Cartoon Network Things

Taking a small break from Cartoon Network to post a throwback Boomerang schedule from the early 2010s. I specifically chose this era for mainly two reasons:

It's Nostalgic

It's a lot easier to find accurate archived listings from the 2010s than it is for the 2000s (at least from my experience)

Anyway, the first thing you'll have noticed by now (if you're aware of the main channel's state at that time) is how many more shows are actually on compared to Cartoon Network UK's. Sure, it's not exactly good, but it's somewhat better I suppose.

Another noticeable difference is the presence of a Cartoonito weekdays block running between 9am and 12pm. I don't even know the thought process behind this one. Why was Cartoonito on Boomerang when they already had a channel of their own? Besides, it's not like Boomerang's ratings at the time were doing badly, so what's the deal? It just seems odd to me. Thankfully, this didn't last very long, and was probably discontinued very shortly the following year (or the year after idk).

As for programming, we have a decent number of shows that were on that week. A little disappointing (as a fan) to see only one weekday evening slot for OG Looney Tunes, and also very weird seeing fewer Tom & Jerry airings (both Tales and the Theatrical shorts), as I recall seeing them on-air a lot more often later that same decade. I've also noticed that rather than endless airings of Scooby-Doo/Tom & Jerry, Boomerang UK REALLY LOVED The Garfield Show for some reason. I mean, the show alone took up A THIRD of the late-night slots, as well as constant marathons and special events as you can clearly see from the chart itself. Aside from that however, we do have a decent mix of both old and new shows, though the balance may have been a little off (still better than what we have today). Most of the remaining Hanna Barbera classics (apart from Scooby-Doo and Tom & Jerry) were relegated to graveyard slots (between 4am and 6am), and if you wanted to watch them but didn't have access to a working DVR, you very much had to either wake up extremely early, pull an all-nighter (NOT IDEAL) or just give up.

And for those wondering, yes, this is where Skatoony & Cramp Twins moved to after being pulled from the main network. They were also being shown on CN Too if I remember correctly. Not the best use of their overnight slots if I'm being honest. And just to quickly clear things up, "Casper (2009)" is referring to the show Casper's Scare School, which was a CGI cartoon that had a 3 YEAR GAP between seasons 1 and 2.

This is the most recent schedule I’ve done if you couldn’t tell by the date at the top. It’s also one of the worst I’ve seen. Like, I know CN UK has a history with bad, inconsistent schedules, but my god, this is literally one of the worst I’ve seen in the channel’s history. And I only checked it out to see if they’ve improved somewhat (they didn’t). Last time I checked, they only had Gumball and Teen Titans Go, so ig this is a small improvement. Still sucks tho.

The most notable thing about this schedule is the insane amount of Gumball that’s being aired. I understand that Gumball is a british show but good lord this is certainly overdoing it! This has been a growing problem for about 7 years now (yes it’s rlly been that long!) and unsurprisingly it’s gotten so much worse, especially with the lack of new programming coming through compared to a few years ago.

While it is cool to see them rerunning Regular Show & Adventure Time next to each other (like they occasionally did with Ed Edd n Eddy and Billy & Mandy in the 2010s), it’s weird how they never seem to fully utilise the rest of their library that’s currently available to them. Craig of the Creek, while scheduled to end this year, has a wide range of episodes available, and yet, not a single rerun in sight. A similar case can be made with We Baby Bears, though that show doesn’t have nearly as many episodes produced. I’m also surprised to see Ninjago still on, though that series has always been on and off with CN lately, and iirc it may be on its final season??? And I don’t even know what a Lego DreamZzz is to be honest with you 😭

Another thing you may have noticed is the lacklustre late-night schedule. Simply put, it has been reduced to literally 8 NON-STOP HOURS of Gumball, plus an hour of Ivandoe at 5am. That’s it. That’s the night schedule. And also, no more Ben 10 2016 as that’s been replaced by Ivandoe, as I already mentioned. That show for whatever reason occupied that same early-morning slot for so many years until now. It’s crazy to think about.