ratings Toonami Unevenedge Ratings Discussion 3.0: Let The Good Times Roll!!!!!

[atomicinumatt]

56 minutes ago, Toonamiguy321 said:

I’ll bet the block also saw a bump from people tuning in expecting a prank. A lot of people don’t seem to grasp the timing on AS pranks. 
 

Adult Swim put a ton of stock into Royal Crackers, so I’ll bet there is some major disappointment in its mediocre start. They have its reruns peppered all over the schedule which will likely cause rapid fatigue in it. I enjoyed it for what it was, but AS seems to think it can be one of their new tentpoles. 

I will admit that during the prank airing of Royal Crackers I was a bit underwhelmed but after watching subsequent episodes Sunday, I was a bit surprised to find myself liking it a bit more. It is nothing groundbreaking but I found it funny and saw myself laughing out loud a bit. For some reason it sort of gave me vague Frisky Dingo vibes (one of my favorites!). I will still have to watch further premieres to really get a gauge on whether it will stand up, and as of now I do not think it is going to be anything huge like R&M but I am definitely liking it more after seeing the first few episodes and I think that it is a good addition to [as]. 

In regards to the numbers, I do not see the prank as having much if anything to do with them considering that [as] does not advertise the prank, so most people that tune in for it are probably [as]/Toonami viewers already, so they are probably viewing either way. I could be wrong about that though. To me it just seems that the numbers have been moderately recently. 

Will be interesting to see where they go after MHA ends, depending on what they replace it with. 

[Toonamiguy321]

4 hours ago, atomicinumatt said:

I will admit that during the prank airing of Royal Crackers I was a bit underwhelmed but after watching subsequent episodes Sunday, I was a bit surprised to find myself liking it a bit more. It is nothing groundbreaking but I found it funny and saw myself laughing out loud a bit. For some reason it sort of gave me vague Frisky Dingo vibes (one of my favorites!). I will still have to watch further premieres to really get a gauge on whether it will stand up, and as of now I do not think it is going to be anything huge like R&M but I am definitely liking it more after seeing the first few episodes and I think that it is a good addition to [as]. 

In regards to the numbers, I do not see the prank as having much if anything to do with them considering that [as] does not advertise the prank, so most people that tune in for it are probably [as]/Toonami viewers already, so they are probably viewing either way. I could be wrong about that though. To me it just seems that the numbers have been moderately recently. 

Will be interesting to see where they go after MHA ends, depending on what they replace it with. 

Honestly, the chunk of episode they chose for the prank wasn’t great. Kinda a slow start to set up the cast. Necessary, but not a great teaser. I enjoyed the rest and had a few laughs in each episode. It’s a show I’ll remember to catch on Sundays. I think AS is putting too much burden on its shoulders, they seem to expect it to stand hand in hand with Fox content right out of the gate, which is just unreasonable. 

Given some time, I think at the very least Theo will go down as one of the networks more amusing characters. 
 

As for the ratings, I just believe the potential for a prank may have lured some lapsed viewers back for the night. Nothing groundbreaking, especially since we saw comparable numbers about a month ago, but definitely some non regular traffic. The fact that it’s not advertised is the reason for that. You gotta be there to catch an AS prank. They may have advertised one, but you just can never be sure if that second one is coming. 

And hey, we did end up getting a little nod to 2012, so if you turned out you got something. You could even argue that the fact that they chose a clip that prominently displays Toriko for the little montage could be tiny prank of its own. 

[atomicinumatt]

21 hours ago, Toonamiguy321 said:

Honestly, the chunk of episode they chose for the prank wasn’t great. Kinda a slow start to set up the cast. Necessary, but not a great teaser. I enjoyed the rest and had a few laughs in each episode. It’s a show I’ll remember to catch on Sundays. I think AS is putting too much burden on its shoulders, they seem to expect it to stand hand in hand with Fox content right out of the gate, which is just unreasonable. 

Given some time, I think at the very least Theo will go down as one of the networks more amusing characters. 
 

As for the ratings, I just believe the potential for a prank may have lured some lapsed viewers back for the night. Nothing groundbreaking, especially since we saw comparable numbers about a month ago, but definitely some non regular traffic. The fact that it’s not advertised is the reason for that. You gotta be there to catch an AS prank. They may have advertised one, but you just can never be sure if that second one is coming. 

And hey, we did end up getting a little nod to 2012, so if you turned out you got something. You could even argue that the fact that they chose a clip that prominently displays Toriko for the little montage could be tiny prank of its own. 

