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Vortexx
American Saturday morning cartoon programming block (2012–2014)

Vortexx was an American Saturday morning programming block on The CW from 2012 to 2014, programmed by Saban Brands. It replaced Toonzai, formerly run by 4Kids Entertainment until their bankruptcy. Vortexx mainly featured animated shows and live-action series like Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy and the wrestling show Saturday Morning Slam. The block ended in 2014 and was succeeded by One Magnificent Morning, a live-action educational block from Litton Entertainment, marking the close of traditional Saturday morning children’s programming on broadcast TV.

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History

On April 6, 2011, following a lawsuit involving the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, 4Kids Entertainment, which programmed TheCW4Kids/Toonzai block for the network, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.1 On May 1, 2012, Kidsco Media Ventures, an affiliate of Saban Capital Group, placed a bid to acquire some of their assets. On June 26, 2012, after competition from 4K Acquisition Corp, a subsidiary of Konami, the deal was finalized, with 4K Acquisition receiving the U.S. rights to the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise and Saban receiving all other assets, including the programming rights to The CW's Saturday morning block.2 On July 2, 2012, it was announced that Saban Capital Group, via Kidsco Media Ventures, would begin programming the block that fall.3456 On July 12, 2012, it was announced that the block would be named Vortexx, which launched on August 25, 2012.78

Closure

On June 5, 2014, The CW announced that it had entered into a programming agreement with Litton Entertainment to launch a new Saturday morning E/I block replacing Vortexx. The block would be replaced on October 4, 2014 by One Magnificent Morning, a block produced by Litton Entertainment (now Hearst Media Production Group) that features live-action documentary and lifestyle programs aimed at pre-teens and teenagers similarly to a block also introduced by Litton for CW sister channel CBS the previous year. The move came as part of a shift by broadcast television networks towards using their Saturday morning lineup solely to comply with the educational programming requirements mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), along with the cultural shift towards cable and online video on demand viewing of children's and animated programming.9 Vortexx aired for the final time on September 27, 2014.10 It was the last conclusive Saturday morning block across the major American broadcast television networks that primarily featured non-educational programming aimed at children.1112 On July 1, 2017, the KidsClick block from Sinclair Broadcast Group launched on both Sinclair stations and This TV, but had no association with a traditional broadcast network otherwise, KidsClick eventually closed on March 29, 2019.

Scheduling

Officially the network preferred the block to air from 7:00 a.m. to noon in each time zone, though there were local scheduling variances in some areas that may have moved it to different hours, to Sundays, or split the lineup between Saturday or Sunday, along with local pre-emptions of select shows. The CW Plus stations in the Central, Mountain, and Alaska time zones time zones also aired the block one hour earlier or later, depending on the local time zone, as The CW Plus operates separate feeds based on the network's Eastern and Pacific time zone scheduling for primetime shows. San Antonio CW affiliate KMYS split the Vortexx block over two days, between early Sunday and early Monday mornings before 5:00 a.m. due to an existing arrangement to air Fox's Weekend Marketplace paid programming block in lieu of sister station KABB. WTVW in Evansville, Indiana (which quickly become a CW affiliate on January 31, 2013, due to the market's former affiliate going dark) was unable to schedule the block when it initially began its affiliation with the network, due to contractual obligations to paid programming slots and existing syndicated E/I programming on Saturday mornings through March 2013. The station began carrying Vortexx in its network-recommended timeslot on April 6, 2013, with the station's acquired E/I programming moving to Sunday afternoons.1314

Video-on-demand

On April 29, 2013, Saban Brands announced a separate partnership with Kabillion to add programming from the Vortexx block to the existing Kabillion video on demand service for cable providers. The programs were listed on the service without any separate Vortexx subdivision under their individual show titles, with Vortexx promotional advertising.15 The shows currently remain on Kabillion with other advertising, even after the closure of Vortexx.

Programming

Most of the block's programming aired in high definition, with older standard definition content presented in 4:3 or widescreen with stylized pillarboxing and windowboxing.

Vortexx only ran an hour of programming that met the FCC's educational programming guidelines; as a result, The CW's affiliates handled the responsibility of filling the remaining two hours, The CW Plus cable-subchannel affiliates had E/I-compliant programs not acquired from the syndication market built into the national schedule, alleviating stations carrying CW network programming though that feed from the responsibility of purchasing the local rights to such programs.

