Adored by the Network: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

 

 

Despite the network's fixation on this show, it doesn't fit the nature of being the [[Creator's Pet]] because, well, if it's a hit, [[Captain Obvious|then many people like it]]. It may be a critical darling that's loved by all. You ''yourself'' may like the show. But you also like ''other'' shows on the channel and the overbearing presence of the program just may be too much. Naturally, if a single series is on all the time, it may lead to [[Hype Backlash]] through overexposure, since even the people who genuinely enjoy the show may get sick of it. Enough of this can ironically result into the show being considered [[Screwed by the Network]], as it can lead to the show's downfall and cancellation.

 

See also [[Cash Cow Franchise]], [[Hollywood Hype Machine]] (when this happens to actors), [[Creator's Pet]] (when this happens to characters and the fans are annoyed), [[Wolverine Publicity]] and [[Network Decay]]. Contrast [[Screwed by the Network]]; also sometimes the result of this trope.

{{examples}}

* Both ''[[Inuyasha]]'' and ''[[Naruto]]'' were the anime darlings of Cartoon Network/Toonami after premiering and becoming popular, only to be followed by Bleach before the network all but stopped showing anime. And before those shows, it was ''[[Dragon Ball]] Z'' and ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam Wing]]''.

** Speaking of ''[[Inuyasha]]'', its still averaging at least one rerun a week on [Adult Swim]. Since its both a network stable and a network favorite, it's not going anywhere.

** In the late 90's through early 2000's, Cartoon Network loved [[Sailor Moon]].

* ''[[Digimon]]'' was this for the ailing Fox Kids around the time of ''[[Digimon Adventure]]''; the love sort of petered off by the end of ''[[Digimon Adventure 02]]''. It was picked up by the network in order to [[Dueling Shows|compete]] with ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' on [[Kids WB]] and capitalize on the [[Anime]] boom. Some Saturday mornings, ''Digimon'' would air ''three'' times. It supplanted ''[[Power Rangers]]'' (circa ''[[Power Rangers Lost Galaxy]]'') as the most popular show on the block and even booted the show from its long-time schedule spots (9am EST Saturdays and 4pm EST weekdays). This still rankles long time ''Power Rangers'' fans, as it would retroactively prove to be a [[Foreshadowing]] for ''that'' series sinking even lower under [[Disney]]...

** In addition, "Toonzai" commercials advertise shows for an afternoon slot. Starting at exactly noon, "Toonzai"'s out and CW is showing other things (the first of which is "Preachings of the Eucharist" or something similarly titled, which is literally watching a priest do Sunday Church things). Double Screwing.

* [[Toonami]] was obviously head-over-heels for ''[[Dragonball Z]]'' which, up until it ended in 2003, (then up until the uncut version stopped airing in 2005) was shown as many times as possible. To be fair, it was highly acclaimed, very popular, and the biggest ratings grabber at the time. And then came [[Naruto|a certain show about an orange-wearing ninja...]] (pictured above)

** While not as popular as other examples, [[Fullmetal Alchemist (anime)|the 2003 anime version of]] ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' was pretty popular with the block. Now they've switched over to ''Brotherhood''.

* [[Animax|Animax Latin America]] was criticized towards its anime-only run because of this. Between 2005 to 2007, shows such as ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (anime)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' and ''[[GetBackers]]'' (and to a lesser extent, ''[[Hunter X Hunter]]'' and ''[[Pita-Ten]]'', although the latter was removed from the schedule in 2007). To be fair though, both of the former two series did have 52 episodes. When ''[[The Twelve Kingdoms]]'' premiered, it pretty much cluttered most of the schedule in the past few years (It had 47 episodes).

* For a time, Jetix would show 24 hour marathons of ''[[Pucca]]'' at the drop of a hat.

* ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' for [[Kids WB]]. Sometimes they would show nothing but the show to promote a special or new movie, and they'd sometimes show it for three hours at a time. Cartoon Network, the show's current channel, doesn't do this nearly as often.

** Kids WB's adoration for all things ''Pokemon'' even spilled into their promotional attempts for other shows in their lineup. During a ''[[Batman Beyond]]''-themed [[Y 2 K]] event, viewers were encouraged to send in their predictions of the future to be read on the air. One of the more notable entries: "In the future, Pokemon will be on every channel all day long." The daydreams of someone truly obsessed with the series, or an early example of epic trolling?

 

* ABC Family loves to air ''[[The Lion King]]''! On May 5, 2012 they aired the movie 2 times in a row, one airing after another.

* Remember that [[HBO]] once stood for "Hey! ''[[The Beastmaster|Beastmaster]]'''s On!". And it aired so often on [[TBS]] that [[Fan Nickname|it earned itself the nickname]] "[[Fun with Acronyms|The Beastmaster Station]]".

