In the past year, the entertainment world has gone through an unprecedented amount of turmoil. You’ve almost certainly heard of the ongoing WAG and SAG strikes, and probably are at least vaguely aware of what pushed them to this point, but there’s so much more going on beyond what’s actually being demanded. There’s the sense Hollywood is at a breaking point where it simply can’t keep running the way it has the past decade or so, and the current approach has been showing disregard for the creative minds in ways previously thought unimaginable. And one industry frequently getting the short end of the stick, of course, is animation. Many, including myself, have talked in-depth about their mistreatment in the current corporate system, but as of late one noteworthy corporate body has been at the forefront of this discussion: Warner Bros Discovery. Particularly the fate of one underdog titan across the last few generations: Cartoon Network.
I assume you have at least a decent understanding of the current depressing state of CN that was placed on them from the hands of WBD. From canceling a bunch of shows before their prime, removing even more from their streaming avenues, the channel itself being whittled down in content, and most recently, losing their production studio of over 20 years. And because of how scattered these are, as well as some contradictory reports throwing outsiders off-course, it’s been easy for some to look at some of the mourning and respond by saying something to the effect of ‘oh, don’t worry guys, CN Studios isn’t actually dead, they’re just moving’ or ‘the studio may be dead but the brand is fine’. Even I had this sort of mentality at one point, but the more time passed, the more I realized it was mere copium. But I want to present this context in a way that’ll help you realize just what’s going on, while still trying to provide a semi-hopeful conclusion.
Now, the channel itself didn’t always live or die based on their in-house programming. When it launched in 1992, it was mainly a means of embracing the historic animation libraries of Hanna-Barbera, MGM, and Warner Bros. Even well after CNS found their groove, there was always some room for the legacy IPs - and there was the new spinoff channel Boomerang even when that began to fade. But that didn’t matter too much in the long run because, barring one or two slumps, Cartoon Network’s catalog was continuing the spirit of its predecessors. The first few CN originals were actually made under Hanna-Barbera Productions, but by the late 90s, the Time-Warner merger caused the latter to fold into Warner Bros Animation. Wanting to separate itself from this mess, CN Studios began operating as its own entity, investing around $1.2 billion to renovate what would become their Burbank headquarters - with some direct help by Gennedy Tartakovsky and Craig McCracken - before opening in March 2000.
From “Samurai Jack” onward, nearly all CN originals were produced at these doors. One constant goal of CNS, right from the very start, was to foster development of potential new franchises and to constantly seek new ideas from the creatives within their walls. This was apparent as early as “2 Stupid Dogs”, which - although not a CN production - was a massive influence in their initial slate, as talents like Craig, Gennedy, and Rob Renzetti all got their feet in the door from that show. Over time, their own shows would staff the likes of Thurop Van Orman, who would continue the bloodline in full force with “The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack” - paving the way for “Adventure Time”, leading then into “Steven Universe”, and later “Craig of the Creek” - several key members of which have already begun to leave impacts of their own outside CN, like Jeff Trammell executive producing the anticipated “Spider-Man: Freshman Year”.
All these came about because they dared to take chances on undiscovered talent and let them cook, a practice fast becoming a dying art in Hollywood. No matter how much the medium and their own in-house practices evolved, there was always the sense that it was full of artists who were dedicated to telling the stories they wanted.
Now, the troubles they’re facing now manifested long before Discovery ever entered the picture. In the late 2010s, Warner Bros wasn’t making the money they used to and their shares were on a constant downward spiral. So they underwent a merger with the telecommunications company AT&T, with the burden of billions and billions of debt. Naturally, a bunch of unfortunate cost-cutting occurred from there, but what’s relevant to our discussion here is a crapton of development projects at CN got canned and many ongoing shows were shut down when it looked like they were just gaining steam, with varying reasons given (we all remember Infinity Train’s…). It quickly escalated to the point where Brian Miller stepped down from his position as the studio’s general manager in March 2021, having been there since its opening.
