Titan has held 90% of DBS’ turn-out and it’s rare for any show to pull in less than 50% of the viewers DBS did. Even accounting for people coming in to offset DBS viewers leaving it’s still unlikely that the majority of DBS viewers aren’t staying for most of the block now. So we have to look at this two ways. One possibility is that DBS actually isn’t necessary at all because the other shows aren’t doing poorly on their own. If MHA can do about as well at midnight then it can anchor Toonami just fine. The other possibility (and the one AS seems to believe is happening) is DBS lifts everything on Toonami and if they removed it, there would be a 20% or so loss of viewership in at least the midnight hour if not beyond that. The only thing we can garner from prior data is that DBS reruns retain Family Guy viewers better than MHA premieres did. But it’s hard to say how many of the viewers watching DBS were retained from Family Guy and carry into the 2nd show on Toonami or how many viewers show up for DBS and stay for most of Toonami. Frankly I feel the solution is a little expansion. Give DBS 11:30 and move every premiere up a half hour. That should do as well or better than the current ratings. It would be an easy move when Final Space finishes its season or they could dump 1 of 4 American Dad’s.

Hulu is probably where the majority of dub watchers discovered MHA but I think a lot of the fans watch it subbed on Crunchyroll at this point.

It was just used to link to the tumblr but it’s no longer active

Programming just not wanting to change anything else when Toonami lost 10:30 has been my go to explanation because it sounds like something they’d haphazardly do on a whim. You’re probably right about the network being uncertain when they would be able to air season 4. Thankfully that little stunt didn’t convince FUNimation to take their ball and go home.

People watch Shippuden even at 3am and DeMarco and Austin like it, so they want to keep it on as “fresh content” for many many years. Right now they buy 52 episodes a year but to double it up they’d have to buy 104. They’d much rather buy 52 episodes of something else for variety’s sake. (or any combination of shorter seasons) These episodes aren’t streaming dubbed anywhere and most people won’t buy all the DVDs so these episodes are arguably less available than most of what Toonami airs. So that’s another reason to maintain the drip feed. What benefit is there to doubling it up? There really isn’t one beyond ensuring they can finish it before Toonami is yanked off of the air, but they expect to still be airing Toonami in 2024, so they’re not sweating that. You could argue it would be better to finish it sooner and move on to something else but people are still watching it and it’s just one slot at 2:30 or 3am, so it makes sense to keep it around. Not just anything will do decently at or after 2:30 in the morning and it’s not really wasting valuable air time. It would be better to just stop buying more of it entirely because if it’s wasting anything: it is money they could spend on other shows. So it makes more sense to dump it and maybe the entire 3am hour rather than buy 52 more episodes to “premiere” at 3:30 on a Sunday morning. But because people are still watching it week after week, they’re not going to dump it and they’re not gonna speed it up. They have no compelling reason to do either of those things. Thankfully, Shitpudding is pretty easy to ignore after 2:30am. So I say let the Naruturds have it. I’m much more concerned with DBS reruns wasting the best slot on the block until at least September if not October or even beyond this year.

That was one of the stupidest decisions AS programming made with the Toonami lineup. I’m still wondering exactly why it ever happened because “performance” most likely wasn’t the reason. Then they actually played season 4 as the lead as if they never buried season 3. Just what the actual hell?

I thought tickets averaged closer to 10 dollars. And we’re counting the total gross in the US not just the first weekend. Easily 2 million tickets were sold by now. Probably 3 to 4 times the audience DS got on Toonami on average even counting DVR and on-demand. It was top 10 on Netflix for a couple of weeks and that’s easily a million viewers.

They want to air Shippuden once a week for as long as possible. They also don’t want to use more than one slot on Shippuden during Toonami. It’s at 3am anyway. The only shows after it lately have been reruns.

The ratio of people who went to see it ONLY because they saw the show on Toonami is likely very small. The biggest chunk would be from the simulcast and Netflix undoubtedly helped more than Toonami did. We’ll see if Toonami can reap the benefits with a dub premiere of the next season. They didn’t really get attention from airing much less rerunning season one.

