Steven Universe Ratings

>Creator Rebecca Sugar has admitted that the erratic airing was affected by the ratings, which were not picking up from previous episodes aired in the last quarter of 2016.

universityherald.com/articles/62756/20170128/steven-universe-finally-returns-weekly-episode-starting-feb-10-stevenbomb.htm

I don't get it. Why was the network even airing it like that to begin with? What is the sense in releasing a bunch of episodes at once and then none at all? It's nice for like an "end of the season" special or "secret missing episode" special but as a format its just stupid.

How in the world could anyone keep up with a chronological show like this? Seriously, why did Cartoon Network fuck with SU's ratings by airing it so stupidly? Like, what are they trying to do?

>Like, what are they trying to do?
Kill it, probably. Lots of networks "cancel" shows by just fucking with the schedules until viewership drops off enough for them to justify not renewing it.

Yeah people forget that when CN five up Omniverse after they realize that it kids werent watching this, but guys in their 20's that didn't buy toys, Omniverse was the first show to start with bombs

I'd have bought the toys if I ever saw any

>Switch SU to airing its episode primarily online
>Release a new episode each week
>Make merch that adults would buy (t-shirts, posters, high quality figures, imitation gem pendants and earings and stuff like that)

CN is literally doing this shit with all their shows, SU and Gumball suffering the worst. They can't just go off a couple weeks without turning episodes into fucking bombs because ratings. Ratings is the only thing they care about, which is why TTG is 70% of their schedule and every other show goes on an indefinite hiatus or just shafted by the network.

>Seriously, why did Cartoon Network fuck with SU's ratings by airing it so stupidly?
When you want to kill a show, the best thing to do is mess up its scheduling.

>Like, what are they trying to do?
Remove it for some other cartoon that's cheap and random as hell.

If they know they have an older audience but wanna sell toys, why not try selling high quality models instead? It's like these people don't even try to think.

Same reason they don't try and sell toys to girls when they end up being the primary audience.
If you're not a young boy the network execs don't care.

>Lots of networks "cancel" shows by just fucking with the schedules until viewership drops off enough for them to justify not renewing it.
Also regular businesses do it with their employees schedules, not giving them shit for shifts until they quit of their own accord.

THIS DOESN'T SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF CN'S MAIN ADVERTISERS AND SPONSERS WANTING A KID AUDIENCE

QUIT THINKING make merch for adults IS THE PROBLEM SOLVER

Because they're stupid. There's money to be made there, but the execs are too short sighted to make use of what they have.

Didn't they learn anything from the horse show?

Remember what happened to Yough Justice teen are watching the show and even girls, they don't buy toys let's kill this show

What do kids want now a days?

iphone/ipad/ vidya

the rest can fuck off

>inb4 no one was buying merch!
It's kind of hard to buy merch for the show when they didn't start making merch until Season 2.

Remember the Regular show episode, the evangelion parody of how their toys were shit, with wrong colors and ood faces that was based on something that really happened to them lately some CN toys are really low quality

How difficult is it for CN to just give it a weekly time slot for new episodes? I didnt know bombs were required.

that would mean they would have to replace a ttg time slot

>Ood faces.

CN = NAMBLA?

Pretty sure 'Horsing around' wasn't aimed at kids.

Release an SU ios game

Attack of the light is a pretty solid game imo

They don't make money off merch, at least not merch for adults. They make money off of selling ad space. Commercials are focus-tested to be aimed at the intended target demographic of a show. If a show isn't drawing in the kind of viewers the companies want, they pull the ads.

S'what happened to Young Justice and GLTAS, multiplied by the facts that
>1: there either weren't any toys or they weren't selling
>2: they both had much more expensive animation and
>3: they were technically only co-owned by CN, and CN hates having to share their profits, which is why licensed shows like TF RiD and Sonic Boom have crappy early morning timeslots and no reruns.
At least SU has the benefit of being a CN in-house original, and between that and its fanbase they'd lose face if they just outright cancelled it.

Of course, it could just be that CN's focus groups have decided that kids can follow an hour or two's worth of story at once, but can't follow that same story if it's dolled out in 10 minute weekly segments. Serialization is still offputting to a lot of younger kids - my nephew's obsessed with YJ now that he's 12 and it's available in binge-able form, but when it first aired, he couldn't follow it at all. He preferred Green Lantern, and even there he eventually stopped following new episodes.

They should make a game where people can design and play as their own gems

It doesn't usually work like that.

Japan is an exception mainly because they have decades long subcultures of people in dense urban environments where they can more easily meet up, and a history of buying peripheral material and fan works as a matter of course.

American fans don't really bother outside of relatively cheap and simple models like hot topic tier stuff, and Comic Con isn't really the same thing as Comiket.

Even the, Steven Universe is fucking Anathema to what adult fans usually prioritize as good for their toys. Everything is soft and overly simple and the designs often simply don't work in three dimensions. There's a reason the vast majority of the fan art needs to be wildly off model to be interesting.

