The popular syndicated series, XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS, will finish its six-season long run on television at the end of this season. Producer Studios USA made the announcement on Monday, October 16, 2000 that they were pulling the plug on the series after it finishes its summer run. The reasoning behind the show's cancellation was its declining ratings, which were due to the series being pulled from primetime slots on the WB and UPN. XENA's ratings for the 1999-2000 season were 3.4 down from its peak in the 1996-1997 season when it averaged a 5.7.

PBS will air a 90-minute documentary on the life and work of Chuck Jones entitled CHUCK JONES: EXTREMES AND IN-BETWEENS, A LIFE IN ANIMATION. Scheduled to air Wednesday, November 22nd at 8 pm, the special includes animated clips, archival footage and new interviews with Jones and a range of celebrity experts including Steven Spielberg, John Lassiter, Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Ken Burns, Joe Dante, Roger Ebert, Stan Freberg, Ron Howard, Leonard Maltin, Lorne Michaels and Andre Previn. The film is a co-production of CAMI Spectrum, RM Associates and Thirteen/WNET New York.

The WB Network's Kids' WB! has ordered 13 additional episodes of its new cartoon series JACKIE CHAN ADVENTURES from Sony Pictures Family Entertainment. Since its debut on September 9, 2000 the toon has led its time slot among the major networks in the kids 2-11 demographic. In addition, the series is the second ranked Kids' WB! series only behind POKEMON. Kids’ WB! senior VP Donna Friedman said, "We are thrilled that JACKIE CHAN ADVENTURES has proven to be a breakout hit we knew it would be.

Upon the success of the TNT original movie, a new TV series based on the WITCHBLADE comic book will go into production. TNT has ordered 11 episodes from Warner Bros. to be broadcast next summer. The WITCHBLADE telepic was seen in 3.5 million households and was the most watch telepic for the week of August 21-27.

The chairman of Jim Henson Co., Brian Henson, has signed on to direct CBS' four-hour miniseries JACK AND THE BEANSTALK: THE REAL STORY. The production will start within the next two months in London with the Creature Shop handling the job of bringing the land of giants to the small screen. Henson and Bill Haber will executive produce the program with writer James V. Hart. Martin G. Baker and Tom Smith are producing and Alex Rockwell co-producing.

Dotcomix online hit SISTER RANDY will make her TV debut on BBC America, Saturday, October 21, 2000. SISTER is the second Webtoon to be licensed for TV broadcast on BBC America. Earlier this year the cable network began airing Mondo Media’s THUGS ON FILM. Like THUGS, SISTER will serve as interstitials between programming. As part of the deal, the Webtoons will also air on bbcamerica.com. "Sister Randy is sure to be habit-forming television.

One-time L.A. Laker cheerleader/singer/choreographer Paula Abdul and her Planet Paula Productions have signed a deal with Fox Kids Network to develop a new live-action/animated children series. The untitled show will follow a garage band's climb to success. Abdul is set to produce, choreograph and perform an animated character's voice or play a live-action character. The series idea was inspired by Abdul's work on her "Opposites Attract" music video, in which she interacted with an animated character named M.C. Scat Kat.

The hit British comedy program, MR. BEAN, is about to be transformed into an animated series. The live-action series’ production company, Tiger Aspect, will be producing the US$15 million animated television series, which will air on ITB. Rowan Atkinson, who plays the live-action Bean, will voice the animated character. In addition, Robin Driscoll, who served as the original writer on the live-action series, will be scribing the new toon version. Currently, Tiger Aspect is looking for an animation company to perform the physical production.

CBS’ Saturday morning ratings have been sky rocketing since beginning airing the Nick Jr. block, with shows such as BLUE’S CLUES and LITTLE BILL. On September 30, 2000, the Nick Jr. programming on CBS averaged a 3.8 rating/18 share among kids 2-5. The ratings were up 58% from the previous week and up 388% from last year. WB ran second in the same demographic with a 2 rating/9 share, followed by ABC with 1.9/10 and Fox .9/4.

For the third quarter, Cartoon Network has reported ratings 25% higher than a year ago. The toon channel drew an average of 1.26 million households, compared with just over a million in the third quarter of 1999. "Our original animated shows like POWERPUFF GIRLS and DEXTER’S LABORATORY have been doing very well, with POWERPUFF GIRLS giving us the highest ratings ever," said Cartoon Network executive vice president Tim Hall.