Seems odd they didn’t mention Uzumaki which you’d think would be done in time to air this year but DeMarco did tweet something about it progressing slowly (sorry I looked but can’t find that tweet). I’m thinking October or November for Blade Runner, maybe December if it doesn’t have to line up with a Japanese broadcast. Fena will be previewed at Annecy in June, maybe it will air as early as July.

At the very bottom of this Variety article announcing the premiere date for Tuca & Bertie season 2, we get this: “Other upcoming series on Adult Swim include the Japanese anime style “Blade Runner: Black Lotus” and “Fena: Pirate Princess,” which are co-productions between the network and Crunchyroll and will be apart of the Toonami lineup later this year.” https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/tuca-bertie-season-2-adult-swim-premiere-date-1234962719/

It took some digging but I finally found Adult Swim’s current total viewer average. It’s sitting at 420 (lol) thousand viewers. https://www.scribd.com/document/505334295/April-2021-Cable-Network-Ranker-Total-Viewers The 2020 average was about 500k. Which was down 20% from 2019. If the average is close to 400,000 now then Birdgirl and Final Space getting around 300,000 seem to be doing alright. And that also means DBS and Attack on Titan probably look pretty good right now as far as the network is concerned. I definitely think MHA could pull in as many or more viewers as DBS reruns can but I don’t expect it could pull in significantly more. I still am willing to believe it can edge out DBS regularly but regardless of it being at 12am or 12:30, I don’t expect it to pull in 400k regularly.

