Adult Swim

World Screen Weekly, December 14, 2006

COUNTRY: U.S.

LAUNCH DATE: September 2, 2001

OWNERSHIP: Cartoon Network, operated by Turner Broadcasting System, a Time Warner company

DISTRIBUTION: Cable and satellite

NUMBER OF HOUSEHOLDS: 91 million homes

DESCRIPTION: Adult Swim is Cartoon Network’s late-night block of animation for adults, primarily male, aged 18 to 34. When it first launched, Adult Swim aired just four nights a week. In January 2003, another night was added, and in April 2004, Adult Swim added Saturdays to its schedule. The block airs from 10:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. from Monday to Thursday, 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. on Saturdays and 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. on Sundays.

EXECUTIVE VP & GENERAL MANAGER,

CARTOON NETWORK: Jim Samples

SENIOR VP, PROGRAMMING & PRODUCTION: Mike Lazzo

VP, PRODUCTION: Keith Crofford

MANAGER, DEVELOPMENT: Nick Weidenfeld

PROGRAMMING STRATEGY: Cartoon Network certainly took a risk when it decided, in 2001, to devote part of its usually kid-focused schedule to adult-skewing animation. Part of the impetus was creative—members of the team who had worked on the Cartoon Network cult classic Space Ghost Coast to Coast, an animated talk show parody, were anxious “to have some companion pieces to it,” says Keith Crofford, today the VP of production at Adult Swim. “We also wanted to eventually sell some time in what was an advertising graveyard—there’s not much going on in late-night kids’ programming.”

First launched as a block four nights a week, Adult Swim now airs daily except for Fridays and it continually finds itself on top of the ratings among cable networks in the males 18-to-34 category. In addition, it has been exported outside of the U.S., with versions on the air in Latin America and Australia on Cartoon Network, and in the U.K., on Bravo.

“We’ve struck a chord,” Crofford says. “That has helped to build an awareness of what we’re doing, and the shows are getting stronger and stronger. Now, we’re one of the first stops along the way, instead of perhaps one of the last, as we were five years ago when we first started.”

Space Ghost Coast to Coast was one of the first shows on the block, and its creatives went on to develop other Adult Swim productions. “Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Squidbillies and 12oz. Mouse, they all started with Space Ghost,” Crofford says. “It has really been our calling card. A lot of people with similar sensibilities have latched on to that show, and have either wanted to be on it, like Seth Green, or wanted to work with us.”

Other buzz-generating original series for the block have included Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, which goes into its final season next year; The Boondocks, based on Aaron McGruder’s controversial comic strip, which will be returning for a second season; and Frisky Dingo.

In terms of acquisitions, meanwhile, Family Guy has been a tremendous hit for the block. (Indeed, the Seth MacFarlane animated sitcom that had a brief run on FOX proved to be so popular for Adult Swim and on DVD, the broadcast network decided to resuscitate the cancelled series.) The block also picked up another MacFarlane series, American Dad, as well as Matt Groening’s—creator of The Simpsons—Futurama. However, Crofford says his acquisitions are predominantly anime. These have included InuYasha, Fullmetal Alchemist and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

“We’re looking for stuff that is surprising, stuff we haven’t done before,” Crofford says of his development and acquisitions strategy. “We aren’t looking to repeat ourselves, so if we find creative people, like Brendon Small who did Home Movies for us and now he’s doing Metalocalypse, we want to keep working with them. It’s all about the people, and we know they’ll find good projects for us.”

WHAT’S NEW: “We want to attract more viewers across the board,” Crofford says, and that includes more female audiences. “We do have a pretty solid female audience comparatively speaking—it’s not all a bunch of guys in frat houses watching. But if we find the right female-oriented property—and I think we might be close to finding one—we might be able to get those numbers up.”

Another priority going forward is boosting the Adult Swim website in order to “make that more of a destination,” Crofford says. The block’s creative team is looking into developing games and original content for the site. At present, it offers an Internet preview, every Friday night, of what’s coming up on Adult Swim on Sunday. “Friday is the one night of the week we’re not on, so we want our audience to go to the website,” Crofford says. The site also offers wallpapers and screensavers while the Adult Swim Fix player lets users stream entire episodes.

WEBSITE: www.adultswim.com

—By Mansha Daswani