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If they can just run KOTH at 5pm they'll do it. They'll keep the buffer for now and see how it goes but KOTH is all but certain to do better than Checkered Past.

To all the people that said the month of DBZ Kai was "normal" scheduling for the holidays and told me I was jumping to conclusions... They sure fooled you into thinking everything was fine. I'm not sure how because the warning signs were pretty bright and glaring. I'm not happy to be right but I saw it coming and I am basically past the mourning period. I'm only sad about Sailor Moon. Naruto had it's time and DBZ Kai is unfortunately sticking around till the contract expires. Absolutely no surprise that the moment the fat man returned, Rewind wasn't worth the cost anymore.

People always use TTG as the example but besides that ridiculous marathon week for the 400th ep, they only air it a few times a day and not even in the most watchable slots. It’s been that way for two years I think. Regular Show airs more often and Gumball is usually the show filling the most slots. They are nonetheless a stagnant channel which refuses to take risks. MAWS and IFG should have aired on CN time but they were too chicken shit to do it and Michael O is content to let CN starve to fill AS’ pantry as much as he can. I don’t think Toonami gets any better without DeMarco but it probably doesn’t get any worse either. At any rate, I saw the movie on IMAX and it was fine. Left me with no strong feelings one way or the other. I saw it with my father who is in his 60s and he enjoyed himself and didn’t realize it was anime till the credits roll. Prior to seeing it I thought I’d probably want to see it more than once in theaters but to be honest I have no strong desire to do so any time soon which is a true mark of a Jason DeMarco and Joseph Chou co-production.

I’ve been thinking about this and honestly it probably won’t mess with AS as badly as some because how much does AS even rely on WB/D for programming? They almost entirely generate ad revenue using 3rd party licenses so the issue of not being able to buy from another division of their parent company isn’t so different than the current situation. AS will potentially get less shows it shares with Max and Max will continue to get shows that never touch AS. But of course licensing requires money. It’s unlikely they can generate the ad-revenue necessary to keep paying Disney for FOX reruns. So unless the spun off company can financially support AS’ acquisition needs they’re gonna be cooked pretty fast. That said the cable asset company will have few gems as reliable in young adult ad-revenue as AS so it could get some priority at least among the former Turner networks. Its gonna be harder to keep the lights on without a doubt and eventually the WB/D will deem a block largely fueled by 3rd party programming as unnecessary. They can redirect those viewers to Max or at least they’ll think they can.

Well that’s certainly bad for Adult Swim on cable.

If it's just DBZ Kai they can even justify it because the bumps will already have been made for Saturday Toonami. If it's just DBZ Kai and Sailor Moon then they can get by with rotating the same bumps they have been using and never even need to tap Steve to record something much less produce new TOM and Sara footage. The only additional cost then is securing more Sailor Moon for now which they certainly don't have to do unless they really want to but it will be a pretty negligible expense all things considered. You're right about them being cautious with phasing out Checkered Past because its troublesome to un-kill something later.

I didn’t anticipate them merely shortening CKP or Rewind to an hour. That’s certainly a way to keep them around but still make room for earlier FOX. Rewind feels like more of an all or nothing situation to me but given they haven’t been able to secure a 4th show and Naruto looks to be dead weight, they might want to shrink to an hour for just Sailor Moon and DBZ Kai. Seems increasingly less likely that they will buy more Sailor Moon eps though so either they rerun what they have or Rewind carries on as DBZ Kai power hour till they see fit to sunset Rewind. If they do pull Rewind in January then they might let CKP have Fridays back for the 5pm hour and IMO CKP should be on at 5pm on Saturdays as well. Conversely I could also see DBZ Kai becoming the weekday buffer show before KOTH branded as Toonami Rewind or not. Maybe they’ll even run Sailor Moon reruns on weekdays in the 5pm hour if they can rerun those 46 episodes at least once each (exactly 1 ep did rerun so far). I don’t expect Naruto to stick around if Rewind doesn’t remain an 2 hour block but they could toss it onto Saturday Toonami to get their money’s worth out of the contract or just cut their losses. What I’d like to see is MAWS reruns at 5pm maybe paired with DBZ Kai. Having Young Justice or a DCAU show would be preferable but that requires WBD to act friendly for once so far chance. At any rate, I think they will ease into deciding what to do with the 5pm hour. Try a few things then inevitably head for the Hill’s.

