ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE - ISSUE 3.6 - September 1998

Television

The Downtowners. © 1998 The WB Network.

The WB Is Set To Go Downtown. The WB Network has ordered 13 episodes of The Downtowners, an animated series developed by Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein for Castle Rock Television. It is slated to air as a prime time show in fall 1999. The show is described by WB as "the first prime time animated comedy to focus on the lives of twentysomethings and teens." It will star four roomates living in a downtown loft in a fictional big city, and their assortment of colorful friends and neighbors. This is the first animated series to be developed by Castle Rock's Television unit, whose live-action credits include Seinfeld. The WB Network will also try out a pilot based on the syndicated comic strip Baby Blues during the `98 holiday season.

TV Tidbits. Curious Pictures is working on a 25-part animated series called A Little Curious for HBO. It will feature mixed-media, CG, cel and stop-motion animation, and is slated to debut in January 1999. . . . Twentieth TV, Twentieth Century Fox's syndication arm, has had tremendous success pre-selling the animated series King of the Hill for U.S. syndication starting in fall 2001. The show's planned 100 episodes will air as reruns on stations covering over 90% of U.S. households. So, while Fox may be taking a ratings risk by separating King of the Hill from The Simpsons (it is moving to Tuesday nights this fall), they have secured an audience for the reruns of the show three years from now!. . . . FUNimation's Japanese animated series Dragon Ball Z has been sold in syndication to Cartoon Network, which will air the show five days a week starting in September. In a separate deal, Irwin Toy has just signed on as the master toy licensee for Dragon Ball Z. The company plans to produce a full line of action figures, vehicles and playsets. Dragon Ball Z started in Japan over ten years ago and has been airing internationally in Europe, but was only first introduced to American viewers in 1995. . . .


Broadcasters, producers and distributors: Send us your MIPCOM News! A special MIPCOM edition of the Animation Flash will distributed at MIPCOM and MIPCOM Junior. The deadline to receive press releases and announcements is Sept 14.

E-mail: editor@awn.com (no attachments or images, please. Paste text inside the body of the message with the subject "MIPCOM News")
Fax: (323) 464-5914
Snail Mail:
Animation World Magazine
Attn: MIPCOM News
6525 Sunset Blvd.
Garden Suite 10
Hollywood, CA 90028 U.S.A.


The Simpsons: ratings rulers for July. © Fox.

July Nielsen Ratings. By special arrangement with Nielsen Media Research, AWN will now publish the Nielsen ratings for animated programs on a monthly basis in the Animation Flash. The ratings included herein are only for U.S. national network television. However, AWN is interested in publishing additional ratings from cable television and ratings systems outside the U.S. To contribute information, please contact us at editor@awn.com.

The following list of animated national network programs is ranked by Household Ratings. A Rating is the percent of households that tuned into the program. This percentage can provide us with the number of households that tuned into the program on average during the month. The universe estimate for the 1997-98 television season in 98 million TV homes. Each rating point represents one percent of that universe, or 980,000 TV homes. Translation: The Simpsons, with an average 5.1 rating for the month of July, was viewed in an almost 5 million (5.1 x 980,000) households. The below ranking is an average for the month of July 1998.