[as] definitely should not try to compete with Fox IMO, they just seem more niche to me. Some of my favorite [as] comedy shows are the ones that I guess are less successful like Frisky Dingo and Stroker and Hoop and others anyways.  

Theo is probably my favorite character in Royal Crackers so far and he shares his name with my cat. Like I said, I will have to watch more episodes to really get a strong opinion on the show. But it certainly exceeded my expectations after first viewing it on the prank night. I will be tuning in for it on Sundays as well. 

The other shows they premiered during the prank were meh to me. I did think it was cool that Tom and Sara acknowledged that Toonami was brought back as a prank like 11 years ago haha

still, my favorite Toonami/[as] Action prank was probably when they dubbed fart noises over all the action shows for that night like GitS and FMA back in like 2006 lmao I was like 18 and thought it was absolutely hilarious! 

[Toonamiguy321]

36 minutes ago, atomicinumatt said:

still, my favorite Toonami/[as] Action prank was probably when they dubbed fart noises over all the action shows for that night like GitS and FMA back in like 2006 lmao I was like 18 and thought it was absolutely hilarious! 

I don’t think any others compete. Sure, from an effort standpoint, 2012 and 2018 are by far the best. But neither of those were really haha pranks. The farts was just pure comedy gold, and there was no telling when the next one was coming. Some of the ones in FMA had me gasping for air. 

[OwlChemist81]

I forgot to post this, but we actually DID get to see how the April Fool's prank did this year, or at least a glimpse thereof:

https://showbuzzdaily.com/articles/showbuzzdailys-friday-3-31-2023-top-150-cable-originals-network-finals.html

Spoiler

On a par with a decent Toonami night. Ambient Swim got a 130K and a 0.06 at 1:30 AM.

NOW back to the present time, or at least the immediate past, and the only word to describe Toonami's ratings last week is "meh", as Toonami was effectively KO'd by the 1-2-punch of UFC and Top Rank Boxing:

https://showbuzzdaily.com/articles/showbuzzdailys-saturday-4-8-2023-top-150-cable-originals-network-finals.html

Spoiler

Food Wars! 5th Plate is the only premiere not to make the Top 50 this week, as well it is the first in 2023 not to crack 100K, just barely falling short at 99K. However, it did at least manage a 0.06 in 18-49.

Last but certainly not least, Royal Crackers' 4th episode failed to beat its spiritual forerunner Succession, and MHA at Midnight Saturday had the head-to-head advantage over it despite it being on an hour earlier on a "better" night:

https://showbuzzdaily.com/articles/showbuzzdailys-sunday-4-9-2023-top-150-cable-originals-network-finals.html

Spoiler

MHA's first episode tied or beat Crackers in every demographic category, which begs the question as to why Toonami doesn't begin at 11...

[Toonamiguy321]

3 hours ago, OwlChemist81 said:

Food Wars! 5th Plate is the only premiere not to make the Top 50 this week, as well it is the first in 2023 not to crack 100K, just barely falling short at 99K. However, it did at least manage a 0.06 in 18-49.

Had a good laugh at that Food Wars crater as we enter the meat of why this season is considered so terrible. It’s pretty rare to see a middle of the block show crash like that with a big recovery into the rest of the night. 
 

3 hours ago, OwlChemist81 said:

MHA's first episode tied or beat Crackers in every demographic category, which begs the question as to why Toonami doesn't begin at 11...

We have a big schedule shift coming up soon, and with AS grabbing another hour at the same time, I’m really pulling hard for the block to shift to 11-2. If AS thinks lead slot reruns are a good choice for the block, I’d like to see them put some skin in the game by putting the block at 11. If things nosedive, maybe get us some new shows instead of Genndy’s sloppy seconds. 

[OwlChemist81]

I'm hoping for 11-3 still. Maybe an MHA Season 6 reruns power hour from 2-3?

[Sketch]

I don’t think we’ll get 11pm on May 6th unless they just shift up the 3 hours but may-be on May 27th in time for the 11th anniversary of the 2012 relaunch. DeMarco did say he was going to be most proud of that anniversary.

If they expand on May 27th that’s probably when they start FLCL Grunge though I won’t rule out May 13th entirely because other originals have had less than a month of promotion but I’m leaning toward Grunge starting on that anniversary. But if it does start on May 13th they can run that till June 17th and maybe double up Unicorn for the finale so it finishes on June 24th and both series end before July 1st. Or on July 1st they finish UWE followed by a movie or a marathon.