When I was a kid I always prefered anime like Pokemon and Digimon over western shows because they had an overarching story. Are kids not like that anymore?

If SU gets canned then Netflix should pick it up

Not sure if trolling or sarcastic

The miraculous saviour powers of Netflix are vastly overrated.

>Stares angrily at journey to one.

SU's overarching story isn't actually very good. The deepest lore it took two seasons to get to is that they were really Autobots and Deceptions are about to attack. If you want a big great secret, it needs to be something that's not incredibly basic, like the old hero killed the bad guy. That's shit that gets given out for free by other shows.

>the good ol' "cancel-a-cartoon-for-not-selling-enough-toys-when-you-didn't-made-any-in-first-place"
A CN classic if I am not mistaken.

Did Billy and Mandy sell any toys?

Billy and Mandy didn't need it good ratings means more ADs, also they have games, t-shirts that kinda stuff, then you get show like DCAU that sell toys like pancakes

Yes, but it can be a useful card to play in negotiations. If Sugar is smart she'd be in contact with them and other streaming services.

Ok I see your point, SU has good ratings but they are from adults, who couldn't care less about ads for kids. Also SU's merchandise is scarce and the main buyers are adults too, who will buy things that CN is not producing. Right?

I feel like Generator Rex or Secret Saturdays started that trend. Both of those shows got absolutely raped in the scheduling to the point where when they ended I don't think most people were even aware they were still on the network considering how tucked away in the schedule they were. I remember being absolutely shocked that they aired new episodes at like 4 in the morning.

In a market saturated with options it's best to acquire fans with bombs, where everyone is talking about your show for that one week rather than a slow burn that no one hears about.

Sugar doesn't own SU. CN does. It could only go to them if Netflix was willing to buy the rights and CN was willing to sell them. At best it would just be a place for her to go after SU ends but likely with considerably less budget unless she cozied up to someone like Dreamworks. who has some money to throw around.

So what am I supposed to infer from this, that SU's fifth season (i.e. the second half of season 3) is the last?

>cartoons are glorified toy commercials
>product isn't selling why keep making the commercial

Mysteries abound.

I remember when mystery incorporated (and some other shows) had half a season air in Australia before cn would finally start airing the episodes in the us (usually at 7 a.m.)

New episodes airing in australia months in advance is usually when you could tell cn wanted a show dead

Remember how Generator rex final episodes didn't even air on the channel and you have to go on Netflix to watch it, the show was good it didn't deserved it

Well done my dear, you're in top of the class, now you know why most show say goodby

They would not take the show runner shopping the program to other competitors very lightly. Especially when they're still showing it.

CN and AS have proved that the people in charge of them are very petty especially when it comes to show rights.

>constant hiatus
>dump a bunch of episodes all at once
>episodes are leaked on the internet WEEKS before they air on tv
>surprised that the rating are suffering
I would ask if CN is retarded, but I already know the answer.

Kids don't buy toys, their parents do. They need to realize that's the problem and figure out how to be more appealing than a video game aimed a more mature audience than their target demographic.

Adult Swim turned down and blocked a free (for them) season of Metalocalypse as a fuck you to Brendon Small releasing an album on his label.

>Teen Titans Go Network
>Regular Show cancelled
>Adventure Time ending in about a year
>Powerpuff Girls 2016 still on the air
>Ben 10 2016 without original guy behind Ben 10
Yea CN's fucked. Why not keep Stuart Snyder? At least he knew how to schedule and gave well-liked shows decent repeats.

That's impressively petty if true.

>Like, what are they trying to do?

Just another cartoon being added to the big list of "Shows cancelled before they could finish".

The instant your series gets moved from its prime time slot that airs every week at the same time, its already too late. Its just a downward spiral.

>7pm every thurday
>then 2pm on sundays
>then random whatever the fuck time that changes every week
>then every morning with re-runs at 4am
>then cancelled

>That's impressively petty if true.

Brendan Small wanted funding to do a final season of Metalocolypse, but CN was pissed at him and told him no. So he was then able to scure funding from somebody to fund a season of the show, probably some loaded heavy metal muscician who loved the series. CN still told him to fuck off.

THEN, CN said they wanted fans to hand write letters on why they think Metalocolypse should get a final season to tie everything up. They told fans to fax these very personal and hand written letters to the CN head office and gave them a fax number. What CN ended up doing was live streaming this fax machine over a garbage can, printing all these letters into the trash.

LOL, that's actually quality trolling.

>CN said they wanted fans to hand write letters on why they think Metalocolypse should get a final season to tie everything up. They told fans to fax these very personal and hand written letters to the CN head office and gave them a fax number. What CN ended up doing was live streaming this fax machine over a garbage can, printing all these letters into the trash.
I don't want to be contradictory, but that's very metal.