* Back in the early to mid 90's, TBS also used to show Clash of the Titans what seemed like every Saturday and Sunday.

* IFC really loves the [[Hostel]] movies and ''[[The Shining]]''.

* [[AMC]]'s favorite movie is ''[[Unforgiven]]''.

* Ted Turner adored [[The Shawshank Redemption]]. After its poor showing at the box office, he bought up the rights and aired it weekly, single-handedly making it [[Vindicated by History]].

 

** It's starting to become adored on TBS also. TBS even shot scores of new promos (including a five-minute one for National Cinemedia, one of the movie theatre preshow companies) with the cast to promote the reruns.

*** So much so that three days a week they air three hour blocks of the show.

* Fictional example: in ''[[Network]]'', the network president (Ned Beatty) refuses to cancel ''The Howard Beale Show'' despite tanking ratings, because Beale is basically acting as his mouthpiece.

* On [[Nickelodeon]], ''[[iCarly]]'' is also guaranteed to have a lot of episodes running on a given day (at least three or four a day on average, sometimes more on weekends).

** During summer 2010, ''[[Big Time Rush]]'' and ''[[Victorious]]'' were both big ones for Nickelodeon. They would rerun ''at least two'' episodes of both ''every single day''. Not counting Friday and Saturday night blocks. ''Big Time Rush'' had just enough episodes to cover a full week, but ''Victorious'' only had eight episodes to air.

** Plus, when the network's teen-coms air new two-part specials, after their airing, it'll probably rerun lots of times shortly afterward. When "iStart a Fan War" premiered in mid-November, it aired a total of nine times in the remainder of the month alone. Similarly with "iParty with Victorious", because Nickelodeon went so far as to make an extended version of it.

* [[Nick at Nite]] is every bit as bad with ''[[The George Lopez Show]]'', probably worse. First, they would run marathons of the show for every occasion imaginable using any excuse they could get, no matter how shoddy. Then they did away with the excuses, and began showing marathons of ''George Lopez'' without even giving an excuse to do so. On multiple occasions, they aired '''over 40 hours''' of it in one week, setting up a bizarre situation often where his self-titled [[Talk Show]] on [[TBS]] is competing with his own old sitcom.

** It got so ridiculous that Nick at Nite decided to celebrate ''Saint Patrick's Day'' (which in America at least is viewed as basically being a day to celebrate Irish heritage) with "Luck of the Lopez" week.

** MTV Tr3s has gotten in on the ''George Lopez'' overplaying fun now too.

* [[Nick at Nite]] also loved ''[[The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air]]'' when they had the syndication rights to it. There were several times where they'd show four episodes in one two-hour block. It was also an "introductory" staple for a while, where it would be the first show after the regular Nick schedule ends, possibly to attract a younger crowd.

** Part of what happens with [[Nick at Nite]] and TV Land is that when they get the rights to a new show, they always give it something of an introductory marathon to get people into the groove of watching it. They tend to do it with most shows when they first get the rights to them.

* ''[[Big Brother]]'' on [[Channel 4]]. The last season was showing about 7 hours of footage every day. It remains to be seen if Channel 5 will give it a similar treatment. A mix of [[Meddling Executives]] and ironically, [[Screwed by the Network]]; Endemol got a "Live Feed Every Year" clause into the contract. So, in the later years at least, C4 put the live feed on between midnight and 6AM. There is no such clause in C5's contract.

** It looks like ''Come Dine With Me'' is primed to become Four's most adored when BB finally ends at the end of summer 2010.

** Averted, surprisingly, with ''[[Glee]]'', to which E4 has the rights to run episodes from the first two seasons, ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'', ''[[Desperate Housewives]]'' and several other high profile American shows. E4's business model largely revolves around buying up the rights to American shows before they're popular and hoping they turn into smash hits.

** Channel 4 also adored ''[[The Simpsons]]'' for a while. A ''[[Private Eye]]'' cartoon depicted two C4 execs looking at a schedule of nothing but ''Simpsons'' episodes, thankful that they were showing something other than ''Friends''.

** They're doing it with ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' now too.

** They're getting worse. If a show's season just ended or went to Mid Season Break, expect USA to show a marathon. Burn Notice got two days to show various episodes, and White Collar got two days ''in the same week'' to do the same thing. USA essentially has nothing for daytime programming.

* ''[[Top Gear]]'' on Dave. Each episode is an hour long and it's not uncommon for it to be broadcast in six slots per day. This has been routinely lampshaded on the programme itself, and even Dave's programming mentions it.

