The appeal and stigma of Periphery demographic animated shows

Personally, I'm someone who still mainly watches animated shows which are primarily for children(and or teens), and that got me thinking about the periphery demographic. I read somewhere that Freakazoid was cancelled because execs didn't want to have a show which appealed to adults who enjoyed Getting Crap Past the Radar.

So why is there this resistance to having shows appealing to different demographics?(Or maybe I've misinterpreted the situation).

A big part of the problem with split demographics is advertising. If you have a large percentage of your viewership be adults when the show is targeted at children, then your child-targeted advertisements completely miss that percentage of the viewership, devaluing that timeslot for the network. It usually isn't enough of a problem to outright cancel a show, though it may lead to Screwed by the Network followed by cancellation if they decide to shuffle something more profitable into that timeslot.

edited 28th Jul '12 1:20:08 AM by PerpetualLurker

A lot of it comes down to the advertisements, yes.

It also doesn't help that a lot of people don't like children's media, or at least don't think they do, because they haven't actually digested it in years. Even many parents don't notice what their kids are watching. I've noticed that many parents can come to love children books, mostly because they read it and experience it with their kids. TV, though, is so easy to put on in the background and not really watch.

There are a lot of cartoons which I think my friends and families would enjoy, running the gauntlet from humourous to dramatic, but I know they probably wouldn't even bother looking at it.

I also get the sense that all things considered, the adult demographics tend to be a fairly small group when compared to total viewership. In America (and other western nations) there's still a huge stigma against adults watching cartoons unless it's a raunchy comedy like The Simpsons or any of Seth Mac Farlane's shows. Even if they're very vocal online, chances are the adult fan contingents you see for stuff like My Little Pony or action cartoons is gonna be relatively small.

All those talks about whether it is right or wrong to watch "children's" cartoons, and yet no one gets the most important thing...

ADULTS ARE THE ONES WHO MAKE CARTOONS IN THE FIRST PLACE.

I will add nothing else to that.

edited 28th Jul '12 4:14:37 PM by KlarkKentThe3rd

Adults make diapers, too.

And wear them too.

Most executives do tend to favor the Viewers Are Morons material in general, so this isn't limited to animation at all.