Saturday Morning Cartoons Are No More

Saturday marked the first time in over fifty years that morning cartoons did not air on any major American broadcast network. The CW was the last network to air cartoons such as Sonic X, Dragon Ball Z, Digimon Fusion and Yu-Gi-Oh, replaced now by a block of live-action educational programming called One Magnificent Morning. Cable, streaming services, and a 1996 mandate from the Federal Communications Commission that requires broadcast networks to air a minimum of three hours of “educational programming” every week (networks were often unwilling to mess with their primetime schedules and dumped the mandatory educational programs on weekend mornings instead) ultimately edged out cartoons. NBC stopped airing Saturday morning cartoons in 1992, CBS followed soon after, and ABC gave up airing them in 2004.