** ''Top Gear'' on BBC America; ''nine hour marathons'' every Monday.

** Well, at least it ''was'' until the Martha Stewart combine overran the channel's daytime schedule at the end of 2010, leading to a ''M*A*S*H''-free Hallmark. What followed was a whiplash inversion of the trope when nearly half of the Stewart-controlled seven hour block was converted into ''[[Little House on the Prairie (TV series)|Little House On the Prairie]]'' space barely a month after launch.

* Jay Leno is an example of this happening with a person instead of a show. In 1992, [[NBC]] picked him to host ''[[The Tonight Show]]'' over [[David Letterman]] when Johnny Carson retired. In 2009/2010, after some [[Screwed by the Network|serious]] [[Executive Meddling]], he returned to ''[[The Tonight Show]]'' after an abortive shot at a [[Prime Time]] [[Variety Show]], screwing over [[Conan O'Brien]] and causing one hell of an [[Internet Backdraft|uproar]] in the process.

** This is an odd case, though, as NBC couldn't make up their mind on how to bestow adoration in the O'Brien/Leno situation (the Letterman situation was arguably decided five years before it happened, with Leno being the permanent Monday night host of the show before Carson's retirement). Initially, Leno was essentially [[Screwed by the Network|fired from the show]] despite top ratings, being told in 2004 that O'Brien would get the show in 2009 regardless of Leno's ratings situation; so Leno was, seemingly, screwed by the network's adoration for O'Brien. Yet when the time came to actually fire him, he was then in a way screwed by the network's adoration for ''him'', as they wouldn't let him leave for another network (though his tenure on the show was terminated, he was still under contract for [[NBC]]). This led to them giving him his own prime-time show with a [[Executive Meddling|mandated format change]], which bombed at the same time as O'Brien's run on ''The Tonight Show'' was doing poorly in the ratings. Cue ''more'' clueless meddling, and the end result is that O'Brien left NBC and Leno returned to ''The Tonight Show'', but the show's ratings are still shaky due to the backlash, and it would appear nobody was the "winner"...well maybe [[TBS]] who gave Conan his new show...and TNT, who got [[Southland]], which was also a victim of the whole debacle.

* In Australia, the [[Nine Network]] used to have a spectacular case of this for ''[[Two and A Half Men]]''. Every weeknight immediately after the news, in the filler timeslot once taken up by many a gameshow, ''Two and a Half Men'' played for years (except in regional areas where it was axed in favour of a half-hour of local news). Following [[Charlie Sheen]]'s swandive off the deep end, Nine seems to have shifted this treatment and its former daily timeslots to ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]''; there is nary a glimpse of ''[[Two and A Half Men]]'' anywhere on the network anymore. They shifted it over to their secondary channel 'GO!' [[Guilty Pleasure|to hide their shame]], and even then it runs comparatively infrequently. Meanwhile, ''[[Top Gear]]'' also seems to have become a similar object of Nine's affection.

** Some have speculated that this is a conspiracy hatched by Fox to get viewers to buy Foxtel

** Swapped for or followed by ''[[Bones]]''.

* [[Disney Channel]] is getting ''ridiculously'' bad about this. For the past decade, the network has been broadcasting and overpromoting its small roster of four-to-six shows. These same shows tend to reuse the same actors and promote the same actors in movies which are just like the shows the actors star in.

* [[ABC Family]] is also a huge fan of ''[[America's Funniest Home Videos]]''. The station's [[The Secret Life of the American Teenager|original]] [[Make It or Break It|shows]] [[Pretty Little Liars|usually]] air over Monday and Tuesday night. Unless they're showing a movie, Wednesday through Friday nights are going to be a block of AFHV. Its original series ''[[The Secret Life of the American Teenager]]'' has since joined as well, with 1-episode reruns airing at 5 pm ''every weekday''.

* The Canadian [[Expy]] of [[Comedy Central]], [[The Comedy Network]], ruthlessly over-promoted ''[[Corner Gas]]''. Nowadays, it promotes ''Corner Gas''' "successors" ''Hiccups'' and ''[[Dan for Mayor]]'' quite hard. In fact, it gave each a huge marathon during Canada Day 2010. One wonders if they're just going his to fill Canadian content quotas, or is it because it's one of the few shows TCN actually has a hand in.

** With shows like ''Air Farce'', ''22 Minutes'', ''The Red Green Show'', etc., it's the second one. Because TCN has/had a stake in the shows, it can air them as encore performances later the same week CTV airs them.