I decided to dig up some ratings from when MHA was the lead and compared them to the most recent ratings I could find that showed how well Family Guy did before DBS. Looking at these, it seems like DBS reruns hold Family Guy at least a tad better than MHA premieres. There are some weeks when DBS reruns came very close to Family Guy's ratings. We unfortunately have no idea how Family Guy has been doing lately and can only judge how Final Space premieres are doing compared to Super but I'd have to guess Family Guy isn't beating Super by more than about 100,000 viewers if even that. If they're not confident that MHA can hold those viewers as well as DBS does then it's a least somewhat understandable why they insist MHA isn't the right show to air directly after Family Guy. December 7th 2019 Family Guy (repeat) (ADSM, 10:00 PM, 30 min.) • 0.692 million viewers (#43) • 0.43 HH (#46) • 0.32 A18-49 (#9) • 0.28 A18-34 (#7) • 0.34 A25-54 (#10) • 0.10 A55+ Family Guy (repeat) (ADSM, 10:30 PM, 30 min.) • 0.811 million viewers (#27) • 0.50 HH (#32) • 0.40 A18-49 (#4) • 0.31 A18-34 (#3) • 0.43 A25-54 (#7) • 0.11 A55+ My Hero Academia (Adult Swim, 11:00 PM, 30 min.) • 0.550 million viewers • 0.28 A18-49 • 0.27 A25-54 • 0.06 A55+ One-Punch Man (Adult Swim, 11:30 PM, 30 min.) • 0.453 million viewers • 0.22 A18-49 • 0.22 A25-54 • 0.07 A55+ Read more: https://programminginsider.com/saturday-final-ratings-sec-championship-caps-cbs-sports-best-college-football-season-average-viewership-since-1990/ June 13th 2020 Family Guy (repeat) (Adult Swim, 11:00 PM, 30 min.) • 0.659 million viewers [#112] • 0.419 million adults 18-49 • 0.32 A18-49 [#2] • 0.30 A25-54 [#26] • 0.10 A55+ [#595] Family Guy (repeat) (Adult Swim, 11:30 PM, 30 min.) • 0.608 million viewers [#137] • 0.407 million adults 18-49 • 0.31 A18-49 [#3] • 0.32 A25-54 [#16] • 0.08 A55+ [#655] My Hero Academia (repeat) (Adult Swim, 12:00 AM, 30 min.) • 0.451 million viewers [#248] • 0.295 million adults 18-49 • 0.23 A18-49 [#20] • 0.23 A25-54 [#78] • 0.05 A55+ [#787] Paranoia Agent (repeat) (Adult Swim, 12:30 AM, 30 min.) • 0.347 million viewers [#421] • 0.259 million adults 18-49 • 0.20 A18-49 [#43] • 0.19 A25-54 [#111] • 0.03 A55+ [#862] Read more: https://programminginsider.com/saturday-final-ratings-nine-broadcast-networks-combine-for-just-11-million-viewers-in-prime-time/ June 20th 2020 Family Guy (repeat) (Adult Swim, 11:00 PM, 30 min.) • 0.696 million viewers [#107] • 0.433 million adults 18-49 • 0.33 A18-49 [#5] • 0.35 A25-54 [#15] • 0.12 A55+ [#571] Family Guy (repeat) (Adult Swim, 11:30 PM, 30 min.) • 0.713 million viewers [#100] • 0.472 million adults 18-49 • 0.36 A18-49 [#4] • 0.39 A25-54 [#11] • 0.10 A55+ [#623] My Hero Academia (Adult Swim, 12:00 AM, 30 min.) • 0.521 million viewers [#188] • 0.344 million adults 18-49 • 0.27 A18-49 [#15] • 0.27 A25-54 [#54] • 0.06 A55+ [#754] Paranoia Agent (repeat) (Adult Swim, 12:30 AM, 30 min.) • 0.359 million viewers [#371] • 0.246 million adults 18-49 • 0.19 A18-49 [#58] • 0.19 A25-54 [#109] • 0.04 A55+ [#801] Read more: https://programminginsider.com/saturday-final-ratings-2019-feature-film-ford-v-ferrari-makes-hbo-network-premiere/ June 27th 2020 Family Guy (repeat) (Adult Swim, 11:00 PM, 30 min.) • 0.637 million viewers [#151] • 0.364 million adults 18-49 • 0.28 A18-49 [#5] • 0.30 A25-54 [#14] • 0.12 A55+ [#563] Family Guy (repeat) (Adult Swim, 11:30 PM, 30 min.) • 0.688 million viewers [#130] • 0.382 million adults 18-49 • 0.30 A18-49 [#4] • 0.33 A25-54 [#7] • 0.13 A55+ [#542] My Hero Academia (Adult Swim, 12:00 AM, 30 min.) • 0.499 million viewers [#229] • 0.289 million adults 18-49 • 0.22 A18-49 [#15] • 0.24 A25-54 [#53] • 0.08 A55+ [#670] Paranoia Agent (repeat) (Adult Swim, 12:30 AM, 30 min.) • 0.358 million viewers [#431] • 0.219 million adults 18-49 • 0.17 A18-49 [#66] • 0.18 A25-54 [#136] • 0.05 A55+ [#762] Read more: https://programminginsider.com/saturday-final-ratings-tnt-wins-prime-time-among-adults-18-49-and-25-54-with-telecast-of-2018-feature-film-avengers-infinity-war/ October 3rd 2020 Family Guy (repeat) (Adult Swim, 11:00 PM, 30 min.) • 0.563 million viewers [#162] • 0.293 million adults 18-49 • 0.23 A18-49 [#32] • 0.28 A25-54 [#47] • 0.10 A55+ [#674] Family Guy (repeat) (Adult Swim, 11:30 PM, 30 min.) • 0.546 million viewers [#175] • 0.289 million adults 18-49 • 0.22 A18-49 [#33] • 0.25 A25-54 [#70] • 0.10 A55+ [#648] Dragon Ball Super (repeat) (Adult Swim, 12:00 AM, 30 min.) • 0.429 million viewers [#264] • 0.240 million adults 18-49 • 0.19 A18-49 [#62] • 0.20 A25-54 [#109] • 0.10 A55+ [#695] JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures: Golden Wind (Adult Swim, 12:30 AM, 30 min.) • 0.344 million viewers [#383] • 0.185 million adults 18-49 • 0.14 A18-49 [#113] • 0.15 A25-54 [#192] • 0.08 A55+ [#788] Read more: https://programminginsider.com/saturday-final-ratings-snl-on-nbc-attracts-its-second-largest-season-premiere-audience-in-12-years/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=saturday-final-ratings-snl-on-nbc-attracts-its-second-largest-season-premiere-audience-in-12-years October 10th 2020 Family Guy (repeat) (Adult Swim, 11:00 PM, 30 min.) • 0.420 million viewers [#282] • 0.232 million adults 18-49 • 0.18 A18-49 [#61] • 0.19 A25-54 [#115] • 0.09 A55+ [#754] Family Guy (repeat) (Adult Swim, 11:30 PM, 30 min.) • 0.508 million viewers [#193] • 0.298 million adults 18-49 • 0.23 A18-49 [#23] • 0.23 A25-54 [#74] • 0.10 A55+ [#738] Dragon Ball Super (repeat) (Adult Swim, 12:00 AM, 30 min.) • 0.381 million viewers [#335] • 0.234 million adults 18-49 • 0.18 A18-49 [#54] • 0.17 A25-54 [#138] • 0.07 A55+ [#883] JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures: Golden Wind (Adult Swim, 12:30 AM, 30 min.) • 0.327 million viewers [#444] • 0.222 million adults 18-49 • 0.17 A18-49 [#70] • 0.16 A25-54 [#165] • 0.03 A55+ [#1180] Read more: https://programminginsider.com/saturday-final-ratings-saturday-night-live-on-nbc-leads-entertainment-telecasts-in-total-viewers-for-second-consecutive-week/ October 24th 2020 Family Guy (repeat) (Adult Swim, 11:00 PM, 30 min.) • 0.434 million viewers [#291] • 0.236 million adults 18-49 • 0.18 A18-49 [#72] • 0.19 A25-54 [#130] • 0.07 A55+ [#879] Family Guy (repeat) (Adult Swim, 11:30 PM, 30 min.) • 0.460 million viewers [#261] • 0.258 million adults 18-49 • 0.20 A18-49 [#43] • 0.19 A25-54 [#130] • 0.08 A55+ [#803] Dragon Ball Super (repeat) (Adult Swim, 12:00 AM, 30 min.) • 0.433 million viewers [#293] • 0.262 million adults 18-49 • 0.20 A18-49 [#39] • 0.18 A25-54 [#149] • 0.08 A55+ [#813] JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures: Golden Wind (Adult Swim, 12:30 AM, 30 min.) • 0.400 million viewers [#324] • 0.228 million adults 18-49 • 0.18 A18-49 [#85] • 0.17 A25-54 [#196] • 0.07 A55+ [#866] Read more: https://programminginsider.com/saturday-final-ratings-snl-on-nbc-rises-from-recent-two-weeks-with-adele-as-host/ December 5th 2020 Family Guy (repeat) (Adult Swim, 11:00 PM, 30 min.) • 0.515 million viewers [#205] • 0.289 million adults 18-49 • 0.22 A18-49 [#31] • 0.25 A25-54 [#56] • 0.12 A55+ [#659] Family Guy (repeat) (Adult Swim, 11:30 PM, 30 min.) • 0.573 million viewers [#173] • 0.343 million adults 18-49 • 0.26 A18-49 [#20] • 0.30 A25-54 [#27] • 0.11 A55+ [#699] Dragon Ball Super (repeat) (Adult Swim, 12:00 AM, 30 min.) • 0.436 million viewers [#285] • 0.277 million adults 18-49 • 0.21 A18-49 [#37] • 0.21 A25-54 [#81] • 0.08 A55+ [#819] Sword Art Online: Alicization of the Underworld Part 2 (Adult Swim, 12:30 AM, 30 min.) • 0.301 million viewers [#508] • 0.187 million adults 18-49 • 0.14 A18-49 [#115] • 0.15 A25-54 [#200] • 0.07 A55+ [#919] Read more: https://programminginsider.com/saturday-final-ratings-cbs-tops-prime-time-with-sec-college-football/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=saturday-final-ratings-cbs-tops-prime-time-with-sec-college-football

