The Non Stop Rise of Adult Swim

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Adult Swim began as a late night programming block on Cartoon Network, meant to appeal to older viewers watching the channel after 11pm. Initially Adult Swim aired Saturday- Thursday night, but starting March 31st of this year, it airs every night from 8pm – 6am on Cartoon Network and is considered it’s own separate channel.

Adult Swim has been the top rated cable network for viewers between the ages of 18 and 34 and 18 and 49. And it’s been this way for years. How have they done it? With exceptional original programming, the willingness to be as weird as possible and to experiment along with the acquiring key non-original shows.

2001:  The Early Years

Space Ghost Coast to Coast is recognized as the flagship show for Adult Swim, which anchored the channel when it first officially launched on September 2nd, 2001.

This new, bizarre, incarnation of Space Ghost first aired in 1994 at 11pm, Cartoon Network’s initial foray into late night programming. The production company behind Space Ghost eventually became Williams Street which is now responsible for the production and programming of the entire Adult Swim Channel.

The other original shows to air along with Space Ghost were Harvey Birdman, Sealab 2021 and the channel’s longest running show, Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

All of these shows had run times of roughly 11 minutes, which made them ripe for weirdness. The non-sequitur’s were rampant, plot lines could be non existent and sometime things failed, but when they worked, they were hilarious.

2003: Seth McFarlane and Matt Groening Owe Adult Swim One

As the channel got off the ground and found success with their original programming, they began to acquire canceled animated shows and began running them. Two of those shows were the then canceled Family Guy and Futurama. Both found huge success as they were rerun every night on Adult Swim, getting big late night ratings among the younger demographics.

Both shows eventually found their way back to TV and producing new episodes, thanks in a big part to Adult Swim making people realize there were still audiences for them.

Other non original programming Adult Swim has aired include King of the Hill, American Dad! and Bob’s Burgers.

2007:  Adult Swim Gets Tied to a Bomb Scare

By the time Futurama was getting back on the air in 2007, Adult Swim was in the news with after one of their original shows was tied to a bomb scare. In a viral marketing stunt to promote the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie, Adult Swim places LED displays of one of the characters, The Mooninites, in cities around America. The police didn’t take kindly to it and treated the marketing campaign as if it were a terrorist threat.

Adult Swim Hits Its Stride

The amount of original shows finding cult and mainstream success on Adult Swim kept growing. Shows like The Venture Brothers, The Boondocks, and Robot Chicken all were getting big runs and gaining hard core audiences,

Some shows, like Venture Brothers, expanded to a full half hour, but the majority of the channels original shows kept at the 11 minute mark. Thanks in no small part to college students and marijuana, Adult Swim shows found a audience that was loyal and spread the word that the channel had great stuff on it.

Adult Swim also became a place for anime on American television. They would buy the rights to classic Japanese anime and air it late night, and it’s worked.

2008: The Move to Live Action

Animation is still Adult Swim’s bread and butter but the channel has been airing more and more live action series in recent years. Including Children’s Hospital, Chris Elliott’s Eagleheart, Michael Ian Black’s You’re Whole, Delocated, Check it Out! with Dr. Steve Brule(spin off from Tim & Eric) and the Eric Andre Show.

All of these shows could only be shown on Adult Swim, a place that allows creators to be experimental.

2014:  What’s Next

With Adult Swim expanding and their rating increasing every year, one can only think that Cartoon Network will become smaller and smaller. They may still have a daytime part, but Adult Swim is a destination for creative people who want the freedom to put on a show that couldn’t get aired anywhere else.