THE RUGRATS ruled the May rating sweep by topping both of its Saturday morning time slots. The top toon, RUGRATS, gained 2.4 million viewers at 9:30 am and 2.1 million at 9 am, placing that episode in the second slot. Nickelodeon shows ROCKET POWER and SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS took the third and fourth spots respectively. ROCKET landed an audience of 1.8 million at 8:30 am and SPONGEBOB sank 1.8 million viewers into their couches at 10 am. The regular champion POKEMON slipped to 5th place, only luring in 1.74 million viewers for its 10:30 am broadcast.

Pokemon has caught new deals with several eastern European countries and renewals from around the rest of the continent. New locations of Pokemon infestation include Polsat in Poland, RTL-Klub in Hungary, Nova in Czech Republic, ETV in South Africa and Fox Kids’ Scandinavia Satelite service. The countries that renewed the second season’s 52-episodes were TV2 in Denmark, TV2 in Norway, TV4 in Sweden, Star Channel in Greece and RTL in Belgium.

Comedy Central and iN DEMAND have struck a deal that will provide 25 episodes of SOUTH PARK on a pay-per-view basis. IN DEMAND executive VP entertainment Mark Sonnenberg said that the pact illustrates that video-on-demand is vibrant. "It's not just movies," Sonnenberg said. "It's everything consumers want -- movies, library products, TV series, local programming." Both companies plan to work together in the future to bring other Comedy Central content to PPV, like uncut stand-up shows.

On Sunday, June 11, 2000 at 9 pm, Cartoon Network will present an hour of cartoons never-before-seen on television during "The Lost Cartoons" TOONHEADS Special. Airing on "Lost Cartoons" will be Spooney Melodies' CRYIN' FOR THE CAROLINES, Leon Schlesinger's short-lived collection of musical "Vitaphone Varieties," which feature abstract animation using paper cut-outs and double exposures to create visual accompaniment to arranged music.

Warner Bros. Television will announce its fall schedule this week and it will include claymation series THE PJS. The Hollywood Reporter published the news saying that the official announcement will go before advertisers in New York on Tuesday, May 16. Earlier this year, WB had signed a deal with THE PJS producer Imagine TV/Touchstone that gave the network the option of picking up the show for the fall 2000 season. Previously airing on Fox, THE PJS future was uncertain even as late as last week.

Cartoon Network has unveiled the line-up for their "Voice Your Choice Weekend." Starting on June 9, 2000, the toon home will air the first of ten animated pilots that will compete for spots on the channel’s 2001 schedule. On the weekend of August 25-27, viewers will vote on-line for their favorite, of which the top three will become original series. Airing June 9, THE GRIM ADVENTURES OF BILLY AND MANDY was created by Maxwell Atoms. BILLY AND MANDY is a quirky cartoon where Billy and Mandy win the friendship of the Grim Reaper during a competition for Billy’s hamster’s soul.

Studio City, California-based Phil Roman Entertainment company, in partnership with Quarter Star Productions (QSP) of Charlotte, North Carolina, will produce SOAP ON THE RANGE, a new primetime animated half-hour comedy TV series. Headed by animator and producer, Phil Roman, RANGE lampoons soaps and Westerns with a story about two rival family ranches in Colorado. Twenty-six episodes of SOAP ON THE RANGE will be set for delivery in time for the 2001 television season. Serving alongside Roman, as executive producers will be the husband and wife team of Joyce Wade-May and Patrick W.

Pushing the boundaries of bedtimes everywhere, Nickelodeon will extend their Friday night line-up to 10 pm. Cyma Zarghami, Nick exec VP and general manager, said that the new hour block might be filled with U-PICK, a show that gives kids the chance to vote on what Nick series they want to watch. Currently, U-PICK airs on Friday nights and Zarghami said, "[U-PICK’s] performing very well right now. We may expand that to 10 pm. We may put an anchor block in there. We haven’t decided yet." This decision comes amid rumors that ABC’s TGIF Friday family programming is on the skids.

The heirs of Chico and Harpo Marx don’t like being left out of the Groucho estate’s desire to go ahead with an animated series based on the three silly siblings. Friday, April 28, 2000, U.S. district judge Dickran Teverizian stopped the distribution of a new toon until the three brothers’ estates can come to an agreement over financial issues. Chico and Harpo’s heirs contest that the Groucho estate bamboozled them by hiding the TV deal and not sharing the US$130,00 paid for the rights.

SOUTH PARK creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have signed a three-year deal with Comedy Central. The profanity purveyors announced an exclusive multimillion-dollar deal with the cable network ending rumors they were fleeing to ABC for a $1 million an episode pact. The deal calls for 30 new episodes of SOUTH PARK and a new live-action series to debut next year. "For the last three years we have been exceptionally lucky to have our show on a network that respects creative freedom," said Parker.