The pettiest thing the network did was purge everything Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi from the site, not finish airing the last season in America, and not acknowledge them for almost a decade.
I guess bands and CN do not get along.

>yfw Children don't watch Lesbian space rock show because it's feminist garbage shit.
>yfw only tumblrisim fucks autistic's watch this show and even they don't have self control to not watch the leaks.
>yfw they blame the ratings drop on leaks when the target audience (children) are not interested.

Cartoon Network aired them; mostly out of order (though the two part finale was in order) and at six o'clock in the morning. I think it might even have been around Christmas or New Year's Day.

>feminist garbage shit.
but user you're not looking deep enough

Eh, he's not wrong.

Yeah thats why they push TTG so much we liked or not kids love TTg, i remember a couple of months an user that worked on a toy shop tell us that the TTg merch sell like hot cakes kids love it, also they're easy and cheap to produce and on the top of that those gigantic rating allow them to put more ADs and sell app for the kids, it's all about merch and SU can't compete

You don't even have to look very deep.

Yeah, I'm with , that's actually very much in the spirit of the show. Seems like something Nathan himself would approve of, honestly.

I hope so.

>those gigantic rating

The ratings really aren't that great for TTG though; they're roughly equivalent or slightly less than what Steven Universe draws. They're roughly 10%-20% higher than some of their other shows but that's pretty much a given considering how much more advertising it gets.

He is, because he's looking at it through Sup Forums's definition of what they think SJW's think feminism is.

In this world that we will see.
>That we will see.

...

Considering how high the rating and dowload times this one got, I am AMAZED CN didnt do anymore video games with the SU license.

If you think real feminists want women to be perfect and men to be constantly shown as shit you're an idiot

So...assuming that this year will mark the end of a mostly good era for CN, who do we even turn to for good cartoons now?

Nickelodeon has been in the shitter for the past year and half with only 1 decent show to their name.

Disney is more worried about Star Wars Rebels and their re-runs of Gravity Falls to care about making anything new.

What is left to hope for Sup Forums?

I know a lot of people around these parts have said that Disney XD is going to be the new IT network for cartoons. And it might be. They have a lot of stuff planned that seems to interest people and more than a few shows that garner a bit of chatter to say nothing of Star Vs. But I personally don't care about anything that's in the works or currently airing over there.

Every show that fails, is a tax break for the channel.

Well craig said Disney might give him a chance for a new cartoon, but nothing is certain yet

post the rest

Netflix

>Netflix season
>show is even MORE GAY

>SU becomes more edgy due to there being less restrictions

i'm ok with this

Supposedly she has had the fifth season planned as the final one for a while, but I'm sure she would like more.

Is that going by the original plan for 50+ episode seasons or the switch to 26 episode seasons?

The show is a pretty fundamentally idealistic one user, I'm not even sure they even have that many restrictions right now, and if they did let loose I'm not sure they would go much darker.

there is an app called soundtrack attack and also a volleyball game that recently came out on some countries cn websites

>Horsin' Around

Well played Senpai.

They could probably do more with the corrupted gems. Mention people getting killed by them and stuff. Also they could delve deeper into the war. Like a flashback episode where the Crystal Gems give Steven an account of what exactly it was like.

>everyone has their beach outfit
>jasper only has slightly shorter pants

Fuck you CN

>that garnet
What a slut!

but ponytail jasper is best jasper

>rhythm runner
>gem creator
>combat to the beat

Why did I not know about this game?

Is this their way of foreshadowing that Jasper is getting redeem?

>5 vs.3

You're right user it's unfair, Jasper should have one of her arms behind her back

are you sure kids were ever 'like that', and that you're not just weird?

Jasper has the best stats in the game and they had to make it fair somehow

If not a sabotage it's probably trying(And failing) to capture the netflix mindset that people want to sit down and watch a ton of episodes at once hoping to get one huge rating out of it.

Which doesn't work of course since it's not on demand. But if they were trying to tank it I don't think they'd revert it back.

Considering the only toons that got talked about in class where anime I'm pretty sure I was normal

>Peridot's tights go away to make her "bikini"
Oh my

I wasn't even aware there was a difference between anime and cartoons until I was like 10, I just found it weird that for some reason my mom wouldn't let me watch Pokemon

glorious gams

DESU, I've always thought that SU would have this sort of slow, painful death.

The show will start hemorrhaging ratings.
Budgets will be slashed and cancellation imminent.
Episode quality will go down sharply, and whole story lines and plot devices will be dropped or never revisited/explained.
We'll get a clipshow episode.
As the show winds down, it will start a huge build up for the finale, but when it finally drops it will very underwhelming.
Ultimately, the epilogue will be unsatisfying, but contain a lot of callbacks and some fanservice.
The ending will be somewhat open, so that it feels like we have closure but with the possibility for renewal.
After everything is said and done, people will begin to overlook the horrible final season of the show, and instead choose to remember only the best parts.

After all, that's exactly what happened with Avatar.