My guess is the contract only allows for so many airings and they don’t want to blow through them when they have other options.

We have marathon ratings to prove it as well as prime time ratings. They also gave it a whole hour on weeknights for a while so it clearly did fine there.

Dragon Ball Super reruns aren’t drawing viewers just because they air first. People really will watch DBS reruns regardless of when it’s airing. It’s comfort food like Family Guy, having the two back to back is a pretty unbeatable combo. That’s what they don’t want to give up.

While I'm generally for the live and let live mentality and am very capable of ignoring Super when it's airing... I'm not so easily dissuaded to ignore how Super's continued presence short-changes every other show on the block, especially the ones after 1am. I can't simply "switch off" how much that irritates me, so I can understand others who feel the same. It's difficult to find the balance between maintaining verbal pressure against DBS reruns and not letting the negative feelings consume me. It undoubtedly affects my enjoyment of the block. I'm trying to be happy about Dr. Stone and My Hero Academia but it's not easy to ignore the Goku shaped elephant in the room whenever something neat joins the block.

I think we're getting a bit hung up on the "nostalgia pick" comment though. I didn't necessarily take that as his game plan for replacing DBS. I heard it as two separate thoughts. He and Gill have some ideas for shows that could potentially replace DBS, that's one thought. The other thought is that no anime does as well in reruns as DBZ / Super, not even My Hero Academia, but maybe there's a show that can draw somewhere near that level and it might be another old favorite. That doesn't necessarily mean that a nostalgia pick should lead the block nor does it mean that's what he has in mind for when they collectively decide that DBS has outwore its welcome. If I had to guess what he might want to try in the top slot... Original series, the next season of Primal, a DC animated series if they could get one, the upcoming season of Bleach and maybe a hot anime they haven't aired before like Jujutsu Kaisen. And yeah he'd probably jump at the chance to air Sailor Moon if he could but I don't think he'd actually try Gundam Wing or G Gundam at midnight. Yu Yu Hakusho is a long commitment that they probably aren't sure would pan out.

I don't think anyone who regularly live tweets the ToP actually mind that DBS is still airing in the lead. At least not very much.

If they really think a nostalgia play is the way to go then they should try sticking Naruto Shippuden at midnight. I know it didn't do fantastic at 10pm but it might be able to beat DBS reruns.

Well I sure as HFIL don't promote Super airing beyond griping that it's airing (and never during the broadcast because I'm not even home by then most Saturdays). It would however be odd for Toonami News or Toonami Squad to just pretend Toonami started at 12:30am so I don't see that happening.

Then I consider this interview a success.

Now there's an expectation that any week they tune in there will be Dragon Ball Super at midnight. Not before midnight. Not after midnight. Specifically midnight. It's what viewers expect and it's what advertisers expect. And truthfully it's not usually a detriment for any show to be directly after DBS at the 12:30 slot. The problem is they have a stacked line-up and shows like Dr. Stone get 1am AT BEST when the 2nd slot is already occupied by the show that should be at midnight. And some shows end up premiering after 2am. Toonami's only dub premiere in May will be moved to 2am. Granted it's the not well received second season of The Promised Neverland but it still seems like a waste to put the only dub premiere that late. It would also be less of a problem if DBS was at 11pm or even 11:30pm instead of having 4 straight American Dad episodes in prime time but that loops back to the prior statement, everyone expects DBS at midnight and moving it earlier doesn't help it do better. They should be preparing for when Family Guy leaves by building up something else on Saturday but its clear they are going to ride that 11pm hour of Family Guy as far as they can before they abruptly get thrown off.

Overall a great line-up. It's a bit cold to move Neverland to 2am but it's not a good adaption anyway. Though for consistency I would have opted to move Food Wars to 2am and leave Neverland at 1:30. It's not a big jump regardless. I'm thrilled to have Dr. Stone back and having it air right next to MHA. But you know... that fark'n Dragon Ball Super rerun just sucks the life out of any good change the block makes.

Yeah this probably isn’t at least mostly Jason’s decision. AS programming decides the schedule and contracts often dictate when shows can air. AS schedules are a bunch of stubborn nimrods though and Jason will defend anything they do.