The Detroit News
Mon, Jan 12 1998

ABC has renewed all but one of its Saturday morning shows for next season, while CBS has scrapped all of its current fare, a response to a lineup that has fallen 63 percent in the ratings.

ABC, up 40 percent and a close No. 2 to Fox, is adding a TV version of the 1997 Disney movie Hercules, which will also air in syndication weekdays. Tate Donovan, who provided Hercules' voice for the film, returns for the TV show. It focuses on the demigod's high school years.

To make room for Hercules, ABC is canceling Disney's Jungle Cubs, a prequel to The Jungle Book, which aired for two seasons. Much of ABC's success this season came from the two-hour One Saturday Morning block, which features three shows -- Disney's Recess, Pepper Ann and Doug -- interspersed with short comedy bits in a colorful presentation that clicked with kids.

ABC made few changes because "it's working," says Jonathan Barzilay, vice-president of children's programing. "We asked kids to accept something truly different, and they embraced it. We're delighted."

Season to date, ABC has a 3.5 rating to Fox's 3.7. (A ratings point equals 980,000 homes.) Fox is down 24 percent from last season.

But no network took it on the chin like CBS, which got out of cartoons to run live-action fare like The New Ghostwriter Mysteries and the long-running science show Beakman's World, and kids' versions of Wheel of Fortune and Sports Illustrated.

All have been canceled for a block of cartoons from Nelvana Limited, the production company best known for 'toons like Beetlejuice and The Little Bear.

CBS says its new animated shows will meet the Federal Communications Commission's requirement for three hours a week of educational programing.

Most are based on characters from popular children's books, including The Dumb Bunnies, Guardians of the Legend, Franklin, Anatole and From the Files of the Flying Rhinoceros. Birdz is original.

(Copyright 1998)

_____via IntellX_____ Copyright 1998, The Detroit News. All rights reserved.

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