** They also gave eight seasons to the universally-hated ''Open Mike With Mike Bullard'', which is seven more than any other network would have given the show. When the Network first debuted, it's schedule essentially consisted of the few things they had the rights to -- ''Just For Laughs'' programming, ''[[Whose Line Is It]],Anyways?'', ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'', assorted British programming, and ''Open Mike''. At points, they would air both an episode of ''Open Mike'', ''and The Best Of Open Mike'' on the ''same day'', despite the show only having been on the air for a couple months.

* In a cross-over with [[Network Decay]], the [[Syfy]] does this a lot. For awhile, the fixation was ''[[Ghost Hunters]]''. No matter the time of day, chances are that 4.5 out of 5 times they'll be airing an episode of either it or its spinoff ''Ghost Hunters International''. Consider that [[Syfy]] has a stable of shows that it show (the ''Stargates'', ''Farscape'', etc.), but you have to actually HUNT those down.

** Which is interesting considering Australia's SyFy is usually chock-a-block full of ''[[Stargate]]'' and its spinoffs.

* Local news on most stations. Justified, in that TV stations ''have'' to run news in order to get a broadcast license from the FCC. It also benefits them in that it's cheaper to produce news than pay for syndicated programming, and it can earn the station some respect if it's high quality.

* GSN does this with ''[[Deal or No Deal]]''; on any given day, it likely fills every third time slot. Of the remainder, about a third or so consists of ''[[Family Feud]]'' reruns.

* Spike seems to feel that there's no such thing as too many all-day ''[[CSI]]'' marathons.

** [[Spike TV]] must want viewers to see all ''[[1000 Ways to Die]]'' in one sitting, as the show gets lengthy marathons at least once a week.

** Can these stack? Because it seems that if you turn on Spike at any given time, you'll stumble across a UFC fight.

** Pretty much anything that airs on [[Spike TV]] is seen in a day-long marathon, ''without exception''. This includes ''[[CSI]]'', ''[[CSI New York]]'', ''[[1000 Ways to Die]]'', ''[[Auction Hunters]]'', [[Jail]], the ''[[Star Wars]]'' series, or a UFC Fight.

* The UK's Channel One regularly aired five or six episodes of ''[[Star Trek]]'' (''The Next Generation'', ''Deep Space Nine'', ''Voyager'' and ''Enterprise'') on a typical day, with one or two being repeats. The catch-ups they did on Saturdays meant each episode of ''Voyager'' was broadcast on ''three'' occasions. Since then, the channel slot is Sky Atlantic, and it's ''still'' filling the daytime schedule with ''[[Star Trek]]''.

* A&E's line up these days consist of running one specific show constantly from 2pm to 2am every day. The show in question varies between ''[[CSI: Miami]]'', ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' (who gets TWO marathons a week), ''Dog The Bounty Hunter'' or ''[[Billy the Exterminator]]''. Other A&E shows are so rarely ever seen, you would be forgiven for knowing the channel airs anything else.

** For the longest time, old (~1980-1995) episodes of ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' was all-purpose caulk pumped into a highly porous daily schedule . As of the mid-2000s, it was replaced as such by ''[[Mad TV]]'' once they lost the ''SNL'' rights. Then they lost the rights to ''[[Mad TV]]'' (after it being off their schedule for several months) and eventually ''[[Scrubs]]'' and ''[[Futurama]]'' reruns have taken their place.

** Back in the early days of the network ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' was the network darling and cornerstone of their programming.

** Also, at night (from about 12-7) all they usually show is ''Comedy Central Presents''.

*** This is replaced by the Secret Stash on weekends: fully uncensored comedy specials and mostly uncensored movies.

** The network ''still'' airs ''[[Chappelle's Show]]'' during primetime, more than five years after the series officially ended.

* In 2008, [[Discovery Channel]] was obsessed with ''[[Deadliest Catch]]'', using any excuse to run a marathon. This wouldn't be so bad, except they only had three seasons worth of coverage, and they showed at least four hours of the show a ''day''. By the end of the week, you were all caught up if you were a new viewer. They have gotten better, though, at least moving on from ''[[Deadliest Catch]]'' to ''other'' new favorite shows. Like ''[[Dirty Jobs]]'' and ''[[Cash Cab]]''.

* [[Adult Swim]]

** They also seem to like ''[[Delocated]]''.

** If [[Tim and Eric]] so much as sneeze on something, AS will pick it up for a 3 season trial run. And you ''will'' like it, they'll ''make'' you like it god damn it, because they're the two funniest people on planet, apparently. It helps that a large segment of their target demographic tends to be drunk and/or stoned when they tend to air Tim and Eric's stuff (in the 10:00-11:00 range), given that Tim and Eric's target seems to be "people who are habitually drunk and/or stoned. [[Watch It Stoned|Especially stoned]]."

