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Network Red-Headed Stepchild
- 286 statements
- 54 feature instances
- 13 referencing feature instances
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That one TV show on a network that doesn't really fit with the rest of the lineup. Maybe it's an action series on a channel full of romance, or a live action show on a cartoon channel. Whatever the case, the Network Red-Headed Stepchild is the odd man out. This can be beneficial or extremely dangerous. If the show is culturally successful, it might be more willing to be saved by the network even if ratings drop, just to make sure that one niche is filled. But if the show gets too successful, the entire channel might start making programming that is similar, easily leading to Network Decay. Another possibility is that the show may be screwed or even cancelled even if it is successful, as its lack of appeal to the network's core demographic may turn off advertisers. If the show isn't successful at all, expect it to be Screwed by the Network. Compare to Adored by the Network. For a show that is different from a creator's usual output, see Creator's Oddball. For an installment that is different from the usual output in a single series, see Oddball in the Series. |
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| Network Red-Headed Stepchild / int_116008dc | type |
Network Red-Headed Stepchild | |
| Network Red-Headed Stepchild / int_116008dc | comment |
Earlier in the network's history, they aired game shows. These included Supermarket Sweep, Shop 'Til You Drop, and Debt; the last one was canceled because it attracted more male than female viewership, which ended any game shows on the network from then on.) | |
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| Network Red-Headed Stepchild / int_13840543 | comment |
Canada's Family Chrgd is a channel that primarily airs boys' action cartoons, similar to Disney XD in the States..but Nature Cat, which is an educational show for preschoolers, aired on the channel. | |
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| Network Red-Headed Stepchild / int_171791ca | comment |
The Real World was pretty much the first reality show to air there. The years went by, more and more variety programs were aired, with less and less focus on music. Even the returning Beavis and Butt-Head didn't escape this treatment: instead of reviewing music videos, the duo started reviewing things like Jersey Shore episodes. | |
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Network Red-Headed Stepchild | |
| Network Red-Headed Stepchild / int_1869a077 | comment |
As far as animated examples go, Samurai Jack was significantly Darker and Edgier than their other first-run programming. | |
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Early in the network's life, they had a block of three cartoons on an otherwise live-action lineup: Stripperella, Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon", and Gary the Rat. While all three were "adult" cartoons, they still stuck out like a sore thumb on a network that was already targeted to adult males. | |
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The The Amazing Adrenalini Brothers became this when it started airing episodes of the TV Series on HuHa, a YouTube channel dedicated to Adult Animation (a lot of it leaning towards Animated Shock Comedy). While The Amazing Adrenalini Brothers is an animated comedy, it's also family friendly and had previously aired on children's TV Channels like CBBC, CITV, YTV and Cartoon Network, making it stick out. | |
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| Network Red-Headed Stepchild / int_1a227ea3 | comment |
The Beatles: Get Back is notable for being aimed at a much older audience than most of Disney+'s content - obviously in part because it's focused on a band from the sixties, but also because it features heavy, uncensored swearing. Disney reportedly wanted to censor this, but Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr wouldn't budge. | |
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| Network Red-Headed Stepchild / int_1b7f57d | comment |
Good Luck Charlie is a mild version. Unlike their other shows, the adults often get main plotlines, and there isn't much of a twist to the premise (family with 3 older children suddenly has a baby). Also, it was intentionally created to have Multiple Demographic Appeal so that families can watch together, as opposed to their other shows which usually don't appeal to people over the age of 16. Its Spiritual Successor on the network was Girl Meets World which, similarly gave more focus to adults. This is likely because it's a Sequel Series to Boy Meets World and made an honest effort to appeal to that show's fans, even within the limitations of the network. |
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Network Red-Headed Stepchild | |
| Network Red-Headed Stepchild / int_1c73626 | comment |
PAW Patrol became this for Nick Jr. when it premiered. While the other shows on the block focused on preparing kids for school, this show was a Canadian import from TV Ontario that focused on social morals. However, unlike most examples of this trope, it went on to be their biggest hit since Dora the Explorer, and would inspire similar shows in its wake. | |
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Network Red-Headed Stepchild | |
| Network Red-Headed Stepchild / int_1eadea38 | comment |
A few years later, there was Level Up which met a similar fate, followed by the even less popular Incredible Crew, which curtailed any further attempts at live-action on the channel until 2021. | |
