Networks vie to draw the boys in
By Gary Levin
USA Today
Boy-crazy networks are hauling out their superhero fighting machines to vanquish tamer, more popular fare on No. 1 Nickelodeon.
Geoffrey H. Short
Parents' groups have complained about violence in kids' shows over the years. But pint-sized viewers have shown a taste for more extreme fare, as evidenced by the big audience among kids 11 and younger for prime-time "Fear Factor" and "Survivor."
Sally Martin plays the Blue Ranger in "Power Rangers," which undergoes a yearly revamp.
WB, up sharply this season and winning the race for boys on Saturday mornings, has "Jackie Chan Adventures" and "Yu-Gi-Oh!" Fox's programming is action-packed. ABC Family's kid lineup now exclusively targets boys. Two former megahits, "Power Rangers" and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," have been spruced up and relaunched on ABC and Fox, respectively, in search of new fans.
Among the newcomers:
- "Xiaolin Showdown," a "mystical adventure" due this fall on WB, is about four young but wise monks trained as kung-fu masters.
- "Pirate Islands," a live-action series about kids who get sucked into a video game, premieres Saturday on Fox.
- "Megaman: NT Warrior," WB's futuristic series based on the video game in which kids "expose the darkness within their digital universe," is coming this summer.
The maneuvering comes at a time of upheaval in the kids' programming arena, where cable increasingly dominates and the 40 million 2- to 11-year-olds in TV homes are tempted by computers and Game Boys.
NBC and Fox last year began leasing their Saturday morning blocks to Discovery Channel and 4Kids Entertainment, who supply programming and sell ad time. Fox dropped afterschool programs; UPN will exit the kid arena entirely this year. The networks say they found it too tough to sell and promote their shows against all-day cable networks.
Other players routinely share lineups with corporate siblings, limiting the amount of new kid fare: CBS airs reruns of Nickelodeon cartoons, ABC borrows from Disney Channel, and WB shares shows with Cartoon Network.
But while the overall amount of kids' viewing has declined by 3 percent in the past two years, they spend more time watching kid-oriented programming — 8.3 hours a week, up 2 percent since 2000, says ad firm Magna Global USA.
"Every few years, a new kids'-program-based craze takes place," says Magna's Steve Sternberg. "It can never be predicted, and you never know how long it will last. And when it happens, it generally drives up kids' ratings dramatically for that network's entire lineup and inspires clones on other networks."
All hope to secure a bigger slice of the kids' programming pie from Nick. The 23-year-old network programs all day and has four of the top five shows, led by the sweetly tame "SpongeBob SquarePants."
The Disney Channel has recently gained an edge among preteen girls with such shows as "Lizzie McGuire," about a kid and her cartoon alter ego, and "That's So Raven," a comedy starring former Cosby kid Raven-Symone. So others went after boys ages 6 to 11, a prime audience for advertisers selling video games, action figures, movies and sugary cereal.
"Everybody's in the business now," says Norman Grossfeld, president of 4Kids Productions, which supplies "Pokemon "and "Yu-Gi-OH!" for WB and last fall began programming Fox's lineup.
Disney is downplaying its own connection to the often fight-prone world of "Power Rangers," at odds with its squeaky-clean image. The company inherited "Rangers" when it bought Fox Family Channel (now ABC Family), and now shares royalties from $1 billion in annual merchandise sales.
But "television itself has gotten so much more violent over time that the uproar" has faded, says ABC Cable programmer Rich Ross. "We are outstripped by every other show on TV."