This was also the era where CN wound up losing so much of its focus, basically throwing every idea you can think of at the wall just to see what sticks. From giving live-action programming another go, to launching a full-on preschool block, to a young adult-leaning block, and even a line of original movies. With the newly-launched HBO Max calling for as much brand synergy as possible, it felt like the plan was for Cartoon Network (both the channel and brand on the whole) to effectively be WarnerMedia’s main ‘kids/family’ hub. And they were going big on a lot of these plans too; Cartoonito had so much promotion behind it and launched at a whopping 8 hours, and ACME Night pivoted fast to showing PG-13 films and even occasionally filling leftover time with shows like “Family Matters”, of all things. It was a pretty insane transitional period, if one that did show promise in some ways.
But two years later, after AT&T realized they weren’t getting what they wanted, they decided to again put Warner up for sale, and that company wound up being the media giant Discovery where a ‘spinoff’ was formed, meant to build a catalog on par with the big boys like Disney and Universal. But with that debt in mind, on top of the looming economic recession, the new regime was not as quick to greenlight everything under the sun. In fact, they not just canceled most of the AT&T era plans (leaving ACME Night as merely a movie block, to name one example), but they decided to ax or shelve projects very far in development; one infamous example in CN’s case being the original movie “Driftwood”, which got fully scripted, had been mostly boarded, and was beloved by just about everyone who knew about it.
Another of their more hated and ongoing actions in the animation world was, of course, pulling so many self-proclaimed ‘low performers’ off HBO Max - many of which were extremely beloved and have yet to find a new home as of this writing -all without any sort of tact or transparency. But on top of that, there seems to be at least one new group of layoffs taking place somewhere in the corporation every week. As someone who got laid off Adult Swim said not long back, “they've already cut to the bone and now they're cutting into the marrow”. It really seems as though they are actively seeking to have the bare minimum number of people possible work on all these channel operations, which is not only blatant overworking and artificially creating a labor shortage, but also will only make the channels suffer more for everyone.
By a point in late 2022, it became pretty evident that the iconic studio building’s time was marked. Fewer and fewer artists populated the offices, there was a distinct lack of new projects as mentioned before, and most notably, the development and production executive teams for both CNS and WB Animation became combined (which of course led to several of the execs on the CN side getting the axe). Although rarely said out loud, it became more and more of a mutual understanding within animation circles as the months went by that before long it was gonna shut its doors - that is until former general manager Brian Miller publicly confirmed less than a month ago that it indeed will be so come August 1st - and the remaining CNS team members will be relocated alongside WBA (losing their own old facilities, nicknamed ‘The Ranch’) to a new iceberg-looking building meant to represent WB’s Second Century.
So with all that said, here are the CNS projects that, as of this writing, remain in production or are otherwise upcoming in some capacity:
Fionna & Cake: Streaming August 31st, Limited mini-series
Craig of the Creek: Final season cut short, wrapping late 2023/early 2024
We Baby Bears: Second season currently airing, has not been renewed past that
Jessica’s Big Little World: Also cut short, premiering fall & likely will finish by end of year
Cartoon Cartoons shorts: Nearing full completion, release status unknown
Invincible Fight Girl: Releasing early 2024, one season ordered
Primal: Season 3 recently renewed, most likely in pre-production
That may sound decent at first glance, but note that, with the exception of that last bullet point, all these were ordered prior to WBD’s takeover, and either will no longer be ongoing in a year’s time or are just limited in life by nature. And even with that one exception, “Primal” - as most of you know - is both a Gennedy Tartakovsky-helmed project and one made purely for Adult Swim, the combination of which no doubt gave that show a distinct advantage in the decision to renew it.
Of course, there are indeed more set to air on the CN channel than those, but they are either acquired from an outside studio (“Iyanu: Child of Wonder”), under their European division (“Prince Ivandoe”), or produced under WB Animation (“Tiny Toons Looniversity”). And many of these are certainly exciting shows by themselves - heck, Iyanu looks fantastic - but they don’t hit the same because those productions aren't relevant to CNS in a creative capacity. And even a decent chunk of those are moving to Adult Swim, who have also been slowly eating up more of the schedule hours, no doubt because upper management considers that a higher-priority market (not that it’s doing well itself operations and slate-wise). There’s so clearly the sense that kids/family animation is something the heads just don’t show heavy confidence in.