Rating/Program (Network, Day, Time)
5.1 The Simpsons (Fox, Sunday, 8:00 p.m.)
4.9 King of the Hill (Fox, Sunday, 8:30 p.m.)
2.1 Invasion America (WB, Tuesday, 9:00 p.m.)
1.9 Disney's Saturday Morning Special (ABC, Saturday, 7/04, 9:30 a.m.)
1.9 Disney's Saturday Morning (ABC, Saturday, 7/11, 10:00 a.m.)
1.8 Disney's Saturday Morning (ABC, Saturday, 7/11, 9:30 a.m.)
1.8 Disney's Saturday Morning Special (ABC, Saturday, 7/18, 9:30 a.m.)
1.8 New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh Special (ABC, Saturday, 12:00 p.m.)
1.7 Animaniacs July 4 Special (WB, Saturday, 11:00 a.m.)
1.7 Batman/Superman (WB, Saturday, 10:00 a.m.)
1.7 Spider-Man (Fox, Saturday, 9:00 a.m.)
1.7 Toonsylvania Special (Fox, Saturday, 10:30 a.m.)
1.6 Disney's Saturday Morning Special (ABC, Saturday, 7/04, 9:00 a.m.)
1.6 Disney's Saturday Morning Special (ABC, Saturday, 7/18, 9:00 a.m.)
1.6 New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh Special (ABC, Saturday, 11:00 a.m.)
1.6 Spider-Man (Fox, Monday-Friday, 3:30 p.m.)
1.6 Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries (WB, Saturday, 11:30 a.m.)
1.6 Toonsylvania (Fox, Saturday, 10:30 a.m.)
1.6 Toonsylvania (Fox, Saturday, 9:30 a.m.)
1.5 Animaniacs (WB, Saturday, 11:00 a.m.)
1.5 Animaniacs July 4 Special (WB, Saturday, 10:00 a.m.)
1.5 Batman/Superman (WB, Saturday, 9:30 a.m.)
1.5 Disney's Saturday Morning (ABC, Saturday, 7/11, 9:00 a.m.)
1.5 Disney's Jungle Cubs (ABC, Saturday, 11:30 a.m.)
1.5 Disney's Jungle Cubs Special (ABC, Saturday, 10:30 a.m.)
1.5 Men in Black (WB, Saturday, 9:00 a.m.)
1.5 New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh Special (ABC, Saturday, 10:30 a.m.)
1.5 Spider-Man Special (Fox, Saturday, 9:00 a.m.)
1.5 Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries (WB, Saturday, 11:30 a.m.)
1.5 Toonsylvania Special (Fox, Saturday, 9:30 a.m.)
1.4 Pinky and the Brain (WB, Saturday, 10:30 a.m.)
1.4 Sam and Max (Fox, Saturday, 11:30 a.m.)
1.3 Animaniacs July 4 Special (WB, Saturday, 9:00 a.m.)
1.3 Disney's Saturday Morning Special (ABC, Saturday, 7/04, 8:30 a.m.)
1.3 Science Court Special (ABC, Saturday, 11:00 a.m.)
1.2 Batman/Superman (WB, Monday-Friday, 4:30 p.m.)
1.2 Disney's 101 Dalmatians Special (ABC, Saturday, 1:00 p.m.)
1.2 Disney's Saturday Morning (ABC, Saturday, 8:30 a.m.)
1.2 Science Court (ABC, Saturday, 12:30 p.m.)
1.1 Disney's Saturday Morning Special (ABC, Saturday, 7/18, 8:30 a.m.)
1.1 Disney's Jungle Cubs Special (ABC, Saturday, 2:30 p.m.)
1.1 Life With Louie (Fox, Monday-Friday, 7:30 a.m.)
1.1 Science Court Special (ABC, Saturday, 12:35 p.m.)
1.0 Bobby's World (Fox, Monday-Friday, 7:00 a.m.)
1.0 Disney's Saturday Morning Special (ABC, Saturday, 7/04, 8:00 a.m.)
1.0 Incredible Hulk (UPN, Sunday, 9:30 a.m.)
1.0 Ned's Newt (Fox, Saturday, 8:00 a.m.)
1.0 Superman (WB, Sunday, 8:30 a.m.)
0.9 Disney's Saturday Morning Special (ABC, Saturday, 7/18, 8:00 a.m.)
0.9 Ned's Newt Special (Fox, Saturday, 8:00 a.m.)
0.9 Pinky and the Brain (WB, Monday-Friday, 4:00 p.m.)


Note: Readers may contact any Animation World Magazine contributor by sending an e-mail to editor@awn.com.


Back to the News Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Feedback?
Past Issues

About | Help | Home | info@awn.com | Mail | Register



Animation World Magazine | Animation World Store | The AWN Vault 
The AWN Gallery | Animation Village | Calendar of Events | Career Connections | Forums & Chats | Home

 

 


©1998 Animation World Network