Adored by the Network: Difference between revisions

This usually comes at the expense all the other shows on the channel, particularly the shows on the verge of being canceled. At the very least, they will just be ignored. At the very worst, they can be canceled or [[Retool|re-tooled]] to make it more in line with the adored show. And at very, ''very'', worst -- it could signal the first signs of [[Network Decay]], as the network may add [[Follow the Leader|more shows similar to the network darling to the lineup.]]

 

 

Before you add an example, keep in mind this isn't [[Complaining About Shows You Don't Like]]. Also, the simple act of airing the show a lot of times doesn't alone qualify it for this trope. The network has to go above and beyond to prop this show up constantly.

 

 

== Anime ==

** 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)

* [[Adult Swim]] ran ''[[Cowboy Bebop (Anime)|Cowboy Bebop]]'' every night for something like six years, and since then they still show at least one episode every Saturday night. It's only twenty-six episodes long.

** Adult Swim explicitly stated on multiple occasions that ''[[FLCL]]'' was their favorite anime, and they sure showed it for a while. The high amount of airings was especially notable given the fact that the series had only 6 episodes, which resulted in much replay of each episode.

*** 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.

** During summer 2010, ''[[Big Time Rush (TV)|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.

** Nickelodeon does this with any "big" Teen Com that has any form of success - ''[[Drake and Josh]]'' comes to mind fairly quickly and they even aired the Christmas Special over and over--even when it wasn't CHRISTMAS, ''[[I Carly]]'' lately is the most recent culprit.

** 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.

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

** Just about ''every'' BBC [[Panel Show]] gets this on Dave; ''[[Have I Got News for You]]'', ''[[Mock the Week]]'', ''[[QI]]'' and ''[[Would I Lie to You]]?'' have all been repeated to death. The former two regularly [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshade]] this fact.

** 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)|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.

* 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.

* Football in the United States. If it's autumn and your network carries the NFL, expect a pop-up ad or commercial every five minutes reminding you when the next game is and who's playing. Even when it's a sports station like ESPN, the NFL will be promoted far more than anything else it carries. Those above problems with preemption? Baseball fans have the same problem when they're waiting for the World Series and Fox won't cut away from James Brown and Terry Bradshaw yukking it up...

* Tennis on Eurosport. Go to any forum of a particular sport that isn't Association Football (or Tennis obviously) and you are guaranteed to find that most European fans there absolutely despise Tennis for the sole reason that they've spent large chunks of the last 20 years wanting to watch their favorite sport but not able to, as Eurosport was preempting it with an overtimed Tennis match, usually from the lower rounds of some unimportant tournament. Cycling and Basketball fans are especially prone to fly into a rage from this.

** 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.

 

** ''[[Final Fantasy IV (Video Game)|Final Fantasy IV]]'' is another example, it being ported or remade for [[Play Station]], [[Wonder Swan]] Color, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Virtual Console, FOMA 903i / 703i and [[Play Station]] Portable.

** Understandably, ''[[Final Fantasy (Franchise)|Final Fantasy]]'' is a [[Cash Cow Franchise]] for Square, and justly widely enjoyed. However, true to this effect, it has a habit of overshadowing other efforts that the company occasionally puts forth. The game ''[[Xenogears (Video Game)|Xenogears]]'' was hit particularly hard by this, when its budget and production schedule slashed in favor of the soon-to-be-released ''[[Final Fantasy VIII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VIII]]'', resulting in a sharp decrease in quality and quantity of gameplay in the second half of the game.

* ''[[Tales of Phantasia (Video Game)|Tales of Phantasia]]'' for the Super Famicom has gotten four remakes: first for the [[Play Station]], second for the Gameboy Advance, third for the [[Play Station]] Portable, and fourth again for the [[Play Station]] 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]].

 

** Before ''[[SpongeBob]]'' really took off and practically ran with this trope, ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]'' was this for a while.

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

** 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).

** On 7/29/10, of the 11 hours Nickelodeon has minus [[Nick At Nite]] and Nick Jr., nine hours were filled with ''SpongeBob'' and ''iCarly'' alone without any of their current Nicktoons showing and only two other shows aired.

* ''[[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 (Animation)|other]] MacFarlane show.

* Chilean network Canal 13 just '''loves''' ''[[The Simpsons]]'', to the point they will fill any spot they need with it. During the summer, the channel plays ''Simpsons'' blocks 2-3 hours long at morning, afternoon, and evening. This roughly sums up eight hours a day of a single show, never mind that they often skip episode credits to save time for adding an extra episode per block. In other words, they can air an entire season in a single day, the only reason they don't being that the episodes are randomly picked for the day. Sometimes, a small block of ''[[Futurama]]'' episodes airs before the morning ''Simpsons'' block. Still, it's not like they actually cut all the episodes in half just to accommodate for the prime time soaps. Oh wait, they totally did.

* Outside of reality shows, Australia's Channel Ten also loves ''[[The Simpsons]]''. It has pretty much always kept its daily 6:00 PM slot <ref> This is when all the other networks are airing the nightly news. Ten air theirs at 5:00.</ref> since forever and will often show a couple of other episodes at other times. Mostly on Wednesdays where another two or three episodes might air after 7:30.

** 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.

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

* Not even Italian networks are safe. ''Rai Gulp'', born after the three main division of the national networks ''Rai'' [[Screwed By the Network|dropped animation almost entirely]]<ref> [[Insane Troll Logic|(airing animated shows only during weekday mornings, that is, when most of the target audience can't watch television for obvious reasons)]]</ref>, and therefore dedicating its own entire schedule [[Network to The Rescue|to fill in the blank]], is partially guilty of this. Said schedule is made of shows that air at multiple times within the same day, but get removed from rotation after a while<ref> only to be picked up and aired again after another while</ref>. Some of these shows got properly [[Screwed By the Network]]<ref> Somewhat infamously, ''[[Code Lyoko (Animation)|Code Lyoko]]'' and ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' had their whole runs aired only once in a row without getting re-airings.</ref>, while others (some of which actually ''produced'' by ''Rai'', as a pre-airing [[Vanity Plate]] for them reads "RAI FICTION CARTOONS") are lucky enough to not only get re-airings before their temporary drop from the schedule, but get picked up again more often. However, the shining example is the ''Matt & Manson'' cartoon series, which has been removed from rotation only after a long while.

* The Latin American [[Expy]] of Cartoon Network; there was a time where the only thing they aired was ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy]]'', ''[[Mucha Lucha]]'', and ''[[Ben 10 (Animation)|Ben 10]]'', over and over and over again, for at least two ''months''.

* 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''.

** On the subject of shows without a huge fanbase, most of the network's time ''not'' spent on ponies or Transformers is instead spent on [[Game Show|Game Shows]].

* For those with small children - ''[[Caillou]]'' on the Sprout network. These are shown in 3-episode blocks 15 minutes in length, and only the first three seasons. This means there are only 25 blocks. Two blocks are shown in the morning, one in the evening (repeated 3 times in the overnight segment), and a full hour is shown from 1-2PM (3 blocks with commercials in between). This means Caillou is shown 9 times a day. There is a 100% turnover of episodes TWICE A WEEK.