Saturday Morning Shutdown

A "Saturday Morning Shutdown" is, technically speaking, networks getting rid of their Saturday-morning (and other children's) blocks. An extra kick in the teeth can be if the block mostly aired cartoons.

The 2010s saw a big chunk of this trope's examples happen as every single major network except Fox turned their time on Saturday mornings over to Litton Entertainment. Yes, *the* same company that produces strictly live-action programming, with most of it being unscripted; literally only *one* of their programs were scripted.

A few restrictions on this one:

* If the network as a whole goes under, it wouldn't qualify as an example, unless it *began* as a Saturday-morning block.
* This trope is *not* the same as Bionix Bankruptcy, though the two can overlap.
* Examples before the 1990s are best not documented.
* United States Saturday morning blocks only, please- else we'd be here all day.

## Examples

### 1990s

* In 1992, NBC dropped its cartoon block it had operated for *decades*, replacing it with "TNBC" (noted in the 2000s examples).
* CBS heavily slashed its Saturday-morning budget (*Garfield & Friends* actually called the network out for this) so it could have a live-action block to compete with TNBC. Unfortunately, children in the 1990s *really love* their Saturday-morning cartoons, so CBS brought the cartoons block back in 1998.
	+ *Think CBS Kids*, the resulting block, only lasted a year before Nelvana (yes, *Nelvana*) took over programming responsibilities for the block.
* ABC also got rid of *two* Saturday-morning blocks in the same decade:
	+ The first, their regular Saturday-morning block, was axed in 1996 following ABC's acquisition by Disney.
	+ The next year, ABC axed *that* block and brought us *One Saturday Morning*.

### 2000s

* CBS Kidshow shut down in 2000 due to CBS' buyout by Viacom. CBS, now having access to the Nickelodeon library, ran *Nick Jr. on CBS*.
	+ Speaking of which, *Nick Jr. on CBS* dropped the "Jr.", became *Nick on CBS*, renamed *back*, and then became *KOL Secret Slumber Party* within the span of *six years*.
	+ Of course, the *Secret Slumber Party* also had some issues with CBS being a silent partner, though it didn't help that the Slumber Party Girls broke up *after just one album*. The loss of the Slumber Party Girls led to the block becoming *Kewlopolis* in 2007 and *then* being bought out by Cookie Jar Entertainment in 2008, resulting in *Cookie Jar TV*.
		- It's also worth mentioning that the reason why *Secret Slumber Party* didn't launch sooner was the fact that CBS still had the Saturday-morning rights to Nick's library through September 2006, so CBS waited for those rights to lapse.
* CBS' Saturday-morning block aside, a *ton* of Saturday-morning switcharoos ended up happening in 2002. Let's just say *Kids' WB!* was the *only* Saturday-morning block on national TV to avert this trope in 2002:
	+ NBC *finally* axed its TNBC block after ten years in 2002, leasing time to Discovery Kids.
	+ ABC killed off *One Saturday Morning* and turned it into the similar *ABC Kids*. (Similar meaning it's still filled with Disney series.)
		- On a sidenote, this also meant UPN's *Disney's One Too* went unbranded in 2002, technically downplaying this trope.
	+ Fox cut Fox Kids, whose program library (and various anime licenses) was sold to Disney the year before. The replacement was 4Kids Entertainment-run *Fox Box* (more on that below).
* In 2005, *Fox Box* became 4Kids TV, only to be killed off in 2008 (see below) and replaced by *Xploration Station* on most Fox affiliates in 2014.
* 2006 had Discovery Kids on NBC, as well as Telemundo's block of Nickelodeon and Nelvana programming, replaced with the Qubo blocks. (A Qubo channel would eventually launch in 2007 until it ceased operations in 2021.)
	+ Kids' WB averted this once again in 2006 when The WB shut down. The CW actually ported the block over to the new network for its first one-and-a-half years.
* That said, Kids' WB couldn't avert this forever. In the midst of a dispute between 4Kids and Fox, 4Kids took their Saturday-morning block over to The CW, naming it The CW4Kids. (That said, the rebrand happened months before 4KidsTV shut down- meaning for six months, 4Kids was programming *two different blocks*.)

### 2010s

* NBC and Telemundo threw off Qubo in 2012 in order to replace it with NBC Kids and MiTelemundo respectively.
* The CW saw *two* of its Saturday-morning blocks shut down in the same decade:
	+ The CW4Kids adopted a sub-branding, *Toonzai*, in 2010. Sadly, it wasn't enough to keep the block afloat (4Kids' bankruptcy the next year did not help Toonzai's case, either), and within the next two years, it became *Vortexx*.
	+ 4Kids' legacy ended in 2014 when Vortexx itself shut down. *One Magnificant Morning* replaced it.
* ABC Kids already became "Disney Channel on ABC" in all but name before 2011, but ABC had enough that year and discontinued children's programming on ABC altogether. The replacement on most ABC affiliates? *Litton's Weekend Adventure*.
* In the midst of Cookie Jar Entertainment being bought out by DHX Media (now WildBrain), CBS threw off Cookie Jar TV the moment the contract lapsed, replacing it with Litton-programmed *CBS Dream Team*.
* And finally, even NBC Kids shuttered in 2016, giving way to The More You Know (based off NBC's public service announcements).
* KidsClick shuttered in 2019 because it launched in a market where Saturday-morning cartoons were pretty much dead on over-the-air TV.

### 2020s

* While the Qubo block remains, Qubo as a branding was effectively killed off for good due to E. W. Scripps acquiring Ion Media in 2021, bringing an end to not just the Qubo channel, but *an almost 15-year old* brand name as well. This also came with the nasty side-effect of almost *ending* over-the-air kids-oriented animation not from PBS.