David Zaslav and Warner Bros. Discovery Nuke the Entire Cartoon Network Website
David Zaslav's scythe has slashed yet another beloved part of our childhoods: Cartoon Network dot com, home of games Nightmare-athon, Outnumbuh'd, Teen Titans Battle Blitz and The Cobblepot Caper, has been bled out. Instead of being greeted by the scribbled smiles of Gumball, Jake and Steven on the homepage, site visitors are now immediately being redirected to Max.
“Looking for episodes of your favorite Cartoon Network shows? Check out what’s available to stream on Max (subscription required),” the pop-up message reads. “Sign up for Max, where you can also create a Kids Profile with ratings restrictions and additional privacy protections to keep it fun and kid-friendly! Cable subscribers, continue to enjoy your favorite CN programming on your TV and connected apps as well!”
What you could once get for free on the site — including full episodes of popular shows like “Craig of the Creek” and “We Bare Bears” — is now available for $9.99 (yet another cost to tack onto our ever-increasing streamer subscription bills).
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CartoonNetwork.com closes its doors after 26 years entertaining kids and kids-at-heart on the World Wide Web. Why would CN's parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, opt to drain such an iconic brand? It's all a part of CEO Zaslav's signature cost-cutting measures, which have hit the company's animated slate particularly hard.
On Wednesday, Warner Bros. Discovery reported that they suffered a net loss of almost $10 billion in Q2, spurred in part by a $9.1 billion goodwill impairment charge due to plummeting linear TV network values (and that doesn't just include Cartoon Network and Adult Swim, but also CNN, Discovery, Food Network, HGTV, TBS and TNT).
“We are focusing on the Cartoon Network shows and social media where we find consumers are the most engaged and there is a meaningful potential for growth,” a Cartoon Network spokesperson told Variety regarding the shuttering of the brand's site. The announcement comes seven days after WBD announced it would be booting vintage toon provider Boomerang and integrating it completely with Max.
In a letter to shareholders earlier this week, Zaslav wrote, “In light of industry headwinds, we have and will continue taking bold steps, like reimagining our existing linear partnerships and pursuing new bundling opportunities, with the goal to get Max on the devices of more consumers faster and at a fraction of the acquisition cost, and we are seeing clear evidence that these and other actions we are taking will help drive segment profitability in the second half of the year and into 2025 and beyond.”
Presumably, the business heads at WBD may be pulling the plug on free episodes of Adventure Time and other Cartoon Network titles from the now-defunct site to forcibly rev up Max subscriptions.
This isn’t the first time that Zaslav’s choices have upset animation fans. Ever since Warner Bros. and Discovery's merger in April 2022, when Zaslav was brought into the WBD fold (he had been the CEO of Discovery since 2006), the parent company has been chipping away at Cartoon Network’s slate. It has scrubbed over 60 animated titles thus far from all of its platforms — including Infinity Train, Summer Camp Island, Uncle Grandpa and Aquaman: King of Atlantis — and it has left over 125 positions in the animation department vacant since the merger. Other controversial decisions have included canning the (completed) animated comedy Coyote vs. Acme, which reportedly stood to plop about $35 to $40 million in WBD’s pockets, thanks to the tax write-off.
If Cartoon Network’s fate is being sealed — or, at least its site is — then what is to happen to its foul-mouthed older brother, Adult Swim? As of Friday afternoon, Adult Swim dot com was still functional, though you may want to get your toon fix in for free, while you still can.
