Category: Television (Page 61 of 66)

MGM announces American Gladiators cartoon

I’m a bit confused by today’s announcement by MGM. How is an American Gladiators cartoon going to work? Will it follow the gladiators as some sort of super heroes, fighting crime? That’s the only thing I can think of that makes some sense. MGM wouldn’t produce a cartoon version of the regular show, would they? That would be pointless.

Along with the new cartoon series, MGM is working on a new website that will spotlight the original series and a special U.S. tour. And in case you didn’t know, the new American Gladiators is currently airing Mondays at 8PM on NBC. It’s done so well that NBC has already ordered a second season.

Via AWN

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Cartoon Network starts new year off strong

Cartoon Network started 2008 with strong ratings, thanks to its new Transformers Animated series which premiered Saturday, Jan. 5 at 10:30 am. The Saturday morning “Dynamite Action Squad” block of cartoons (9:00am-12:00pm) also included a new episode of Pokemon: Diamond & Pearl.

This lead to Cartoon Network’s ranking of #1 in its time period versus all broadcast and cable competition with boys 6-11 and boys 2-11.

Kids 6-11 grew by 14%, and ratings by 13%
Kids 2-11 improved by 29%, and ratings by 33%
Boys 6-11 expanded by 28%, and ratings by 27% — #1 in its time period on all TV
Boys 2-11 catapulted by 55%, and ratings by 54% — #1 in its time period on all TV

Via AWN

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The Penguins of Madagascar invade Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon and DreamWorks Animation have teamed up to produce a new, 26-episode, CG-animated comedy series tentatively titled The Penguins of Madagascar, based on the penguin brothers in Madagascar and upcoming sequel, Madagascar: The Crate Escape. The series is scheduled to premiere on Nick in early 2009.

The series will be produced by Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, (Kim Possible, Hercules, Sky High) and feature the voices of Tom McGrath as Skipper, Jeff Bennett as Kowalski, James Patrick Stuart as Private and John DiMaggio as Rico, with Danny Jacobs starring as Julien, King of the Lemurs.

Via AWN

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Aardman Animations acquires ‘Peter and the Wolf’ short film

Aardman Animations has secured the worldwide TV, DVD and online rights to Peter and the Wolf, a half-hour stop-motion animated film produced by BreakThru Films.

This updated retelling brings Prokofiev’s tale into the 21st century with new twists and an environmental theme while staying true to the original story.

Peter and the Wolf has been short listed for an Academy Award and won the 2007 Annecy Cristal and the Annecy Audience Awards, as well as the Rose d’Or award at the 2007 Festival for Entertainment Television Programming.

It was also the recipient of the 2007 Pulcinella award for the Best European Program of the Year at the recent Cartoons on the Bay International Festival of Television Animation in Salerno, Italy.

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Ratatouille leads 35th annual Annie Awards nominations

The nominees for the 35th Annie Awards have been revealed. Winners will be announced on Friday, February 8, 2008 at UCLA’s Royce Hall, in Los Angeles, CA.

Pixar Animation Studios’ Ratatouille leads this year with 13 nominations including Best Animated Feature as well as individual nominations for directing, writing, character animation, animated effects (two nominations), production design, storyboarding, character design, character animation, music and voice acting (three nominations).

Sony Pictures Animation’s Surf’s Up follows with 10 feature nominations for feature, animated effects, animation production artists, character animation (two nominations), character design, and directing.

Rounding out the Best Animated Feature category are DreamWorks Animation’s Bee Movie, Sony Pictures Classics’ Persepolis, and Twentieth Century Fox’s The Simpsons Movie.

For television, Nickelodeon’s El Tigre leads the pack with four nominations for Best Animated Television Production for Children, and individual nominations for character animation, character design, and music.

The Best Animated Television Production nominees this year are Creative Comforts America from Aardman Animations, Jane and the Dragon from Weta Productions Limited & Nelvana Limited, Kim Possible from Walt Disney Television Animation, as well as Moral Orel and Robot Chicken Star Wars from ShadowMachine.

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Free South Park online video archive

MTV Networks has announced plans to make every clip from every episode of South Park available for free online next year.

Contrary to popular belief, offering versions of TV shows online has not hurt television ratings, and may have actually helped. “One does not diminish the other by any stretch of the imagination. That is kind of our hat trick,” said MTV Networks chairman and CEO Judy McGrath.

In August, Comedy Central signed a deal with South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, and agreed to spread South Park materials across the Web, on mobile phones and video games.

