| Kids' WB! | |
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Network |
The WB |
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Launched |
September 9, 1995; 28 years ago |
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Country of origin |
United States |
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Language(s) |
English |
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Picture format |
HDTV 1080i |
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Owner |
Nexstar Media Group (75%) |
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Parent(s) |
Cartoon Network Group |
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Format |
Children's television block |
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Running time |
Weekday Mornings: |
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Website |
www.kidswb.com |
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Licensing authority |
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Kids' WB (stylized as Kids' WB!) is an American children's programming service and brand of The WB controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75-percent ownership interest. It features a mixture of animated series from Warner Bros., DC Comics, and Cartoon Network, along with acquired content from selected companies, aimed at children between the ages of 3 and 17. The block first debuted on September 9, 1995, and has ran since then.
Nexstar closed its acquisition of a controlling interest in the Kids' WB brand on October 3, 2022, with Warner Bros. Discovery (WarnerMedia's successor) retaining a 25-percent ownership stake, while the latter would also still hold the rest of the renowned brand's license as a member of its Cartoon Network Group division.
Kids' WB also serves as a form of internationally-branded children's programming blocks and television channels in most other countries outside the United States, starting with the Australian version that launched on September 16, 2006, on Nine Network until 2012, and later on 9Go! in 2009, but closed on November 29, 2019. Overtime, later international Kids' WB-branded blocks and channels began rolling out in other areas of which starting from 2021.
History[]
Early years[]
Kids' WB launched in the United States on September 9, 1995, striving to compete against the dominance of Fox Kids at the time, and airing on Saturday mornings from 8:00 to 11:00 a.m. and Monday through Fridays from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. The block was structured to air in all time zones, airing on a tape delay outside of the Eastern Time Zone to adjust the recommended airtime of the block to each zone. However, during its first five years, an exact timeslot was not announced on-air, leaving viewers to check their local WB station listings; since the programs had different airtimes depending on the local WB affiliate schedule in the market. On September 7, 1996, the Saturday block was extended by one hour, airing from 8:00 a.m. to Noon Eastern Time.
Although Kids' WB aired on almost all of The WB's affiliated stations (including those later affiliated with The WB 100+ Station Group - which was later renamed as The WB Plus in 2006), the network's Chicago affiliate WGN-TV – owned by The WB's co-parent, the Tribune Company – declined to carry the weekday and Saturday blocks. Instead, it opted to air its weekday and Saturday morning newscasts, (the first incarnation of the latter was canceled in 1998), another locally-produced programming (such as The Bozo Super Sunday Show) in the morning hours, and syndicated programming in the afternoons. Kids' WB programming instead aired on WCIU-TV. However, WGN's superstation feed carried the block from 1995 to 1999, making the network available to markets without a local affiliate. WGN-TV began clearing Kids' WB on its Chicago broadcast signal in 2004, taking over the local rights from WCIU-TV, before the latter station would begin to reinstate the block to its lineup on account of its full-time affiliation with The WB starting September 1, 2019 after leaving CBS-owned WPWR-TV (which had began airing WB programming starting in 2016).
On September 1, 1997, a weekday morning block was added from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. and the weekday afternoon block was extended by one hour, running from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. However, WGN's superstation feed, as well as some WB affiliates, had to wait until the next day, as they preempted the blocks to carry The Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon. Some WB affiliates (such as WPIX in New York City, KTLA in Los Angeles and KWGN-TV in Denver, Colorado) aired the weekday morning block in conjunction with the weekday afternoon block, extending it to three hours, running from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. On the same date, the block received an on-air rebranding – which included a revised logo and graphics package centered upon the Warner Bros. Studios lot theme that was also used in promotions for The WB's primetime programming during the network's first eight years on the air – which was developed by Riverstreet Productions, and lasted until 2005. However, the backlot theme returned in 2010 after the network dumped its "Arrow" branding that was in use since 2009, and has remain the main image of the network ever since, with a slight edit to the backlot theme featuring the current WB logo that came in the fall of 2020; and another slight edit to it that features elements of The WB's then-recently launched current branding starting a year later in the fall of 2021.