** Before that it was ''Secrets of [[World War II]]'' Channel. Before that, it was ''Battleships of WWII''.

** ''History International Loves History's Mysteries'', usually playing it three or four times a day.

* [[The History Channel]] always runs a ''[[Band of Brothers (TV series)|Band of Brothers]]'' marathon about every four months or so.

** Quite often it coincides with anniversaries of events from WWII but unless its D-Day the episodes have almost nothing to do with what its commemorating.

* [[ION]] shows ''[[Ghost Whisperer]]'', ''[[Without a Trace]]'', and ''[[Criminal Minds]]'' on weekdays. That's it. Nothing but those three shows between 3 pm and midnight ET, which is the network's ''entire weekday schedule'' - your local affiliate likely stocks the remaining hours with paid or religious programming. Granted, this likely means they are the only shows they can afford...

* ''[[How It's Made]]'' and variations thereupon for The Science Channel.

* NBC had ''Series/Dateline'' fell victim to this about ten years ago. It seemed that every night, except Thursday, you could find an airing of the show on NBC. Now, it, and ''48 Hours'' are adored by ID.

* The Inspiration network has ''Our House'', ''[[Highway to Heaven]]'', ''[[The Waltons]]'', and ''Wind at My Back''.

* At this point HGTV is almost entirely made up of ''House Hunters'' and ''House Hunters International''. Go ahead, flip over right now and check. Told you so.

* NBC's flagging Saturday Morning schedule was propped up by ''[[Saved by the Bell]]''. They loved its ratings so much that they had Peter Engel create [[California Dreams|another show]] with the [[Follow the Leader|same basic premise]] [[Recycled in Space|with a twist]]. When that got good ratings, they cancelled every cartoon on the schedule, gave half of Saturday mornings to its ''other'' favorite show (''[[Today]]''), and gave the other half to Engel and friends. And thus was born TNBC, an entire block of nothing but Saved by the Bell clones.

* Australia's [[SBS]] has a love affair with ''[[Inspector Rex]]'', which they pretty much admit on their special ''Inspector Rex'' website. The show has more-or-less been slotted in at 7.30pm on Thursday since ''1997'', and marathons are not uncommon.

* Back in 2009 [[TV Land]] got the rights to ''[[Roseanne]]'' and ''[[Married... with Children]]'' and one could tell they were quite enthusiastic about it because every night featured a three hour block of ''[[Roseanne]]'' followed by a three hour block of ''[[Married... with Children]]'' or viseversa.

** Lately [[Cartoon Network]] has REALLY been hyping up ''[[Level Up]]'', first the movie and then the series. The show has been getting ads big in number and in length, you'll be hard-pressed to go through a commercial break that DOESN'T have an ad for the show.

** [[Word of God|According to Kevin Pereira,]] the shows are an easy way for the network to fund its original programming, despite having almost nothing in common demographically.

* Tru TV is more or less obsessed with ''[[Operation Repo]]'' and many of its non-Operation Repo shows either seem to be "Operation Repo in a X" or "People Just As Trashy As The Operation Repo Cast Doing Similar Things".

** At the height of its popularity, [[The Crocodile Hunter]] was adored by [[Animal Planet]], though since Steve Irwin's death, reruns are shown very rarely.

* Bravo adores ''[[Top Chef]]'', especially when it has new episodes.

* [[YTV]] completely adores ''[[iCarly]]'' and ''[[Mr. Young]]''.

* Ever since [[Comedy Central]] UK picked up the rights to [[Friends]], they've been using ''any'' excuse to air it as much as possible. It started out as daily double-bills that are repeated at night...and then the compilations started...

...Um, it's March.

''The Best of'' '''Gunther?'''|What?! OH COME ON!!! Gunther?! Really?! '''''GUNTHER?!''''' }}

 

* [[WCW]] itself was adored not so much by the network, but by Ted Turner himself. It was his baby/vanity project, as he credited WCW's predecessor, Georgia Championship Wrestling, with helping get [[Super Station]] WTBS noticed in its early days (along with Atlanta Braves baseball). The fact that it lost money for most of its existence was of no concern to him since, for someone like Ted, the amount of money that WCW lost was never more than pocket change. If it hadn't been for the AOL/Time Warner merger, WCW would almost certainly be in business. However, WCW was most definitely not adored by an AOL exec named Jamie Kellner, who within a few weeks on the job cancelled all professional wrestling related programming.

 

== Sports ==

** And even then there are network favourites. Before [[Hockey Night in Canada]] switched to a early and late game broadcast in 1995, if you wanted to see any Canadian team aside from the Maple Leafs or the Canadiens, you either had to hope it they were playing in Toronto or Montreal, or that they made the playoffs and Toronto or Montreal weren't playing that night. The absurdity of this is indicated that in the mid-1980s, when [[Wayne Gretzky]] and the Edmonton Oilers were the best team in the league, it was almost impossible for someone in Eastern Canada to ever seen them on TV.

