Friday, August 17, 2012

CW enters the Vortexx

On August 25, CW's Saturday morning block will undergo a facelift. With 4Kids Entertainment having turned over control of the block to Haim Saban's Kidsco, the block will be known as Vortexx, with a generous mix of familiar favorites and new shows.

Here's what to look forward to during the Vortexx block:

Cubix: Robots For Everyone, which we reviewed earlier. Saban has acquired this series from 4Kids as part of the package deal struck earlier this year.

Dragon Ball Z Kai. The first Dragon Ball series to be aired on broadcast network television. Along with Cubix, it carries over from the Toonzai block, which ends tomorrow.

Iron Man: Armored Adventures, which we reviewed earlier this week. Cable rights are held by Nicktoons. Broadcast network debut.

Justice League Unlimited. Previously aired on Cartoon Network. Broadcast network debut.

Power Rangers Lost Galaxy. Saban also re-acquired the Power Rangers franchise from Disney earlier this year, and this series previously aired on Fox.

Rescue Heroes. Rights are shared with Qubo. Has previously aired on CBS and WB, among other places.

WWE Saturday Morning Slam. WWE returns to Saturday morning television with a compact highlight reel show, plus one new match each week.

Yu-Gi-Oh!. A long time WB/CW standby. A secondary series in the franchise, Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal, rounds out the block. Konami, a prominent Japanese manufacturer, has acquired the franchise from 4Kids.

What CW & Saban aspire to do is make Saturday mornings fun again. However, because they're also recycling older shows long out of production, such as Cubix & Rescue Heroes, it speaks to a lack of planning, which hurt 4Kids when they programmed Fox & CW. CW, then, is the 2nd network to change packagers for their Saturday block, as NBC did the same thing last month.

CW, NBC, & CBS are the only broadcast networks still programming Saturdays for children & young adults. Fox & ABC left the race in recent years. It'll take time before Saban can have the current Power Rangers series, Power Rangers Samurai, currently on Nickelodeon & Nicktoons, repurposed on CW, but by then, will it be too late? We'll all have to find out together starting next weekend.




4 comments:

magicdog said...

I think it's great that Justice League[Unlimited] is soming out of the vaults after all these years. Sure I have it on DVD, but that's the stuff Saturday mornings should be made of!

It does seem out of place compared with the other programming though.

hobbyfan said...

Iron Man's out of place in that lineup, too, but Saban's people are getting their feet wet. Can't see why they're using Lost Galaxy instead of the current Power Ranger series, though......

Steven Dolce said...

I wish CW didn't get rid of this block.

hobbyfan said...

Sometimes things happen for a reason, Steve. We just move on from there.