Here’s hoping for a good acquisition to take the 2nd slot on May 13th. It might even be Dr. Stone (hopefully starting with the TV special) as that will put it about a month behind the dub of season 3 if they ran the special on May 13th and start season 3 on May 20th (the dub starts on April 20th). It’s a more reasonable expectation that it could replace Food Wars or Grunge but who knows what they can pull off at this point?

Since Superman is pegged for Summer, I fully expect it to replace Unicorn in July. If it’s 13 episodes, that should get them to October for Uzumaki and November for FLCL Shoegaze.

If they don’t shift up they can pretty comfortably get by without Bleach thanks to Unicorn and Superman but if they shift up and especially if they expand, they had best have Bleach on deck by July.

I also strongly suspect they’ll run Justice League: Flashpoint in June to promote The Flash.

[Toonamiguy321]

5 hours ago, OwlChemist81 said:

I'm hoping for 11-3 still. Maybe an MHA Season 6 reruns power hour from 2-3?

I just don’t see a point in adding extra time when they are still struggling to just fill the time we have. We still don’t have a replacement for a show that ended in February, and we have a seemingly permanent loop of a rerun in the last slot. 
 

A bump to 11-2 benefits the entire block by getting every show to a more reasonable hour. Let’s start there, see if we can do better with the 3 hours we have, and if that goes well and if they have the budget for it, add more time.

[Sketch]

I do think part of the reason they rushed through  about half of this MHA season was so they could rerun it.

They can also rerun Titan and it would make sense to do so after the first special airs.

But I’m not watching reruns after Shippuden regardless.

[Jman]

Creature Commandos was just cast.

Is this worth asking for on Toonami given that it’s part of the new James Gunn DC Universe? I think it would fit better than My Adventures with Superman.

[OwlChemist81]

3 hours ago, Sketch said:

I do think part of the reason they rushed through  about half of this MHA season was so they could rerun it.

They can also rerun Titan and it would make sense to do so after the first special airs.

But I’m not watching reruns after Shippuden regardless.

Attack On Titan needs a WEEKNIGHT rerun from the beginning, capped off with the special on the Friday before the grand finale airs that Saturday on Toonami!!

Of course, first we need the special to actually air ON Toonami...

[Toonamiguy321]

4 hours ago, Sketch said:

I do think part of the reason they rushed through  about half of this MHA season was so they could rerun it.

They can also rerun Titan and it would make sense to do so after the first special airs.

But I’m not watching reruns after Shippuden regardless.

Seems kind of boneheaded if that’s the case. As much as we bemoan Primal reruns, I don’t think swapping in a different rerun would really change anything performance wise. Dropping their most powerful lead slot asset nearly 2 months early just to do a rerun no one will care about isn’t a good use of their limited resources. 
 

1 hour ago, OwlChemist81 said:

Attack On Titan needs a WEEKNIGHT rerun from the beginning, capped off with the special on the Friday before the grand finale airs that Saturday on Toonami!!

Of course, first we need the special to actually air ON Toonami...

Titan mania ended quite a few years ago. I can’t see there being much of a weeknight audience for that, for like 80 straight weeknights. It’s novel to watch things once a week on Toonami, it gets much harder to sell vs streaming when you ask people to dedicate daily time to something. 

[OwlChemist81]

Toonami's latest lineup did pretty middling, but all 4 premieres DID make the Top 50:

https://showbuzzdaily.com/articles/showbuzzdailys-saturday-4-15-2023-top-150-cable-originals-network-finals.html

Spoiler

Something needs to get more eyeballs on [as]. I doubt it's KOTH, but the NBA Playoffs are tough to compete against!

[Sketch]

One Piece won the night in 18-49 and MHA lost to Food Wars in 18-49 (but did better in some demos). Safe to say promoting the premiere for midnight but airing it at 12:30am caused confusion. Food Wars is a healthy distance away from the 5 digit club this week thankfully.

[OwlChemist81]

Possibly the last time it makes any sense for me to post the full grid:

https://showbuzzdaily.com/articles/showbuzzdailys-saturday-4-22-2023-top-150-cable-originals-network-finals.html

Spoiler

I guess starting next week, we'll see what the 6-hour lead-in of KOTH (×4), R&M (×3), American Dad (×3), and Primal (×2) can do for Food Wars??

Oh right. One more week.