 

* Valve's obsession with continually updating ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' and expanding the ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' franchise has been viewed as taking precedence over making new games, ''[[Half-Life]] 2: Episode 3'' in particular, even though separate groups work on each series of games.

** This is mainly due to the fact that TF2 and L4D are their most popular products.

* [[Square Enix]] seems to be fond of ''[[Final Fantasy]]'', ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' in particular.

** As well as ''[[Final Fantasy I]]'' and ''[[Final Fantasy II]]'', which have been ported or remade for [[MSX 2]], [[Wonder Swan]] Color, [[PlayStation]], [[Game Boy Advance]], mobile phones, [[PlayStation]] Portable, Virtual Console, [[PlayStation]] Network and iOS.

* ''[[Tales of Phantasia]]'' for the Super Famicom has gotten four remakes: first for the [[PlayStation]], second for the Gameboy Advance, third for the [[PlayStation]] Portable, and fourth again for the [[PlayStation]] Portable with updated battle graphics as part of ''Tales of Phantasia: Narikiri Dungeon X''. Unfortunately, only the Gameboy Advance version, widely considered the weakest version, [[No Export for You|has seen an official English version]].

 

* Hello, ''[[South Park]]''! Not only is it one of (if not still) the most dominating show on Comedy Central, but for a time, it was also right beside ''South Park'' on TBS for marathon/back to back showings (four episodes in a row!) weekday and weeknight.

* [[Cartoon Network]]:

** It's a different story in the UK, as (along with Chowder and Johnny Test) ''Ben 10'' and ''[[Ben 10: Alien Force|Ben 10 Alien Force]]'' dominate the channel. It's got to the point where the late evening 'Cartoon Cartoon' show now consists of nothing but ''[[Chowder]]'' and ''[[Ben 10: Alien Force|Ben 10 Alien Force]]'' reruns.

** ''[[Adventure Time]]''. In addition to weekly marathons, it's used to round out most 15-minute blocks left over after movies.

*** There are also massive amounts of daytime being used up for the Scooby-Doo animated movies. Sometimes three of them. In a row.

*** Boomerang, at least in the UK, held what it called a ''Scooby Summer''. For the entirety of the summer holidays, every waking hour in the schedule would be filled by ''Scooby-Doo''. No ''[[Looney Tunes]]''. No ''[[Danger Mouse]]''. Just ''Scooby-Doo''. All day. EVERY. SINGLE. SUMMER. The worst part? The adverts made it seem like it was the viewers' fault. "You begged," they enthused, "you pleaded!" Yeah. We did. But it didn't stop. Went over the top eventually. Half term break coming up? Easter around the corner? Boomerang will be having a "Scooby Week" or two. To make matters worse, we now have Scooby airing on not only Boomerang, but also Cartoon Network AND Cartoon Network Too. Plus, CN now produces ''live-action'' Scooby-Doo TV movies with a CG Scooby that's similar to the one from the features but on a smaller budget! ''And they're making it a series of movies!''

** Also, in the mid-2000s, they would show nothing but ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'' back to back on Saturday mornings.

** From '99 to 2003 you could not go one day without seeing either ''[[Dexter's Laboratory]]'' or ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' playing on the network. Both of these shows were practically CN's mascots during that time.

** ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'' is certainly worth a mention. Since its debut in January 1999, it has been a big hit on Cartoon Network, has aired a total of 70 episodes running through 5 and 1/4 seasons and a series-ending movie and, even after being out of production for over a year, it still airs at least 2 episodes every Monday-Friday. Suffice it to say, it is admired by both viewers and CN.

** ''[[The Amazing World of Gumball]]''. Huge, huge buildup: They showed a "sneak peek" of it six days before its premiere. The day it debuted, there was a countdown bug on screen. And already it's averaging at least one rerun a day.

** ''[[The Looney Tunes Show]]'' seems to be this as well, in that, like Adventure Time above, its "Merrie Melodies" segments are occasionally used to round out the minutes after other shows. Also, like ''[[The Amazing World of Gumball]]'', there was a countdown bug on the screen the day it premiered. Also, during the 4th of July weekend of 2011, the network aired random episodes of the show that were supposedly made up until that point, along with random airings of classic ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' shorts, ''[[Space Jam]]'', and ''[[Looney Tunes: Back in Action]]'' in continuous loops. Back in the day, they used to have "June Bugs", a 72-hour block in June of nothing but [[Bugs Bunny]] cartoons.