Thus, the attempt to dismiss these emotions and claim that CN, if not the studio then at least the channel, is fine not only a tone-deaf reaction to seeing so many creative minds who populated CNS over the years gather around to send the building off, but it’s also just ignoring the full image. If it was simply a matter of the production pipeline continuing as usual during the change of location, or even if there just weren’t so many sudden cancellations and management overhaul during the past year, there would be more reason to have some faith that they’ll make it out relatively fine. But the closer you look into the situation, the more red flags pop up, and trust me when I say I haven’t even listed all of them.
When people tend to say “CNS is dead”, they don’t mean it the way those arguing the contrary think they do. It’s technically remaining alive in some form, but most often, people mean it like the spirit of CNS is dead. Despite Sam Register explicitly aiming to make CNS the ‘original content’ label and WBA the ‘IP-driven label’, there’s been word through the grapevine on how the main agenda going forward is to predominantly produce IP content, which sadly aligns with the current state of Hollywood on the whole. Don’t get me wrong, those have definitely turned out just as strong as of late (“My Adventures With Superman”, “Jellystone”), but people turn to CN for originality. And with so many of the people and culture that made the studio just gone, let alone where it called itself home, the main argument here is simply that it can’t reasonably be considered the same studio anymore. A name can only take you so far when everything surrounding it is unidentifiable. Not to doubt the skill of anyone remaining there of course, but the battle they are facing is more uphill than ever before.
I want to highlight the current network president Michael Ouweleen for a bit here. Man, I feel so bad for the guy. He was already heading Adult Swim for a long while, but then was put onto leading Cartoon Network on top of that after consolidation had already been on the brains above his own. And in his year or so in this position, most we’ve seen him do is essentially attempt to keep plugging as many holes in the sinking ship as he can.
When a bunch of CN-turned-Max-original shows were infamously purged off the service, as far as I can tell they were inches away from being written off for taxes - effectively making them lost to the seas of piracy forever - before “heads at CN” got ticked off by their complete lack of tact, and as such they managed to remain available for a la carte purchase on digital stores and even occasionally get acknowledged by their official social media. There’s also how he went out of his way to not just keep alive, but foster projects he evidently had a lot of personal confidence in, like “Unicorn: Warriors Eternal”. All the while maintaining positive PR on the importance of quality, groundbreaking animation, which is a real breath of fresh air amongst all the constant pushing-back of the medium across Hollywood, especially his own parent corp.
I have no doubt constantly trying to fight the demands from up top, and juggling keeping in good terms with the corp with maintaining general goodwill, has been quite the stressful chore for him. As disastrous as the brand’s position is now, it would certainly be a lot worse if anyone other than him was at the helm, so he really deserves all the credit in the world in my opinion. But no matter what, all these are merely bandaids on the problem at large, and it’s ultimately up to the cost-cutting bosses what decisions end up getting made, which no amount of repair work can salvage.
So with very little remaining in active production, its main facility lost, its staff shrinking by the week, and even losing some hours on the linear network itself to Adult Swim - things are indeed looking extremely bleak for CN as both a studio and brand. And although we can’t personally have much direct effect as mere consumers, acknowledging it and sharing in everyone’s mourning does do more than you may think. It helps give a sort of empowerment to these creative types, to know that their contributions are more appreciated on the individual level than the corporate treatment would make them think - even more so if you actually follow what they eventually work on later, be it of the indie type or at another studio.
In addition: not only do all the relevant rallies and strikes need all the public leverage they can get to achieve the best possible results, but it will set a course for when the Animation Guild has to renegotiate (and possibly strike themselves) come a year from now. The more people are aware of the lack of labor protections and what they are seeking to gain, the more motivated the people within these unions will be to push for them by any means necessary. We shouldn’t sugarcoat how rough times currently are for creatives everywhere, especially when studios are being as compromised as CN’s, but if all the right moves are taken to power through everything, a new door may well open where the one before has closed.