[OwlChemist81]

Color me surprised!

https://showbuzzdaily.com/articles/showbuzzdailys-saturday-4-29-2023-top-150-cable-originals-network-finals.html

Spoiler

Yep, I actually DO get to post the grid, since OP and N:S managed to escape from the prehistoric run-to-near-extinction abyss that was the midnight hour of Primal, and it seems reairing the same episode people saw just 23 hours prior at 12:30 didn't do Food Wars! any favors, as it checked in at #55 with a mere 0.06 in 18-49 and 140K total viewers.

An interesting note: comparing the #41 slotted USFL game (which I attended in person) on this chart and in the companion Skedball chart below...

https://showbuzzdaily.com/articles/skedball-weekly-sports-tv-ratings-4-24-4-30-2023.html

...we know that a 0.08 in 18-49 translates to approximately 100K viewers in that demographic. This means OP and N:S still got 80-85 thousand viewers 18-49 even in these dark times.

[Jman]

Primal finally heads out next week as Unicorn Warriors Eternal has its first of several encores (including one on regular Cartoon Network after ACME night!).  Let’s see if it takes.

[Toonamiguy321]

Pretty disappointed in the fanbase this week. This should have been with no argument, one of the worst performing nights in the blocks history. That was our ticket to getting AS to course correct. But people insisted on tuning in, and now AS has even more justification for loading the block up on reruns because they know people will show up regardless, so why spend money on anything new?

[Jman]

Meanwhile, Demon Slayer Entertainment District Arc is rounding out the top 10 on Netflix, which to me is a surefire sign of a divide between the casual fans of the series and the more hardcore ones who have Crunchyroll.  
 

Unicorn is likely Toonami’s big bet to get some positive movement for the block going again.  It’s a shame that it has a few things working against it, airing elsewhere before (which to be fair is a potential issue with everything on Toonami), and being a kids show without blood or sexual content.  Toonami has been a proud action, not anime block since forever, so I don’t think the issue is country of origin so much as the mistaken assumption about maturity.

[Toonamiguy321]

4 hours ago, Jman said:

Toonami has been a proud action, not anime block since forever, so I don’t think the issue is country of origin so much as the mistaken assumption about maturity.

No matter how many times people parrot this, it will never change the general audience opinion that Toonami SHOULD be anime only in its current iteration. The fact this is constantly repeated just goes to show how often people demand anime exclusivity. And is that really so much to ask for? Especially seeing AS is more than willing to give western action content time on their normal schedule. I could see the argument if Toonami was premiering any of this stuff, but they arent. 
 

“B-b-but Primal reruns mogged Housing Complex C premiers last year!”

Im not suggesting any ol anime is gonna get the job done here, but if these western reruns are stacked up against some actual decent anime, they don’t stand a chance viewership wise. MHA easily got the drop on the Primal reruns. I’m not a betting man, but even I would put money down that an above average Sentai title at midnight would easily throw down better numbers than Primal or UWE. Now, if they were premiers, that might be a different story. But they aren’t, because Genndy has an ego to feed.

[Jman]

1 hour ago, Toonamiguy321 said:

No matter how many times people parrot this, it will never change the general audience opinion that Toonami SHOULD be anime only in its current iteration. The fact this is constantly repeated just goes to show how often people demand anime exclusivity. And is that really so much to ask for? Especially seeing AS is more than willing to give western action content time on their normal schedule. I could see the argument if Toonami was premiering any of this stuff, but they arent. 
 

“B-b-but Primal reruns mogged Housing Complex C premiers last year!”

Im not suggesting any ol anime is gonna get the job done here, but if these western reruns are stacked up against some actual decent anime, they don’t stand a chance viewership wise. MHA easily got the drop on the Primal reruns. I’m not a betting man, but even I would put money down that an above average Sentai title at midnight would easily throw down better numbers than Primal or UWE. Now, if they were premiers, that might be a different story. But they aren’t, because Genndy has an ego to feed.

I’m of the personal opinion that if Unicorn and Hell’s Paradise were in next to each other, Hell’s Paradise would pull decent numbers and Unicorn would tank.  If you put the two of them on Netflix, Hell’s Paradise would hit the top 10 and Unicorn would be buried.  But it’s not a perfect world.  They don’t have access to any new shows from this or last season.  So they air Unicorn, and it being the star of the show, it should do just fine even as an encore.

Demon Slayer’s continued Netflix success shows a hunger for action animation Toonami has to fill with Unicorn and Primal, because that’s what they have to work with.

Edited May 3, 2023 by Jman

[Toonamiguy321]

2 hours ago, Jman said:

Demon Slayer’s continued Netflix success shows a hunger for action animation Toonami has to fill with Unicorn and Primal, because that’s what they have to work with.

