That those two new shows both originate from corporate sibling Warner Bros. Animation demonstrates the programming synergy Time Warner can bring to its kid-directed efforts. Titans is a co-development, co-production deal with the media giant’s best known animation outlet, Cartoon Network. The series premiered as a high-profile original on the cable channel then enjoyed a second window on Kids’ WB!, a playoff pattern that was reversed for the new Scooby-Doo series. It’s an arrangement that’s worked well for both networks, with Hardman looking to co-develop at least one series a year with Cartoon Network from the WB Animation studio.

A second batch of KWB shows — Yu-Gi-Oh!, Jackie Chan and others — run on Cartoon Network via a sub-licensing arrangement. The advantages in cross-promotion and amortizing production costs are obvious, and while the shows air concurrently on both nets, all involved make sure it’s never in the same timeslot. In fact, according to Hardman, “Cartoon Network counter-programs when they’re up against us in the exact same time periods. They go after a different audience and that way we don’t cannibalize each other.”

Of course, having a daily afternoon kids block that helps deliver kids to Saturday morning, while not having to deal with the FCC’s weekly three-hour educational programming requirement (a responsibility assumed by the channel’s local affiliates) help as well. Kids’ WB! holds the number-one position over all its competition in attracting boys 6-11, tweens (9-14) and male tweens. In the smaller broadcast universe, KWB is also number one with kids 2-11, boys 2-11 and kids 6-11. The network dominates the Saturday morning top 10 show lists for boys 6-11, overall tweens, and claims the top 11 slots for male tweens.

The first anime TV star in the U.S., Astro Boy, has returned with new adventures. Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Television. © Sony Pictures Television.

It’s a lofty perch, one that Hardman intends to hold onto in ‘04 with a barrage of new programming. This month has already seen the relaunch of Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy, the beloved grandfather of all anime series. It’s an acquisition from Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan, and KWB plans to air 25 episodes in the show’s first season. If kids can absorb the show’s complex backstory (and if their parents and older animation fans tune in out of childhood nostalgia) Astro Boy could shape up as a major attention-getter.

The inner-city superhero series Static Shock also returned for its fourth season in January. “It’s a show we love here in Programming,” says Hardman, “and it’s grown every single year since it premiered in 2000.” The channel also has 26 episodes of the within-the-Internet adventure, MegaMan: NT Warrior, on hand. Hardman enthuses that “we’re going to have a lot of original programming in the first, second and third quarters this year.” A 13-episode summertime CGI series is also in the works, along with a 90-minute live-action special (“with some CGI elements”) that may serve as the basis of a future series.

For those who automatically associate the WB shield with the slapstick comedy of the studio’s classic Looney Tunes, Hardman gently suggests they seek out those shorts on Cartoon Network and its spin-off Boomerang. He goes on to point out that KWB shows like ¡Mucha Lucha! and Jackie Chan Adventures “all have tremendous comedy elements, but our core audience is boys 6-11 and high adventure is the type of programming that really appeals to them.”

Videogame spin-offs like Kirby open up various merchandising tie-ins. © 4Kids Entertainment.

So it’s highly unlikely that Bugs and friends will ever be seen on Kids WB! again? “I wouldn’t say that at all. We continue to work with Warner Bros. on some of the classic franchises to see what we might bring back to our audience. We always have something like that in development and we’re always talking to kids about what would they like to see come back and how would they like to see it updated for them. You never know, we may just have something on the schedule in the fall. You never know.”

When FOX TV bailed out of the children’s programming game in the fall of 2002, 4 Kids Entertainment took over the network’s 8:00 am to noon Saturday morning block and renamed it the FOX BOX. In essence, 4 Kids runs the FOX BOX as a turnkey operation, paying a flat fee to FOX for the airtime, then acquires and schedules shows, selling the ad time and keeps the revenues it brings in. As a result, the FOX BOX has far different goals from its Kids WB! competition.