Sigh… it’s dead

Okay after this episode this whole squabble in the town feels more worth bothering with but there’s just 3 episodes left now and they’re gonna have to do a lot in those to feel like this season wasn’t just a prologue. But this felt more like wrestling than any prior fight so that’s a step in the right direction. Bernie Hulking out definitely feels like some Broly / Kaulifa memberberries though.

I am hearing good things as well. So that’s something.

No unique intro for Rewind about the schedule change. Be on the look out for a new block promo or a total lack of Rewind promos.

I can completely believe that. Anyway, I took a look at how well Family Guy does on Comedy Central. It has reruns in the 200k range, some higher but not reaching 300k. It will probably do better on AS but even 300k seems unlikely. Big Bang Theory on TBS see’s less than 300k these days but still tops the rerun chart.

I do wonder how much this can lift Adult Swim’s 200k average. When it left the loss AS had was pretty similar to the boost FXX got but it will still be on FXX and Comedy Central which will surely diminish its impact even if people still prefer to watch it on AS. At the very least, airing it 10-11:30 and shifting American Dad and Bob’s Burgers earlier should improve the prime time average while Family Guy lifts 11:30-1 and probably late late night with the encore. But the question is, how much? It could surprise us by how greatly or minimally the total day average increases.

Toei will Toei but it does seem rather likely Toonami is part of the reason for the wait.

I would certainly prefer they not run more FOX shows 5-7pm but if they can do it the only thing that would stop them is a desire to keep CKP and/or Toonami Rewind around but ad dollars speak louder and they know Hank and Bob will do better in those hours than old CN shows, Sailor Moon, DBZ and Naruto. Rewind costs some money so it's more likely to leave than CKP especially when it looks like Sailor Moon might be the only life blood and getting other shows for the block will be a pain and also cost more money. Even if they can get Sailor Moon R, then what? Keep the same shows going once a week to diminishing returns? It doesn't seem very sustainable and if they just want to keep airing Sailor Moon they can do so on Saturday. But the oops all Kai schedule for December certainly feels more like they're winding down the Rewind. CKP to its credit is doing some neat things for the holidays though that could also be it's last gasp before going off the air. The Family Guy 3 day marathon runs from 7pm-5am, of course they're still airing something at 5am, probably Bob's Burgers and whose to say they aren't also airing Bob's Burgers before 7pm those days along with King of the Hill? They just can't air Family Guy before 7pm due to content restrictions. There is a plausible way CKP and Rewind retain some necessity and that's if AS got the 4pm hour soon and with Family Guy back its entirely possible they will do it in 2025. Then Toonami can be back in it's original time slot of 4pm-6pm maybe but the last thing I want to see if for CN to lose another hour to Adult Swim.

Eh… if they value Daima as much as they valued Super then 11:30 isn’t entirely off the table but that’s only if it’s required by Toei or (much less likely) they actually have 5-6 other premieres airing at the same time as Daima. But yeah it’s probably only going to happen if Toei insists on it. If Toonami has Daima then they probably will announce it soon. Friday seems likely. And if they aren’t starting it till Jan 11th then they will announce a marathon for Jan 4th (probably Fight Girl but they could certainly f around and run a DBZ Kai marathon or something). Really wondering if CR will upload the first 3 episodes of Daima on Jan 10th, just 2 eps or only the first one. And maybe just maybe Toonami will air more than 1 ep the first night. It’s already a long first episode but they could maybe show the first two as an event premiere. It’s wishful thinking I know.

Jan 4th on Toonami isn’t improbable yet but Jan 11th seems much more likely unless CR gets the dub exclusively for a bit.

Welp Family Guy is back in January airing 10-11:30 and unless they lost King of the Hill or Bob’s Burgers that means they can easily fill 5pm-10pm with 3 episodes of American Dad, 3 episodes of Bob’s Burgers and 4 episodes of King of the Hill before Planet Namek even explodes so you might be right about them only getting 50-52 eps of DBZ Kai Guy.