The question to ask is, are they allowing these hand me downs to make them complacent in securing anime? They shouldn’t have issues getting stuff from Sentai or Viz, but rather than take a risk on any show they have, they are content to coast on these reruns and pray in 10-20 weeks a sequel series is ready to take their shot at.

[Jman]

10 hours ago, Toonamiguy321 said:

The question to ask is, are they allowing these hand me downs to make them complacent in securing anime? They shouldn’t have issues getting stuff from Sentai or Viz, but rather than take a risk on any show they have, they are content to coast on these reruns and pray in 10-20 weeks a sequel series is ready to take their shot at.

Well the ratings this week not being the worst ever shows that there is a portion of the audience that is so dedicated to Toonami or just without anything else to do that they will tune in regardless of what is on.  If you’re getting max 300k regardless of what’s on, is it necessary to spend the cash?

[CountFrylock]

2 hours ago, Jman said:

Well the ratings this week not being the worst ever shows that there is a portion of the audience that is so dedicated to Toonami or just without anything else to do that they will tune in regardless of what is on.  If you’re getting max 300k regardless of what’s on, is it necessary to spend the cash?

Given How Nielsen Ratings Work I Wouldn't go assuming these are dedicated toonami fans and more likely just people channel surfing with nothing else to do

few people in the toonami fanbase have even seen a Nielsen box

I've Never Seen one or known anybody whose had one at all

 

Edited May 3, 2023 by CountFrylock

[Toonamiguy321]

8 hours ago, Jman said:

Well the ratings this week not being the worst ever shows that there is a portion of the audience that is so dedicated to Toonami or just without anything else to do that they will tune in regardless of what is on.  If you’re getting max 300k regardless of what’s on, is it necessary to spend the cash?

On average, MHA premiers have been doing better than Royal Crackers premiers. Ideally, relying on acquired content isn’t the best path, but if it works and they don’t have anything else going on, may as well throw a few bones to the block to keep doing what it’s doing.

 

 

[brianycpht]

17 hours ago, Jman said:

Well the ratings this week not being the worst ever shows that there is a portion of the audience that is so dedicated to Toonami or just without anything else to do that they will tune in regardless of what is on.  If you’re getting max 300k regardless of what’s on, is it necessary to spend the cash?

Despite the general fanbase bemoaning Primal reruns starting out the block, people were live tweeting it. Of course, the big Toonami fan sites were tweeting along as the episode aired as usual, but several were also doing low effort tweets (“I wish I had a dinosaur!” “Good one Spear” “lol typical Fang”) which seemed to be this thing people do to get all Toonami shows trending. Or these are people who just love to watch this show which will vindicate the network in this choice. Of course, if you want to see the show gone, don’t feel obligated to give it any extra attention or it’ll be back for another go round next time. 

[OwlChemist81]

Unicorn Warriors Eternal did pretty good:

https://showbuzzdaily.com/articles/showbuzzdailys-thursday-5-4-2023-top-150-cable-originals-network-finals.html

Spoiler

Well over 100K 18-49, and I believe that's the benchmark for success these days. Beat everything that isn't sports or Jersey Shore. Beat the crap out of step-sister network Discovery's BattleBots in that demo for sure!

[Sketch]

A bit of a drop from ep 1 to ep 2 but overall a fine performance. We’ll see if it keeps that up.

[Toonamiguy321]

5 hours ago, OwlChemist81 said:

Unicorn Warriors Eternal did pretty good:

https://showbuzzdaily.com/articles/showbuzzdailys-thursday-5-4-2023-top-150-cable-originals-network-finals.html

  Reveal hidden contents

Well over 100K 18-49, and I believe that's the benchmark for success these days. Beat everything that isn't sports or Jersey Shore. Beat the crap out of step-sister network Discovery's BattleBots in that demo for sure!

I definitely think it’s facing the same issue Primal S2 had and is being held back by a strange timeslot for a premier. If that was premiering on Toonami I think we could have scratched the 300k mark. But, two top 50 slots is nothing to sneeze at, it’s just a shame it can’t be a success shared with Toonami.