Changes at Kids' WB and introduction of anime[]
On February 13, 1999, Kids' WB made a breakthrough when the English dub of the anime series Pokémon by 4Kids Entertainment moved to the network from broadcast syndication. It became a major hit for the programming block, helping it beat Fox Kids with its animated lineup backed by Warner Bros. Other anime shows aired on Kids' WB in later years, such as Cardcaptors, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Astro Boy, MegaMan NT Warrior, Viewtiful Joe, Bakugan: Battle Brawlers and Dino Girl Gauko. In addition, several series imported from Cartoon Network were added to the block through a "strategic alliance" with the cable channel, and vice versa. Overtime, the partnership became stronger, and shows from them continue to air on the block to this day.
In July 2001, Kids' WB's weekday afternoon lineup was rebranded as Toonami on Kids' WB, extending the Cartoon Network action-animated block Toonami to broadcast television, and bringing shows such as Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, and The Powerpuff Girls to broadcast network television. However, the sub-block was critically panned by industry observers, who noticed that the action branding of the block - which had added shows such as Generation O!, Scooby-Doo, and The Nightmare Room, a live-action series created by Goosebumps author R. L. Stine - did not translate content-wise. And while the cross promotion between Cartoon Network and Kids' WB did allow for series to be shared between the networks, most of these only lasted a short period of time. This included Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon appearing on Toonami on Kids' WB for only two weeks, and Cardcaptors appearing on the main Toonami block on Cartoon Network for only two weeks. In spring 2002, Kids' WB announced that they would drop the Toonami name from their weekday lineup, once again making the Toonami brand exclusive to Cartoon Network.
Initial temporary ending of weekday blocks[]
On September 3, 2001, the Kids' WB weekday morning block was discontinued, with The WB giving that slot back to its local affiliates to carry locally-produced shows, syndicated programming and/or infomercials.
On May 31, 2005, The WB announced that the weekday afternoon Kids' WB block would be discontinued "at the request of the local affiliates," as it became financially unattractive due to the fact broadcast stations perceived that children's programming viewership on afternoon timeslots had gravitated more towards cable networks – these stations began to target more adult audiences with talk shows and sitcom reruns in the daytime. Kids' WB's weekday programming continued, but with redundant programming and theme weeks until December 30, 2005 (the block began to increasingly promote Cartoon Network, their afternoon Miguzi block, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, and the Kids' WB Saturday morning lineup during the transition). The weekday afternoon Kids' WB block aired for the last time on December 30, 2005, and was replaced on January 2, 2006, by "Daytime WB", a more adult-targeted general entertainment block featuring repeats of sitcoms and drama series formerly seen on the major networks. As a result, the Saturday morning Kids' WB lineup that remained was extended by one hour on January 7, 2006, running from 7:00 a.m. to noon, no longer affected by time zone variances.
These strategies for the Saturday morning Kids' WB lineup only lasted for five years, when The WB later had plans to relaunch the Kids' WB block's weekday lineup "by popular demand" beginning in 2011 (despite the on-going competition from cable networks like broadcast partner Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and Disney Channel).
Kids' WB Today, return of weekday blocks, the birth of Kids' WB Jr. and international expansion[]
On September 18, 2010, the block received an on-air rebranding – which included a revised graphics package that was also used in promotions for The WB's primetime programming, but modified to be more in a kid-centric matter with combined elements of Kids' WB's iconic studio lot branding – which was developed by Troika in collaboration with Primal Screen, and lasted until 2021.
