Essay 1873

From Multichannel.com…

-----------------------------

Diversity Gets Animated
Kids’ Shows Strive for Authenticity While Attracting Broad Audiences

By Luis Clemens

Audience demands and demographic reality have helped make kids’ animated programming on cable more culturally diverse than ever.

“We don’t live in Leave It To Beaver-land, where everyone is white,” Cartoon Network senior vice president of programming and development Bob Higgins said. Or, as Nickelodeon Television executive vice president and general manager Tom Ascheim put it, “It is important for kids to see themselves represented on screen.”

Nickelodeon should know, as two of the network’s biggest stars are Latino cousins who headline the consistently top-rated shows for viewers between 2 and 5 years old: Dora the Explorer and Go, Diego, Go!

“It is always good when you make money by sticking to your principles,” said Ascheim.

But more recent additions to networks’ animated lineups reinforce the popularity of diverse cartoons among young audiences. Among cable’s offerings:

> Disney Playhouse’s Handy Manny, launched last September, features a bilingual Latino handyman and “as diverse a cast as I think I am ever likely to be able to put together,” said Disney Channel senior vice president of programming Nancy Kanter. It was the highest-rated Playhouse Disney original series premiere ever among kids 2 to 5. The show was just renewed for 26 episodes.

> The March 3 debut of Nicktoon’s El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera earned Nickelodeon its best premiere performance ever for a Saturday morning series.

> Cartoon’s Class of 3000, created by and starring hip-hop artist André Benjamin of OutKast, just got renewed for 13 episodes. The overall number of viewers is up 3% for the same time period but up a dramatic 19% in the target demographic of boys 6 to 11.

Meanwhile, Disney continues to have success with Toon Disney show American Dragon: Jake Long. The show, featuring a Chinese-American hero, saw its audience grow from a 3.3 rating for kids 2 to 11 during its first season in 2005 to a 4.7 rating in its second season.

Adam Bonnett, Disney Channel senior vice president of original series, said, “The inspiration for American Dragon: Jake Long was Harry Potter — something that had absolutely nothing to do with Asian culture.”

But, aware of their increasingly diverse audience, programmers are making a concerted effort during the development process to include characters of different races and ethnicities.

“If there’s a way to make that character African-American, Asian or Hispanic, we will do that,” said Cartoon’s Higgins.

[Click on the essay title above to read the full story.]