[OwlChemist81]

Sometimes I forget we DO actually have a source for rerun ratings even though ShowBuzz ain't providing them anymore, so let's take a look back and see if MHA and/or Primal made it these last 3 weeks:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Pp2JTXw6GBszksBUaWE-qM9O0B-azpC97ShLElWMBoU/pubhtml?headers=false#

I'm not surprised MHA Season 6's 3rd-to-last episode encore at Midnight on 4/15/23 didn't make the Top 200 for the week. The cutoff was 0.113 in 18-49 and the 12:30 premiere episode only managed a 0.08.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Pp2JTXw6GBszksBUaWE-qM9O0B-azpC97ShLElWMBoU/pubhtml?headers=false#

Similarly, the lead-in to a 0.07 MHA Season 6 Finale on 4/22/23 didn't stand a chance against that week's Top 200, as its cut-off was 0.110.

Something interesting DID happen on 4/29/2023 though:

https://www.spoilertv.com/2023/03/top-200-cable-reruns-week-ending-26th_01243089880.html

Primal missed the boat, but the episode of American Dad that led-into it DID make the Top 200. Were viewers somehow expecting something new and were then sorely disappointed, or do they just like American Dad that much more than Toonami? It seems a pretty strong rebuke of ANOTHER rerun of Season 2 of Primal when AD scored a 0.123 with 18-49 at 11:30 but Primal couldn't even muster a 0.113.

The biggest question on my mind, however, is "will Unicorn Warriors Eternal threepeats on Toonami be able to turn the tide?" And will the amply exposed show be able to hit the Weekly Top 200 Reruns in their pre-prime time Friday Night and ACME Sunday Night timeslots?

[brianycpht]

5 minutes ago, OwlChemist81 said:

Sometimes I forget we DO actually have a source for rerun ratings even though ShowBuzz ain't providing them anymore, so let's take a look back and see if MHA and/or Primal made it these last 3 weeks:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Pp2JTXw6GBszksBUaWE-qM9O0B-azpC97ShLElWMBoU/pubhtml?headers=false#

I'm not surprised MHA Season 6's 3rd-to-last episode encore at Midnight didn't make the Top 200 on 4/15/23. The cutoff was 0.113 in 18-49 and the 12:30 premiere episode only managed a 0.08.

I’m bookmarking that page. It’s really interesting to see how low these numbers are now days 

[OwlChemist81]

Well, 3-peats of Unicorn Warriors Eternal didn't completely trash Toonami's ratings after all:

https://showbuzzdaily.com/articles/showbuzzdailys-saturday-5-6-2023-top-150-cable-originals-network-finals.html

Spoiler

You'd think I would be used to Food Wars being the lead premiere by now, but I just can't get used to it. Oddly enough, unlike last week, where it missed the Top 50 and OP and N:S made it, this week it landed in the Top 50 and the other 2 premieres didn't. Plus, it beat the Coronation on Fox News, so that's something, right?

Toonami's continued strength is probably due to all that Big Dad Energy at 10PM-12AM flowing into it, but we'll find out for sure in a few days!

[Jman]

Looks like the UFC dominated the night but reruns are reruns.  I guess we’ll see if Unicorn’s rerun heavy strategy builds an audience or if adults aren’t interested in a family friendly action cartoon.

[OwlChemist81]

Really, without the Coronation of King Charles, One Piece probably would have made it to the Top 50 this week. Six slots went to the British monarch's crowning, landing One Piece at #54.

[OwlChemist81]

Alright, time to see how ratings were last week, starting with UWE's Thursday premiere:

https://showbuzzdaily.com/articles/showbuzzdailys-thursday-5-11-2023-top-150-cable-originals-network-finals.html

Spoiler

Not too bad, I guess. Beat Battlebots, but NBA crushes everything!

As for Saturday, hey, not too shabby!!

https://showbuzzdaily.com/articles/showbuzzdailys-saturday-5-13-2023-top-150-cable-originals-network-finals.html

Spoiler

Good on ya, Food Wars!, for making the Top 20, and One Piece and Shippuden both also made the Top 30, which is quite uncommon. I am confident we'll see the Midnight Hour place in the Weekly Top 200 Reruns provided by SpoilerTV when that chart comes out.

On that note, here's the week before last's Reruns Top 200 (5/1-5/7):

https://www.spoilertv.com/2023/03/top-200-cable-reruns-week-ending-26th_01243089880.html

Only the first UWE on Toonami made it, checking in at #172 with a 0.105 in 18-49 and 208K total viewers. Don't know if that's such a victory when the American Dad hour that led into it claimed #21 and #22 with an average of 0.1595 in 18-49 and 283,500 total viewers, and this past weekend's lineup was fueled by 2 solid hours of Big Dad Energy...