On September 26, 2011, the weekday afternoon Kids' WB block gradually relaunched "as a response to rival block Fox Kids relaunching its weekday slots two years prior in 2009"; subsequently on account of the now-former Daytime WB block reducing its airtime from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. However in order to keep steering away from cable viewing growth, The WB had only reduced the then-relaunched Kids' WB weekday afternoon slot's airtime to exactly an hour from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., in place of the forerunning 3:00 p.m. hour of the former Daytime WB lineup, while the network had also planned to make the then-relaunched weekday Kids' WB block optional for select WB affiliates to decide carrying (though the former weekday afternoon slot after its relaunch, despite gravitational cable competition - until later years - however, still varied in most markets, due to the effects of most newscasts, infomercials and/or syndicated off-network programming being aired in those slots). This had then marked the first time The WB would relaunch their weekday daytime lineup for two respective demographics.
In 2013, Kids' WB became the one of the only three Saturday morning (and mostly traditional weekday) blocks without a strictly E/I-based lineup to air on broadcast TV. This happened in November of that year, when Tribune (past half owners of the block's parent network, The WB) acquired Weigel's 50% stake in This TV, and their Cookie Jar Toons/This Is for Kids block came to an end. The move came as part of a shift by other broadcast television networks towards being tasked to use their children's lineups solely to later have the option of either providing an hour, 2½ hours or three hours of programming that comply with the educational programming requirements mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
In February of 2014, it was announced that Kids' WB resigned a deal with The Pokémon Company to pick back up the syndicated broadcasting rights to the Pokémon anime starting with the XY season beginning in the 2014-2015 TV season (which was additionally announced during that year's E3 event), which marked the return of Pokémon to the block's schedule after it originally aired from February 1999 to September 2006, while Cartoon Network retained the cable rights to the series even before this time.
On September 9, 2017, the Kids' WB Saturday morning block was reduced back to exactly four hours and began re-airing from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. local time on Saturdays. The WB gave its one hour of reclaimed time to its affiliate stations. A couple days later on September 11, 2017, the weekday afternoon block was additionally pushed back to a two hour format (airing from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.), in which it additionally prompted the now-former Daytime WB block to later air at an earlier time. This lasted until the 2021-22 TV season when the latter block officially became discontinued, thus fully re-transitioning the weekday slots back to the Kids' WB branding around that time.
On March 4, 2019, Kids' WB became a member of Warner Bros. Global Kids, Young Adults, and Classics as a result of the dissolving of Turner Broadcasting, which involved Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and Turner Classic Movies, which were all transferred to Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. as WarnerMedia began to remove all Turner references in corporate communications and press releases, referring to the unit's networks as "divisions of WarnerMedia".
On September 12, 2020, Kids' WB received a new logo to commemorate its 25th consecutive season (just a month after The WB's logo refresh that launched in August of the same year), which featured an updated design using the letters and shield of the current Warner Bros. Pictures logo (designed by Pentagram) and the 1997 colors being retained. The new logo also made its official debut on upfront promos made for the fall 2020-21 season of where the new branding graphics took place with the new logo design.
On July 15, 2021, WarnerMedia announced that Kids' WB's one-hour weekday morning lineup would relaunch as Kids' WB Jr. in coordination of the then-launch of the Cartoonito block on Cartoon Network. Selected series from the Cartoonito launch were featured at the start of the 2021-22 TV season. The Kids' WB Jr. sub-block was dropped from the network as of September 18, 2023, but was still likely to comply with the E/I regulations after this time.
On October 2, 2021, WarnerMedia announced that the Kids' WB brand would expand in some other international countries of the world (just two years after the Australian version of the renowned brand ceased existence in 2019), under a strategy that would officially structure the renowned brand outside the US into "another out-growing worldwide children's service" that would help keep standing with Cartoon Network; those include France, Southeast Asia, Latin America, Korea and Romania. They initially launched in those areas as a block around Fall and Winter 2021. Two months later on December 2, 2021, WarnerMedia also announced that Kids' WB would roll out in Japan and Italy as a standalone channel (the latter country, replacing Boomerang on the Sky platform) and in the United Kingdom as a weekday morning block on E4 (owned by Channel 4 Television Corporation) which premiered in those other areas around Spring and Summer of 2022. On February 21, 2023, Canadian media conglomerate Corus Entertainment announced that the existing Canadian feed of Cartoon Network would concurrently be relaunched as a Canadian version of Kids' WB on March 27, 2023; in accordance to Teletoon rebranding as a later-reincarnated feed of the former channel, which had launched on that very same day.
