I see Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and Disney when I flip through my channel lineup. I see them, understand they offer 24 hours a day, 7 days a week kiddie fare. But that doesn’t excuse the fact that the Saturday Morning Lineup has been in dire straits over the last decade or so. And now Fox has thrown in the towel to replace the cartoons with infomercials.
Throwing another edition of The Today Show up there on Saturday morning is one thing, but infomercials is slap in the face. It gets even worse as the network has a marketing friendly name: Weekend Marketplace. Clearly the networks are scrambling to fill in the black hole that is becoming Saturday morning. Now that kids are tuning out will this be the answer? Doubtful as QVC and Home Shopping Network already corner the market on stay at home television shoppers.
And here’s a thought: perhaps the waning interest of children in the Saturday morning lineup has more to do with a lack of great programming than anything else. I used to be able to watch Looney Tunes, X-Men, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ghostbusters, and a myriad other fantastic cartoons on Saturdays.