[Sketch]

Not a bad night at all. Unicorn surely exceeded 200k and 0.12 18-49 on Saturday (Primal as well) beating the Thursday airing soundly. Unless somehow Food Wars beat those reruns and boy that would be something.

Unicorn’s drop from American Dad wasn’t great last week. American Dad probably did some heavy lifting this week as well.

[DangerMouse]

On 4/5/2023 at 5:30 PM, atomicinumatt said:

still, my favorite Toonami/[as] Action prank was probably when they dubbed fart noises over all the action shows for that night like GitS and FMA back in like 2006 lmao I was like 18 and thought it was absolutely hilarious! 

LOL, I still remember that.

[Jman]

The NBA is going to hit Saturday hard.  Unicorn seems on the bubble right now, its success will be determined at month’s end.  Good thing American Dad is still there.

Edited May 17, 2023 by Jman

[DangerMouse]

Happened to open my tab for toonamiaftermath and now randomly watching Gundam Wing. Goddamn it's been too long. Need to break out those blu-rays this summer.

[OwlChemist81]

13 hours ago, Jman said:

The NBA is going to hit Saturday hard.  Unicorn seems on the bubble right now, its success will be determined at month’s end.  Good thing American Dad is still there.

I wouldn't be so sure of that. Toonami still did decently on 4/30 and 5/6 despite NBA Playoffs both nights, and if one of the teams can get to 4 wins early, 5/27 may not even be affected.

American Dad is definitely doing the heavy lifting, though. It seems to provide a better lead-in to Toonami than Rick & Morty.

[atomicinumatt]

22 hours ago, DangerMouse said:

LOL, I still remember that.

Such a classic haha

 

Edited May 18, 2023 by atomicinumatt

[OwlChemist81]

And there you have it!!

https://www.spoilertv.com/2023/03/top-200-cable-reruns-week-ending-26th_01243089880.html

Unicorn: Warriors Eternal on Toonami checked in at #38 for the WEEK, the highest-charting Toonami rerun we've had in a while. That's also when I just happened to be watching it amongst all the other possible times. Primal made the list too, at #124, but unfortunately not MHA nor any other airings of UWE. It would be nice to see a show at 7 or 7:30 PM on [as] chart, but that may not happen for a while, and when it does, it might be King Of The Hill.

https://www.spoilertv.com/2023/03/top-400-cable-shows-week-ending-26th_01602488462.html

Meanwhile, Toonami shows did very well in the Top Cable Shows of the week, with Food Wars leading the charge at #33, and it and One Piece even besting UWE's Thursday premiere.

[Sketch]

Oh I just love having all these data points to compare!

Thursday Unicorn premiere 0.09 18-49 / 187k TV after a Rick & Morty 0.14 18-49 / 268k TV (7th highest Rick & Morty reruns with 18-49 which was the 48th highest cable rerun that week with 18-49)

Saturday Unicorn encore 0.14 18-49 / 276k TV after an American Dad 0.20 18-49 / 356k TV (2nd highest American Dad rerun with 18-49 which was the 10th highest cable rerun that week with 18-49)

And the number one American Dad that week was the 11pm Saturday airing that got 0.22 18-49 and 440k total viewers which was also the 5th highest cable rerun with 18-49.

Seems like that week, Saturday was probably the best performing night of Adult Swim and it was mostly thanks to American Dad. That was a sizable improvement for American Dad from the prior Saturday as well so who could say why they did so much better. That week the best performing American Dad and Rick & Morty were on Thursday before the 1 hour premiere of Unicorn.

So we can see that Unicorn lost about 0.05 18-49 from Rick on week 2 and about 0.06 from a unusually high Stan on week 2.

Doesn't look like Unicorn is going to beat it's lead-ins at this rate or even get in a loss range below 70k but I wonder how the premiere of episode 3 could have done on Saturday after American Dad. Maybe 300k and 0.16 with 18-49?

All that said, Unicorn is doing well on Toonami but Stan is giving it quite a lift and if American Dad keeps doing some of its best numbers in the 11pm hour on Saturday then the network will see no reason to move Toonami to 11pm.

[OwlChemist81]

Unicorn Warriors: Eternal kinda flopped on Thursday:

https://showbuzzdaily.com/articles/showbuzzdailys-thursday-5-18-2023-top-150-cable-originals-network-finals.html

Spoiler

...but it seems it may have done better than on Saturday just before Primal sunsetted on Toonami, unless Primal really tanked the ratings, because even though all 3 premieres made it, they're down considerably:

https://showbuzzdaily.com/articles/showbuzzdailys-saturday-5-20-2023-top-150-cable-originals-network-finals.html

Spoiler

We'll see Thursday how the Reruns did...or will we?