** Nowadays, ''[[Regular Show]]'' seems to be heading this way, to the point of airing it '''3 times a day''' on Tuesday afternoons.

** ''[[Total Drama]]'', seasonally. You won't find it in the Winter. But when Spring/Summer comes,it comes back in full force with a new season. Heck [[Cartoon Network]] is actually willing to sacrifice an hour of ''[[Johnny Test]]'' for its previous seasons to prepare for the new one.

** ''The High Fructose Adventures of [[The Annoying Orange]]''. It hasn't even "officially" premiered yet and there's still at least one rerun per weekday.

* Speaking of Boomerang, they decided to devote weekdays and entire weekends to nothing but ''[[The Flintstones]]''. To the point where it gets so bad that if you here the theme song ''one more freakin' time'' you'll scream. Whats a girl gotta do to see some ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' come back again?

* For CN Asia viewers, it's ''[[Tom and Jerry]]'' or ''[[The Pink Panther]]''. The entire afternoon is nothing but episodes of both, and all CN Originals (with the exception of Network Darlings ' ''[[Ben 10]]'', ''Chowder'' and ''[[The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack]]'') are scheduled after ''midnight''; i.e. way past the bedtime of their target audience.

** Mostly, it airs first thing in the morning, but sometimes, another show airs. For instance, a [[Team Umizoomi]] special aired on Martin Luther King Day 2012, and the [[Rugrats]] special "Babies in Toyland" was the first thing aired on December 25, 2011 (aka Christmas).

*** It is no longer aired anymore as the first thing in the morning, [[Winx Club]] now airs first.

** Same thing with it being the last thing aired every day: sometimes, the last show aired is either [[iCarly]], [[How to Rock]], or [[Fred The Show]], which usually occurs on Fridays and weekends.

** ''[[Dora the Explorer]]'' is the second most run cartoon on Nickelodeon, airing at least four times during the morning hours.

** Before ''SpongeBob'', it was ''[[Rugrats]]''. The show was [[Uncanceled]] due to the ratings for the reruns being high and once the show was put back into production, it dominated most of the lineup and was running every day, at least five times a day. It was much like ''SpongeBob'' in regards to grabbing all sorts of audiences during the day. Plus, this also led to Nickelodeon using Klasky-Csupo (the studio behind ''Rugrats'') to produce at least six new shows for the network, including the ''Rugrats'' [[Spin-Off]] ''[[All Grown Up!]]'' which was born from another over-hyped special that got Nickelodeon's highest ratings ever at almost twelve million viewers. Meanwhile, all the other Nicktoons were basically ignored or canceled outright.

** On 7/18/10, an unannounced twelve hour marathon of ''SpongeBob'' plagued the channel, before an airing of ''Adventures In Babysitting'', probablly to celebrate the show's 11th birthday (a day late).

** Same deal on 11/26/10, they played two episodes of ''[[The Penguins of Madagascar]]'', then a six-hour ''SpongeBob'' marathon, followed by an ''iCarly'' marathon at 3, ending with ''iStart a Fan War'' at 7, and they wrapped it up with the premiere of the ''Victorious'' special, "Freak the Freak Out".

** Later, with a schedule change on April 2011, ''SpongeBob'' got ''over '''60''' airings that week''. It was even worse previously, where entire Saturdays and Sundays were filled entirely with the yellow sponge. ''iCarly'' took a close second, with ''[[Victorious]]'' and ''[[Tuff Puppy]]'' tied in third.

** On Latin America's channel, almost all weekends are 48 hour marathons of either [[SpongeBob]] or iCarly.

** There's more: The UK Nickelodeon had a whopping '''502''' hour marathon of Spongebob in Summer 2011, for the Clash of the Bottom competition, where kids had to vote for their favorite main character. To top that off, it was the second-longest TV show marathon ''of all time'', only being beaten by Boomerang UK's [[Scooby Doo|Scooby Summer]].

** Its sister channel, Nicktoons, is also filled with Avatar now that the series has ended.

*** Also, ''[[The Legend of Korra]]'' is starting to become this. Like the Flapjack example, they play it multiple times each day, although there are only a few episodes.

** ''[[Family Guy]]'' also seems to air about 10 times a day on [[Adult Swim]].

*** Four times a night on Monday through Thursday, two times on Friday and Sunday.

*** FOX intended to cancel it early, it was only because of fan backlash it got an extra season. If you watched the network when new episodes of [[King of the Hill]] were being aired, said new episodes would receive very little promotion, while new episodes for [[The Simpsons]] and [[Family Guy]] would get hyped up. FOX probably would've cancelled the show several seasons earlier if they had the chance, but the good ratings and large, dedicated fanbase didn't justify it enough.