Former programming

Original programming

TitlePremiere dateEnd date
Power Rangers16August 25, 2012January 12, 2013
Digimon17January 25, 2014September 27, 2014

Programming from 4Kids TV

TitlePremiere dateEnd date
Cubix: Robots for EveryoneE/I † ‡August 25, 2012September 27, 2014
Yu-Gi-Oh! † ‡
Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal ‡
Sonic X ‡October 6, 2012

Acquired programming

TitlePremiere dateEnd date
Rescue HeroesE/I †August 25, 2012August 23, 2014
Iron Man: Armored AdventuresNovember 24, 2012
Justice League UnlimitedAugust 23, 2014
WWE Saturday Morning SlamMay 11, 2013
Dragon Ball Z Kai ‡September 27, 2014
Transformers: PrimeDecember 8, 2012June 1, 2013
The New Adventures of NanoboyE/IMarch 9, 2013August 10, 2013
Bolts and BlipJuly 13, 2013September 27, 2014
The Adventures of Chuck and FriendsE/IAugust 17, 2013February 8, 2014
B-Daman CrossfireJanuary 18, 2014
The Spectacular Spider-Man † ‡September 27, 2014

Special programming

TitleInitial broadcast date
Tiny Toon Adventures †October 27, 2012
November 24, 2012

† - Program transitioned from Kids' WB ‡ - Program transitioned from The CW4Kids/Toonzai

See also

  • Television portal
  • United States portal

Notes

References

  1. "4kids Entertainment Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy". Anime News Network. May 30, 2011. Retrieved June 3, 2011. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2011-04-06/4kids-files-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy ↩

  2. "4Kids sells Yu-Gi-Oh CW Network related assets jointly to konami kidsco". Anime News Network. June 26, 2012. Retrieved June 6, 2014. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2012-06-26/4kids-sells-yu-gi-oh-cw-network-related-assets-jointly-to-konami-kidsco ↩

  3. Wallenstein, Andrew (July 2, 2012). "Jessica Borutski to rebuild CW toon block". Variety. Retrieved July 7, 2012. https://variety.com/2012/tv/news/saban-brands-to-rebuild-cw-toon-block-1118056206/ ↩

  4. Marcucci, Carl (July 3, 2012). "The CW signs Saban Brands for kids block". Radio & Television Business Report. Retrieved July 7, 2012. https://www.rbr.com/the-cw-signs-saban-brands-for-kids-block/ ↩

  5. "Saban builds CW kids' block". C21Media. July 3, 2012. Archived from the original on July 5, 2012. Retrieved July 7, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120705191717/https://www.c21media.net/archives/84226 ↩

  6. Dickson, Jeremy (July 3, 2012). "Saban and The CW launch kids TV block". KidScreen. Retrieved July 7, 2012. https://kidscreen.com/2012/07/03/saban-and-the-cw-launch-kids-tv-block/ ↩

  7. Steinberg, Brian (July 12, 2012). "'Power Rangers' Backer Saban to Reenter Kiddie TV". Advertising Age. Retrieved July 12, 2012. https://adage.com/article/media/power-rangers-backer-saban-reenter-kiddie-tv/235978 ↩

  8. "Jessica Borutski to launch Vortexx kid shows on The CW". L.A. Biz. July 12, 2012. Retrieved July 12, 2012. https://www.bizjournals.com/losangeles/news/2012/07/12/saban-brands-to-launch-vortexx-kid.html ↩

  9. "CBS Slates Teen-Centric Programming Block For Saturdays". Deadline Hollywood. July 24, 2013. Retrieved October 17, 2014. https://deadline.com/2013/07/cbs-kids-programming-block-litton-547952/ ↩

  10. "The CW Sets 5-Hour Saturday Morning Block". Deadline Hollywood. June 6, 2014. Retrieved June 6, 2014. https://deadline.com/2014/06/the-cw-saturday-morning-block-litton-entertainment-740867/ ↩

  11. "The CW Sets 5-Hour Saturday Morning Block". Deadline Hollywood. June 6, 2014. Retrieved June 6, 2014. https://deadline.com/2014/06/the-cw-saturday-morning-block-litton-entertainment-740867/ ↩

  12. Sullivan, Gail (September 30, 2014). "Saturday morning cartoons are no more". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 11, 2014. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/09/30/saturday-morning-cartoons-are-no-more/ ↩

  13. Newkirk, Jacob (January 28, 2013). "Local 7 picking up CW programming". Evansville Courier & Press. Archived from the original on January 31, 2013. Retrieved January 28, 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130131021904/http://www.courierpress.com/news/2013/jan/28/no-headline---channel7/ ↩

  14. "Jake's DTV Blog: The official announcement from Mission Broadcasting on WTVW and CW". Jake's DTV Blog. January 29, 2013. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved February 2, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20131203011934/http://jakesdtvblog.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-official-announcement-from-mission.html?showComment=1359501121918 ↩

  15. Getzler, Wendy (April 29, 2013). "Vortexx on-demand channel launches on Kabillion". Kidscreen.com. Retrieved April 29, 2013. https://kidscreen.com/2013/04/29/vortexx-on-demand-channel-launches-on-kabillion/ ↩

  16. Lost Galaxy season only /wiki/Power_Rangers_Lost_Galaxy ↩

  17. Fusion season only /wiki/Digimon_Fusion ↩