[Jman]

Here’s an interesting question - Are low ratings for UWE due to a disinterested audience or because the show is on at numerous times, including next day Max airings?  As easy as it is to lay into the show for what I perceive to be its audience issues, it’s airing on Thursday, Saturday, Sunday after ACME hour, with a next day Max premiere and planned marathons.  That results in a lot of potential audience dilution even if it’s not the nonstop airings of TT Go and Craig of the Creek.

Edited May 23, 2023 by Jman

[OwlChemist81]

Good question! So far I've only seen results from 2 Saturdays, and none of the Sundays or Fridays, so I couldn't tell you.

What I find most interesting is the American Dad that was #5 for the week of 5/8-5/14 was an episode from Season 14 in 2019. The previous episode was actually newer (Season 16, 2021). How do you explain that?

[Toonamiguy321]

1 hour ago, Jman said:

Here’s an interesting question - Are low ratings for UWE due to a disinterested audience or because the show is on at numerous times, including next day Max airings?  As easy as it is to lay into the show for what I perceive to be its audience issues, it’s airing on Thursday, Saturday, Sunday after ACME hour, with a next day Max premiere and planned marathons.  That results in a lot of potential audience dilution even if it’s not the nonstop airings of TT Go and Craig of the Creek.

I think it’s two things

1. Thursday is a straight doodoo time to premier anything at midnight. People are tired from work and probably gotta go to work in the morning. Genndy’s hateboner for Toonami really harms his own projects. 
 

2. Overexposure. It doesn’t matter how good or popular a show is, beating people over the head with it breeds fatigue as well as apathy. UWE isn’t popular enough to see rampant spoilers, so people see no urgency to show for the premier. If Thursday is no good, catch it Friday. Toonami fan? Just watch it during the block you are going to be there to watch regardless. Or, tune in to one of the multiple marathons sure to happen. Too many options fragments ratings, though AS may like that if they don’t value one high performing premier slot over multiple mediocre rerun slots. 

[OwlChemist81]

4 hours ago, OwlChemist81 said:

Unicorn Warriors: Eternal kinda flopped on Thursday:

https://showbuzzdaily.com/articles/showbuzzdailys-thursday-5-18-2023-top-150-cable-originals-network-finals.html

  Reveal hidden contents

...but it seems it may have done better than on Saturday just before Primal sunsetted on Toonami, unless Primal really tanked the ratings, because even though all 3 premieres made it, they're down considerably:

https://showbuzzdaily.com/articles/showbuzzdailys-saturday-5-20-2023-top-150-cable-originals-network-finals.html

  Reveal hidden contents

We'll see Thursday how the Reruns did...or will we?

One thing I just noticed: both Food Wars! and One Piece actually beat the USFL on USA in 18-49! 🤣

[Jman]

15 hours ago, Toonamiguy321 said:

I think it’s two things

1. Thursday is a straight doodoo time to premier anything at midnight. People are tired from work and probably gotta go to work in the morning. Genndy’s hateboner for Toonami really harms his own projects. 
 

2. Overexposure. It doesn’t matter how good or popular a show is, beating people over the head with it breeds fatigue as well as apathy. UWE isn’t popular enough to see rampant spoilers, so people see no urgency to show for the premier. If Thursday is no good, catch it Friday. Toonami fan? Just watch it during the block you are going to be there to watch regardless. Or, tune in to one of the multiple marathons sure to happen. Too many options fragments ratings, though AS may like that if they don’t value one high performing premier slot over multiple mediocre rerun slots. 

The overexposure coincides with the show having low replay value.  Not a quality issue, but just the nature of it being a serialized action cartoon with only four episodes, and one airing in a lot of other places.  You see it once, you don't need to see it again till next week.

We're a little less than halfway through the 10 episode series run, so overall impression from the audience is a bit too early to decipher.  Not to mention this a pretty big case of "Eat your fucking vegetables weeb", because Unicorn is unlike a lot of the modern Western silly billy cartoons, or cartoons that claim to be from people who want action, but the showrunners can't remember a single anime scene outside of some vague memories of DBZ or Sailor Moon that wasn't in the Michael Jackson "Scream" video.  Would audiences be more likely to watch Demon Slayer or Witch from Mercury?  Yes, but we need Unicorn to show the suits you can make an action cartoon for all ages without the DC Comics characters.