* ''[[The Cleveland Show]]'' has certainly become a network favorite. Not to the same extent as ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' or ''[[Family Guy]]'', but it ''did'' receive two full seasons before airing a single episode, and it is more heavily promoted than a certain [[American Dad|other]] MacFarlane show.

** That is, until they decided to try a two and a half hour news block consisting of their aforementioned 5pm broadcast, followed by two new half-hour news based programs, and concluding with the already established 7pm Project. ''[[The Simpsons]]'' have been shunted onto Ten's secondary channel, 11, where it is shown at least twice during primetime, often being split/followed/alternated by episodes of [[Futurama]] as part of an 'animation fixation' block.

** Channel 4 also has ''[[The Simpsons]]'' at 6:00 PM over here in the UK, when BBC 1 and ITV 1 are showing the news, BBC 2 is showing ''Eggheads'' (which also never seems to move) and Channel 5 is airing ''[[Home and Away]]''.

* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' is quickly becoming incredibly overexposed on [[Disney Channel]] due to the fact that it has performed well over expectations and is gaining a massive fanbase. It's gotten to the point where Disney is [[Dueling Shows|comparing]] ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' to ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]].''

* The Canadian [[Expy]] of [[Cartoon Network]]; Teletoon literally airs THREE episodes of ''[[Johnny Test]]''! In a row! Every. Single. Day. (Its seems they've also now replaced ''[[The Spectacular Spider-Man]]'' as a result''... [[You Can Panic Now]].)

** Though they seem to be annoyed by marathons of the "original animated infomercials" ''NFL Rush Zone: Guardians of the Core" and ''Zevo-3''.

** Let's not even ''start'' with ''[[Fanboy and Chum Chum]]''. Massive blocks on both Nickelodeon and Nicktoons, It seemed for a while that you couldn't go a single day of the week without seeing at least three episodes of it.

*** Often the same three episodes. Again and again and again. Seriously, for a while you could only see three to five episodes, total, of ''[[Penguins Of Madagascar]]'' and ''[[Fanboy and Chum Chum]]'', even with the knowledge that other episodes probably existed. They would play them in hour blocks, yet you never seemed to catch a new episode.

** As of this edit (11/9/11) ''[[Dragonball Z Kai]]'' is shown multiple times every day with flimsy excused for marathons. It's 11/11/11? They promise to show 11 hours of the show. It runs at least 4 episodes a day.

* [[Adult Swim]] at one point began airing ''[[Squidbillies]]'' every weeknight at midnight while airing commercials stating it was getting low ratings and ''berating the viewers for not watching this awesome show.''

** Adult Swim absolutely loves [[FOX]] reruns, specifically ''[[King of the Hill]]'', ''[[Family Guy]]'', and ''[[American Dad]]''. Now that Adult Swim starts at 9PM, weekdays will be these three shows for 6 of its 9 hours (including repeats). In one week, there is going to be 14 hours of ''King of the Hill'', 12.5 hours of ''Family Guy'', and 10 hours of ''American Dad'' for a total of 36.5 hours.

*** Speaking of Futurama, its definitly a network favorite for it's new home at Comedy Central. Not only does it get at least one airing every weekday at 1:30 (Along with the regular airing at 9:00 PM before their precious South Park), but it also got another 26 episode renewal bringing the show's run up to 2013 along with promotion and a nice 10:00 PM slot. They love the show just as much as Adult Swim did.

** Adult Swim has also been playing ''[[The Oblongs]]'' pretty regularly, off and on, since 2002, sometimes even 4 or 5 days a week, despite the show only having 13 episodes.

* The now defunct ''Discovery Kids'' network, for its last few years essentially was ''[[Kenny the Shark]]'' and ''[[Tutenstein]]'' with the occasional ''[[Time Warp Trio]]'' and ''Prehistoric Planet''.

* Before it got changed to Disney XD, Toon Disney would air a marathon called Pumbaa Bowl every year. They aired episodes of ''[[Timon and Pumbaa]]'' for the whole day.

* For the USA Disney Junior channel, it appears to be ''[[Mickey Mouse Clubhouse]]''. [[Tropes Are Not Bad|Not bad considering that the show is very popular with the channel's target demographic!]]. They also seem to like the new show ''[[Doc McStuffins]]''.

* [[Cookie Jar TV]] adores ''[[The Doodlebops]]'' and ''[[Busytown Mysteries]]'', airing the shows for one hour each on Saturdays.

 

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[[Category:Trivia Trope]]

[[Category:Show Business]]

[[Category:Television]]

[[Category:Creativity Leash]]