What Will You Watch?

Posted by Vulnadia on Dec 03, 2008 at 01:12 PM This weekend, a very peculiar thing happened, or so I believe. I cannot understand it, nor can I even begin to fathom the reason or reasons why. Fox has announced the cancellation of its Saturday Morning Cartoons, citing poor viewership and that demographic just not being profitable for them anymore. First off, this is the same network that will cancel a new show even before the third episode has aired, just because of low rating numbers. They haven't even announced the fate of some of their ongoing series just yet, and one is a favorite of mine! But, get this. This is the unbelievable part of the whole thing. What will they air in the place of these cancelled Saturday Morning Cartoons? Drum roll please... it's a good one, too! They plan on filling the time slots with something that I'm sure will bring in loads of viewers for great ratings...actually, I really wonder if these types of programming even get their ratings counted. Saturday Morning Cartoons will now be replaced with paid programming in the future. I kid you not, they have decided to go with info-mercials instead of actual shows. So how much do these companies that provide us with Info-mercials pay that make this more profitable than the sale of toy, junk food and cereal adds that normally run during the usual Saturday Morning Cartoon run? I mean, is this a move towards more "heEducational" programming that the masses demanded a few years back? Ya know the one's I am talking about, the cartoons with a message and meaning. I know, I know, they have really gotten out of hand, but so have the overwhelming number of boring info-mercials that are aired on television these days, too! But it's the parents who begged for something more educational, but seriously, is it really worthwhile for the network to wash their hands of a very marketable consumer in lieu of going after their parents? I mean really, when was the last time you were channel flipping and decided to purposefully turn to "Ye Old Info-mercial" for a good waste of 30 minutes? I can't even stand to let them run while I do housework, much less watch them on purpose! So, if folks can somehow write and send letter after letter to save a favorite series from being cancelled by a network and succeed, shouldn't we as parents stand up for the rights of our little people as consumers to be considered a viable and legitimate demographic and worthy of programming timeslots? Is this network seriously trying tell us as parents that our kids aren't worth the time, effort or cereal, toy and junk food add sales with the expectation that we will, instead tune in to watch their info-mercials in place of the regularly programmed Saturday Morning Cartoons we normally let our kids watch each week? So parents, what do you think? Which is the more viable option? Is Fox being stingy and Scrooge-like in doing away with Saturday Morning Cartoons? Or are you chomping at the bit for more info-mercial air-time? Let's hear your opinions & thoughts on the matter!