A brief history of the legendary tv broadcasting network
Andre Garcia Feature/Q+A
Cartoon Network is a broadcasting Network that hosted many spectacular shows such as Ed, Edd and Eddy, Adventure time, regular show, Craig of the Creek etc. Though it wasn’t always a household name, this story will take you through the rise of Cartoon Network and some of the shows that came with it.
1992-2000: The creation and the blast off of Cartoon Network. Cartoon network was founded by Betty Cohan and launched under its parent company Warner Brothers in 1992. Around this time also Cartoon Network typically aired reruns of classic shows by Hannah-Barbera and MGM, like “Scooby Doo” and “The Flintstones.” Although, these classics could not compete with the likes of Disney and especially Nickelodeon who pulled in 6 million and 55 million viewers respectively. The real success of this decade however is during the later portions of the 1990s starting from 1996 original shows like “Dexters Laboratory,” “Courage the Cowardly Dog,” “Ed Edd n Eddy,” “Johnny Bravo” etc started airing on Cartoon Network reaching a larger audience.
2000-2010: Continuing the success of the previous decade’s end, those cartoons (“Dexter’s Laboratory,” “Courage the Cowardly Dog,” etc.) finished airing. These cartoons catapulted Cartoon networks status to the 5th most popular cable channel at the time. From early to the middle of this decade many of these classic cartoons had to come to an end. The last one of these to go off the air was, “Edd Ed and Eddy,” which lasted until 2009. As Cartoon Network continued to grow they started introducing new shows as well. This is the time that shows like, “Ben 10,” “Samurai Jack,” and “Total Drama Island” started to air. Another important thing to mention is how “Teen Titans,” a show with an actual narrative and not just an episodic series, aired during this time.
2010-2020: This was arguably the golden age of Cartoon network with it reaching its peak viewership in 2012. Although, like the previous shows, it started coming to an end. Many new shows started to sprout up and even reboots of old shows started airing around this time. Whilst these reruns of old shows did pretty well. The shows that performed the best followed deviated from the standard cartoon’s episodic nature and had more of a plot. While shows like “Adventure Time” and “Regular Show” still did have that episodic pacing, they had an overarching plot and an end to the story. It is also important to note though that “Teen Titans,” a show without a plot, was frequently aired even though it’s not considered to be a “good show” by most people.The popular Youtuber “Alpha Jay show” even saying its “The show people love to hate” in his video “Why The Most Hated CN Show Still Exists”. Even with all this success, Cartoon Network could not compete with all of the streaming services so viewership started to decline during the later half of the decade.
2020-2025: Cartoon Network is on steady decline and has been on one since the start of this decade. With no notable shows airing the decade the future of Cartoon Network is looking bleak. Discovery has even shut down the Cartoon Network website. They are only halfway into the decade though so we will have to see how things pan out.