I’m not surprised. Once Disney let CC have it non-exclusively it was a very real possibility for AS to get it back. I think we know why Rewind is plowing through Goku vs Freeza and just dropped Naruto outright. The experimental phase is over. Bow down to the Disney owned overlords as AS 5-11:30 becomes FXX Mini 5-7pm King of the Hill x 4 7-8:30 Bob’s Burgers x 3 8:30-10 American Dad x 3 10-11:30 Family Guy x 3

That seemed like pretty significant moment and all I could think was "you couldn't have done something more dynamic with the posing or the camera position?" The trailers have shown off some pretty nice stuff but that scene ain't it.

Pretty sure they have 98 episodes of DBZ Kai and that's one reason why they kept it doubled up for a few months and are now doing 4 episodes a week. Logically the original schedule could have lasted about a year if it stayed as it was. 46 episodes of Sailor Moon, 98 episodes of DBZ Kai and 52 episodes of Naruto. I can't imagine they only bought 50 or 52 because that doesn't quite finish Freeza but they wouldn't have gotten precisely the amount to finish Freeza either so it was probably the original 98 episodes of Kai and they haven't reacquired the Buu saga yet. I'm not entirely ruling out they only got 50 or 52 but theoretically they planned on bringing back Kai even before Rewind was in the cards and were aiming to use it as 2 years of filler on Saturday Toonami since Naruto Shippuden was ending. Unlike Sailor Moon and Naruto, they're just using the tapes they already had and it's a deal with Toei not Viz so I think they just talked to Toei and got the okay to use those 98 tapes again for a modest fee. I guess we'll see what happens in January. Naruto has 13 episodes left in that batch of 52 (not too mention the episodes that were skipped). But between skipping episodes and the sudden removal with episodes remaining it looks like they might be cutting their losses with it. I'm not exactly crying over it but it's more than a little baffling to me considering Naruto ruled Hulu for years. Yet with DBZ Kai and Sailor Moon drum up interest still, Naruto doesn't seem to be doing it. I have always felt it was the odd man out due to the other two being significantly older looking and more associated with Toonami. I do recall some flack directed at them for including Naruto instead of another "classic" Toonami show but I didn't think that discourse would actually amount to people not rewatching such a beloved and iconic series. There's a good chance Sailor Moon will return early next year but it's a bit ambitious to expect a new deal to be made before the 2nd or 3rd week of January. Maybe they'll at least do some reruns starting in January. I don't know what would be worse at this point, for the DBZ Kai x 4 block to do better than Rewind has thus far or for it do badly and ultimately shelve Rewind faster. My minimal hope is they resume a regular line-up airing the remaining Naruto episodes (but even if they do that, they'll have left the viewers hanging for over a month so good luck getting them to come back), reruns of Sailor Moon (starting around where Jupiter is introduced or at least once Mercury is introduced) and whatever episodes of DBZ Kai they have to show. Then they get Sailor Moon R and swap out Naruto for something else if they're done with it. Gonna really suck if Naruto stops at episode 52 AGAIN (like in 2013 and 2014) though better than if it stops at 39 in the middle of the chunin prelims. Man... back in June Rewind seemed bursting in potential while Checkered Past was squandering what it had. Now it seems like the opposite at least to an extent. Though we'll never know how much better Rewind might have done airing daily as opposed to once a week.

I totally called Bertie being their daughter before the squad realized Ruff and Tumble were married. Entertainment value wise eps 5 and 6 were alright but they are seriously dragging their feet with only 4 episodes left and they decided to make this conflict a 2 parter? Not the most economical use of the time they have left. Seems like Andy will only have time for one small tournament after she finishes training. Ruff and Tumble actually seemed to be wrestling in that fight against Poblana but then she busts out the DBZ shiz on them. And they called her out on it too (kinda like Mr. Satan in the Cell games). So is the show acknowledging it's not really doing wrestling? Was the reception of Poblana's unorthadox techniques the reason she wants nothing to do with wrestling now? What's the message even gonna be in the end?

That’s impressive. I need to go pick up my copy reserved at the local comic shop soon.

Speaking of typical cable scheduling… Kai x 4 continues on Dec 20th It will be eps 40-43, if eps 44-47 air on Dec 27th then they’ll reach Super Saiyan Goku Gotta wonder how long Kai x 4 will last at this rate. My guess would be until the end of the Freeza battle a few weeks into January. They really just dropped Naruto mid chunin exam prelims for 3+ weeks. That’s pretty bogus.

Good point, they can just have Fate fill the hour every week. That’s a bit boring to do but that’s typical cable TV scheduling.