A Happy ‘Toon

In case you haven’t been paying attention, ABC’s “Doug” and “Recess” are beating Fox Kids Network’s “Goosebumps” and “Toonsylvania” in the ratings.

More than just frivolous jousting between Saturday morning cartoons, such matchups are at the heart of a heavyweight fight among global media giants for supremacy in children’s television.

After five years in which Fox dominated children’s ratings, former cellar-dweller ABC has rapidly caught up, armed with corporate parent Disney’s marketing machinery and a lineup of programming that invokes the studio’s identification with family fare.

It is, in large part, the only area where Disney’s perceived magic has rubbed off on ABC, whose Saturday morning ratings for kids age 2 to 11--the principal age group sought during those hours--have shot upward by more than a third. By contrast, Fox’s kids audience has declined 29% this season.

The two are now virtually tied, each averaging a little more than 1.4 million children a week. ABC, however, appears to have momentum, winning the last five weeks.

“The swiftness of our success caught us by surprise,” acknowledged Jonathan Barzilay, ABC’s vice president of children’s programming.

As proof of the competition’s significance, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch--who didn’t bother to attend the press conference announcing his company’s acquisition of the Los Angeles Dodgers--showed up when Fox presented next season’s Saturday morning lineup to advertisers.

That’s largely because children’s television spills over into so many other arenas. In addition to ABC, Disney (which produces all of the network’s new shows) operates the Disney Channel and soon will launch a spinoff cable network, Toon Disney, exploiting its vast TV animation library. Fox also has pushed into cable by acquiring the Family Channel, which is being transformed into a children’s service.

Time Warner holdings include the WB network and cable’s Cartoon Network, while Nickelodeon--still by far the preeminent force in children’s television--possesses the resources of Viacom.

The corporate synergy extends to movies as well. Fox used its children’s television lineup to promote the release of “Anastasia,” which marked the studio’s challenge to Disney in the lucrative feature world. Paramount had a major hit with its “Beavis and Butt-head” movie, derived from Viacom-owned MTV.

Television series also keep film franchises alive. ABC currently airs “Disney’s 101 Dalmatians,” and will premiere a series based on its movie “Hercules” next fall. The WB has done the same with Warner Bros.’ DC Comics characters Superman and Batman, plus an animated show based on Sony’s “Men in Black.” Fox also has ordered a series derived from Sony’s upcoming summer release “Godzilla.”

“What we do drives so many other businesses for the company,” said Jean MacCurdy, Warner Bros. Television animation president, citing the use of animated characters in theme parks, sell-through home videos, publishing and international sales. “That’s what keeps all the other ancillary businesses going for the property.”

What remains striking is how quickly Disney overtook Fox, despite a handicap: Fox not only programs to kids on Saturday mornings but also runs children’s shows Monday through Friday, providing the means to promote its kids’ shows throughout the week.

Moreover, ABC’s turnaround has occurred while the network’s prime-time lineup headed in the opposite direction, with ratings declining sharply since the Disney acquisition became final two years ago.

ABC’s primary weapon has been “Disney’s One Saturday Morning,” a two-hour block consisting of the animated shows “Doug,” “Pepper Ann” and “Recess,” augmented by interstitial elements, including educational segments hosted by the Genie from “Aladdin” (voiced by Robin Williams).

Disney/ABC Cable Networks President Geraldine Laybourne raided her former stamping ground, Nickelodeon, to acquire “Doug” and also brought with her the concept of creating a kid-friendly environment that extends beyond specific shows.

“The whole strategy of making Saturday morning an event for kids has been validated by the ratings,” ABC’s Barzilay said.

Fox, in fact, will begin linking the scare-oriented shows “Goosebumps” and “Eerie, Indiana” into a 90-minute block, titled “The No Yell Motel,” starting next week. Fox already shifted its lineup once this season, and experienced management upheaval when Margaret Loesch--the executive who presided over the kids venture since 1990--was forced out in November.

Maureen Smith, Fox Kids’ senior vice president of scheduling and planning, said the new lineup was “in no way an imitation” of ABC, adding that the shift in viewing reflects children’s willingness to sample new fare, either on the broadcast networks or cable.

“Of course we’d love to push the numbers higher, but we’re very comfortable with where we are,” she said.

Perhaps most directly, Fox has been hurt by the WB, whose lineup includes “Batman” and “Animaniacs”--popular programs that Fox once aired, before Warner Bros. brought them over to bolster its own venture. The WB ranks third among broadcasters with 850,000 kids tuning in each Saturday, a 30% increase over last year.

“Fox backed away from action,” MacCurdy said. “That’s when our stuff started to kick in. The action crowd found us and liked what they saw.”

ABC’s success comes at a time when NBC and CBS have found themselves unable to compete with the likes of Nickelodeon, Fox and the WB, which offer children’s shows throughout the week. ABC, NBC and CBS stations fill the same weekday hours with adult-oriented talk shows and local news, though ABC heavily promotes its Saturday morning shows in prime-time series that attract a large kids audience, such as “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” and “Wonderful World of Disney.”

“They can reach a lot more kids in prime time than we can with one spot on [a weekday] afternoon,” Fox’s Smith said.

Pursuing a different strategy, NBC now courts teenagers with live-action shows, such as “Saved by the Bell.” CBS shifted last fall to a news program for Saturdays, paring down to three hours of children’s fare designed to meet Federal Communications Commission educational programming guidelines.

Thus far the approach has failed. The network’s ratings have plummeted 60% this season, attracting one-sixth as many kids as Fox or ABC. Next fall, CBS will introduce an entirely new lineup produced by a Canadian company, Nelvana, which qualifies for financial subsidies from the Canadian government. That will allow the network to fulfill the FCC mandate on a more cost-effective basis, paying a pittance for its shows by network standards.

Given the appetite for programming created by new broadcast and cable channels devoted to kids, Nelvana President Toper Taylor called this “a veritable renaissance period for independent, international producers” of children’s shows.