Two weeks later on October 16, 2021, the block received another on-air rebranding, with a more simpler graphics package based on that of The WB (which was been in-use in promotions of the network's primetime programming six days earlier on October 10, 2021), but modified to be more kid-centric with elements of Kids' WB's iconic studio lot design being implemented into the rebranding.
Sale to Nexstar and programming content shift[]
As of October 3, 2022, the majority ownership of the renowned Kids' WB brand, and its WB parent network were sold to Nexstar Media Group. However despite these changes, Warner Bros. Discovery stated that they will still continue to hold a full interest in the rest of the whole brand (and its renowned parent, The WB) under a non-fixed term license from Nexstar, due to brand name reflections of the homonymous block and network themselves, and the former currently controlling a remaining portion of then-launched international children's programming blocks and television channels that intend to use the "Kids' WB" brand name at this time. Generally, Warner Bros. Discovery would still produce content for Kids' WB as a primary content supplier, though Nexstar noted that the arrangement would be primarily for the 2022–23 broadcast season. It indicated that it "will have the option to extend the partnership" with WBD beyond that season. Nexstar stated in September 2022 that it would seek to supplement Kids' WB's content by acquiring projects from studios beyond solely WBD.
As of January 23, 2023, Nexstar announced that any carryover programming from minority Kids' WB parent owner, WBD, and those from former broadcasting partner, Cartoon Network would be limited at the start of the 2023–24 season, with original programming from the latter being ultimately removed from the network entirely as of mid-season 2024.
In May 2023, seven months after Nexstar made their purchase official, Kids' WB has cancelled a total number of eight shows, three times the average number per year that Kids' WB had canceled in previous years, including one-season shows Jellystone! and Little Ellen, and other programming includes Animaniacs (2020), Tom and Jerry in New York, Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?, Batwheels, Bugs Bunny Builders and The Banana Splits: Back in Action, while other shows were given final season orders in the following months including Looney Tunes Cartoons, Samurai Rabbit: The Usagi Chronicles, Johnny Test (2021), and Cartoon Network-produced series Craig of the Creek. However, some other series, including Nature Cat and Teen Titans Go!, would become the only existing series not to be affected by the cancellation process, as the latter series themselves would still remain on the Kids' WB block after which.
On May 23, Kids' WB unveiled its schedule for the 2023–24 broadcast season, consisting a mix of WB-produced animated series, a small handful of shows from former sister channel Cartoon Network, and three acquired shows from outside the United States. WB network entertainment division president Brad Schwartz criticized the previous owner of the network, stating that neither it or The WB would no longer exist for benefiting them, and that the shows left over from the previous regimes did not perform well on linear broadcast. Schwartz added that Kids' WB will be changing its programming strategy by focusing a bit more on acquired shows and co-productions while still being able to retain WB-produced programming "in order to keep reflecting the network's name" and additionally expanding its target audience. He also revealed that the network will be retaining the rights to the Pokémon franchise even with the change of programming strategy for it was "very important for the network's future". By June 2023, Kids' WB retained only four of its existing shows for the 2024–25 season, but has also began to additionally cease the development of fully-original programming with these program focus changes in effect. Nexstar CEO Perry Sook added that in order to achieve profitability, Kids' WB was focusing primarily on producing original content, acquired shows and co-productions.
In November 2023, Kids' WB premiered the Hanna-Barbera Studios Europe-produced series, The Heroic Quest of the Valiant Prince Ivandoe, which was the last syndicated program from Cartoon Network to appear on the channel, before both it and Craig of the Creek were taken off the lineup on December 2, 2023, and January 13, 2024 respectively.