Via Hollywood Reporter

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Shrek the Halls and Grinch nab highest ratings

The half-hour “Shrek the Halls” holiday special on ABC scored the night’s highest adults 18-49 rating with 21.1 million viewers and a 7.2 rating/20 share. “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” followed closely with 18.7 million viewers and a 6.8/17 share. This back to back ratings knock out gave ABC an easy victory on the last night of the November sweeps.

Congrats ABC. It’s great to see animated shows do so well in prime time.

Via Hollywood Reporter

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Nickelodeon’s Frosty Fridays lineup

Nickelodeon has announced its annual lineup of holiday programming, featuring five never-before-seen episodes of Nick Jr.’s Max & Ruby, Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!, Yo Gabba Gabba! and Nickelodeon’s Wayside. During Frosty Fridays throughout December the network will present new holiday episodes every Friday from 12:00 – 2:00 pm ET/PT.

Beginning Monday, Dec. 3 through Friday, Dec. 22, Nickelodeon’s “Ha-Ha Holidays” celebration will feature holiday-themed episodes weekdays at 4:00 pm (ET/PT) of popular Nicktoons. In addition, Nickelodeon will also present holiday programming on Tuesday, Dec. 25. from 8:30 am – 1:00 pm and 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm ET/PT.

Via AWN

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South Park earns best ratings since 1998

The 11th season of Comedy Central’s South Park has earned its best ratings since 1998. This season was watched by 3.6 million total viewers, up 4% from last year’s 10th anniversary season.

The series posted a 2.3 rating among Persons 18-49 which was its best performance since 2000 in this key demographic. Year-to-date, South ParK is the #1 original series in cable among Men 18-24, Men 18-34 and Men 18-49.

Congrats to Matt Stone and Trey Parker.

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Fox continues Family Guy without its creator

Fox will continue to work on new episodes of Family Guy its creator/exec producer Seth MacFarlane, who is currently on strike. Seth MacFarlane has been quoted as saying, “I hope they don’t do it” and that going ahead without him would hurt his relationship with the studio.

According to sources, there are three episodes close to completion and several other episodes in various stages of development. We can assume that the voices for these episodes have already been recorded because Seth himself voices the majority of the characters.

Via AWN
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Spongebob Atlantis Squarepantis nabs 8.8 million viewers

Nickelodeon’s Spongebob Atlantis Squarepantis, which aired Monday, Nov. 12, 8:00 pm, nabbed the series’ biggest audience ever, with 8.8 million total viewers tuning in to the watch the first-ever Spongebob TV movie.

The special broadcast led Nick to its highest rated total day of the year with kids 2-11 and kids 6-11, and ranked overall with total viewers as the number-one cable entertainment program of the evening. Spongebob Atlantis Squarepantis is now available on TurboNick and on DVD.

Via AWN
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Viva Piñata gains more markets

4Kids Ent. has signed agreements with a ton of new global broadcasters for their hit cartoon VIVA PIÑATA, based on the Xbox 360 video game.

New episodes of the series are set to broadcast on TV3 (New Zealand), Animax (South Korea), Momo Kids TV (Taiwan) and Kids Central (Singapore) and Televisa (Mexico).

Current stations include YTV (Canada), France 3 Television (France), RTL2 (Germany), Canal J Pay Satellite TV (France), Nickelodeon (U.K.), Netherlands, Spain, Australia & New Zealand, NRK (Norway), SIC (Portugal) MediaCorp TV12’s Kid Central (Singapore) and Children’s Channel (Israel), among others. Viva Piñata airs weekly in the United States on 4Kids TV.

Via AWN

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Captain Planet returns!

… except not in cartoon form. 🙁

Captain Planet will star in a new line of T-shirts for the holiday season. A full line of the T-shirts for men, women and children featuring Captain America will launch at high-end specialty boutiques and department stores in October.

Created by Ted Turner in 1990, Captain Planet was used as a tool to teach children about potential environmental hazards. It can be seen in syndication weekdays on Boomerang, Turner’s 24-hour cable network devoted to classic cartoons. Also, the network will feature a 12-hour marathon in April in celebration of Earth Day 2008.

Via AWN

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Looney Tunes debut on Xbox Live

Microsoft today announced that more than 100 new episodes of popular Warner Bros. and Nickelodeon TV shows have been added to the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Starting today more than 50 episodes of the classic Looney Tunes library is available in high definition for on-demand download to own.

Nickelodeon delivers three shows to Xbox LIVE, also available today, including programming for the Nick Jr. series “The Backyardigans,” “Blue’s Clues,” and “iCarly.”

Also being introduced today are new kid-friendly games, “SHREK-N-ROLL” and “SpongeBob SquarePants: Underpants Slam.”

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