NEWS: TOONAMI LOSES ONE HOUR OF PROGRAMMING

Sad news, Toonami Faithful. Starting effective tonight, Adult Swim’s Toonami block will be getting its overall timeslot shortened due to a low in ratings.

For tonight only, Toonami’s schedule will run from 11:30pm to 5:30am ET, and there will be no Attack on Titan episode aired. Instead, Dragonball Z Kai will be starting off the block tonight. Starting next week, the block will run from 11:30pm to 5:00am ET, cutting an entire hour from Toonami’s schedule. Toonami has stated that this will be the schedule “for the forseeable future.” With the last hour cut, both IGPX and Samurai Jack will be taking a temporary hiatus, but the Toonami crew promises that both shows “will likely be back at some point.” Since the last two episodes of Samurai Jack have yet to air on the block, Adult Swim will be streaming both episodes on their website instead, giving fans the chance to still watch the series finale. The original story and new schedules both for tonight’s broadcast and beginning next week can be seen on Toonami’s official tumblr page.

Addressing the matter on his twitter account, Toonami Co-Founder Jason DeMarco had this to say:

“Yes, we are being shortened due to ratings. We aren’t going anywhere, but we may shrink a bit… if things don’t pick up. That’s it, that’s all I know about, thanks. Sorry to those this inconveniences.”

So there’s no telling if this is a permanent change or not, and if ratings go back up over time then we may see the last hour of the block return. This report comes off the heels of Toonami’s huge announcement at Otakon a week ago that they would be airing Kill la Kill on the block soon. How this schedule change will affect Kill la Kill’s premiere date and time has yet to be disclosed, but hopefully debuting the English dub of the most popular anime from this past year will boost ratings again. 

There will be an official Toonami Q&A on their tumblr site tomorrow morning starting @ 11:00am ET, so expect to see more announcements or news regarding either the block’s schedule or Kill la Kill’s debut tomorrow. 

-Andrew (Head of A7)

Picture via pulp365.com

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