In January 2024 during the premiere broadcast of Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo Meets Courage The Cowardly Dog, Kids' WB officially launched another new brand identity by DixonBaxi—which updated the logo that features the letters from the 2022 Warner Bros. Discovery symbol with a bolder appearance, removed the red-blue backplates, changed the network's main colors, resized and shortened the exclamation point, and introduced a new "stage" device used in promos (formed by extending the W lettering from the logo), as well as a new sound trademark of a struck match, and a new color palette called "sprinkles".
Scheduling[]
Officially The WB prefers the block to air on Saturdays from 8:00 a.m. to Noon, and on weekdays in the mornings from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. and in the afternoons from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in each time zone as of 2021, though there were local scheduling variances in some areas that may have moved either the Saturday or weekday blocks to different hours, to Sundays, or split the Saturday lineup between Saturday or Sunday, along with local pre-emptions of select shows. Some stations in those areas of which aired the Saturday morning timeslot on Sunday, instead due to regular Saturday programming. Connecticut affiliate WCCT-TV aired three hours on Saturday, and two hours on Sunday, before later rescheduling the block's slot of which to an earlier time beginning at 7:00 a.m. WLFL in Raleigh, North Carolina and WNUV in Baltimore, airs the entire lineup, but the Saturday slot then had two hours earlier, running from 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., before later rescheduling the block's slot of which to its network-recommended timeslot. San Diego's XETV-TV (during that station's WB affiliation from 2008 until 2017), aired three hours of the aforementioned timeslot from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. and two hours from 10:00 a.m. to Noon. WB Plus stations in the Central, Mountain, and Alaska time zones also aired the block one hour earlier or later, depending on the local time zone, as The WB Plus operates separate feeds based on the network's Eastern and Pacific time zone scheduling for primetime shows. San Antonio WB affiliate KRRT split the Kids' WB block's Saturday slot over two days, between early Sunday and early Monday mornings before 5:00 a.m. due to an existing arrangement to air Fox's Fox Kids block in lieu of sister station KABB (until 2021 when the latter block moved back to the latter station in accordance to KRRT's owner Deerfield Media being fined by the FCC around that time). Other stations preempted portions of the block, Shreveport, Louisiana's KPXJ-TV preempted the final hour of the block. Columbus, Georgia's WLTZ-DT2 preempted the first half-hour of the block.
Past exclusions[]
KNIN (now a Fox affiliate) in Boise, Idaho - which had two WB networks (both The WB and The WB Plus) - had its now-former WB Plus affiliate KNIN-DT2 (now a MeTV affiliate) carrying the block (also aired an hour earlier), but the main now-former WB affiliate itself declined to carry the block upon becoming a charter WB affiliate after the affiliation switch from UPN in September 2006; KNIN instead carried syndicated E/I programming in the station's Saturday morning timeslot, making Boise one of the only television markets where Kids' WB was not available through over-the-air analog broadcasts before the KNIN-TV's analog signal shutdown on June 12, 2009.
WTVW in Evansville, Indiana (which hurriedly joined The WB on January 31, 2013, due to the market's former affiliate going dark) was unable to schedule the block when it initially began its affiliation with the network, due to contractual obligations to paid programming slots and existing syndicated E/I programming on Saturday mornings and weekdays through March 2013. The station began carrying Kids' WB in its network-recommended timeslots on April 6, 2013, with the station's acquired E/I programming moving to Sunday afternoons.
Programming[]
Much of the block's programming air in high definition, with some older standard definition content presented in 4:3 or widescreen with stylized pillarboxing and windowboxing.
Kids' WB mostly runs an hour of programming that meet the FCC's educational programming guidelines on both Saturday and weekday mornings (much like some other competing broadcast blocks that air such programming); as a result, The WB's affiliates handle the responsibility of filling the remaining two hours on Saturdays; while also filling the remaining earlier one hour with paid programming on weekdays, The WB Plus cable-subchannel affiliates have E/I-compliant programs not acquired from the syndication market built into the national schedule, alleviating stations carrying WB network programming via that feed from the responsibility of purchasing the local rights to such programs.
See List of programs broadcast by Kids' WB and Kids' WB Specials