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Robot and Monster was moved to the Noggin streaming app in 2015, and it immediately stood out since the rest of the app's lineup was educational. While the show (especially Monster) includes some positive messages about friendship and perseverance, it's not exactly educational and has lots of cartoonish violence. It's possible the show was chosen to provide some content for older kids (Noggin started out as a tween-targeted brand, after all). | |
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Whose Line Is It Anyway? is nothing like any of the shows it is promoted with. Reviving the show has been hailed as a great decision for the network, now known mostly for soapy dramas and superhero shows. However, the network chooses to air most of the episodes during the summer (when most of their shows are on hiatus) or whenever a hole needs to be filled in the schedule. | |
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Long before the days of Mad Men and Breaking Bad, AMC ran Remember WENN, a half-hour Laugh Track-less dramedy about life at a 1930s radio station, filmed on 16mm and processed to look like Technicolor, so as to "fit in" with its classic movies programming. Ironically, the same executives who pushed AMC in its current direction were also responsible for the cancellation of WENN, under controversial circumstances. | |
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Network Red-Headed Stepchild | |
| Network Red-Headed Stepchild / int_3cb019b9 | comment |
Lifetime tried again with Witches of East End, though considering they'd been airing reruns of Charmed in syndication during the mornings, it doesn't stand out nearly as much as Blood Ties did. | |
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Power Rangers for the entire Disney family of networks. They eventually admitted it never fit in. For example, look at the ABC Saturday morning lineup, where it was a superhero action show amongst tween sitcoms, and because it wasn't an Edutainment Show, many ABC stations pre-empted it or moved it to graveyard slots because they were embarrassed to show it. This is why Disney ultimately sold it back to Saban (the acquisition of the goldmine of more evergreen boys' properties, Marvel, likely hastened this). Of course, by the time they launched a network where it would fit in, Disney XD, they were actively trying to kill it and so didn't include it there. The One Saturday Morning block on ABC had a few, including The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show (awkwardly squeezed in after the main portion of the block, with generic bumpers that didn't refer to Disney or the block's name, with no promotion and frequent preemption for afternoon sports). Digimon Frontier was this for the spinoff One Too block on UPN since it was forced on them like Power Rangers was. |
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Network Red-Headed Stepchild / int_44127c7c | |
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Network Red-Headed Stepchild | |
| Network Red-Headed Stepchild / int_46518682 | comment |
Primarily beginning in the late 1980s-1990s era, HBO entered the children's market and began airing kids shows. Usually, out of all times, on Sunday evenings. Considering their history with "Taxicab Confessions" and other gritty shows, this could come off as a surprise to somebody. Eventually with the launch of HBO Family the children's programs migrated there. This example wouldn't be seen on HBO again until Sesame Street began airing in 2016, followed by Esme & Roy two years later. | |
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The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss | |
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The earliest original live action series (albeit with plenty of Flash animation) was Out of Jimmy's Head, which aired alongside the Fried Dynamite block. They were later followed by CN Real, a whole block of live-action programs. | |
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Unnatural History and Tower Prep provide examples of a fandom stepchild becoming a network stepchild. When the two were announced, they were written off nearly instantly because they were both live-action shows produced by Cartoon Network. Unnatural History debuted first, to middling ratings, which caused Cartoon Network to give up on Tower Prep before it even began, leaving both shows dead in the water after one season. Both shows received mixed to positive receptions and likely would have been successful if they'd aired on another network without "Cartoon" in the title. A few years later, there was Level Up which met a similar fate, followed by the even less popular Incredible Crew, which curtailed any further attempts at live-action on the channel until 2021. |
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Another oddball choice was The World According to Jeff Goldblum, an infotainment series with few kid-friendly elements. In 2023, Disney+ removed it as a tax write-down. | |
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Even less of a fit was ECW, a gritty not even remotely country professional wrestling promotion based out of Philadelphia. The acquisition of the ECW rights came right around the same time that TNN rebranded itself as The National Network, even though outside of now being the home of low budget hardcore wrestling the programming didn't really change. About a year later TNN would swipe Monday Night Raw from the USA Network and left ECW with dick in hand to die. Literally, as the company was out of business 3 months later. | |
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| Network Red-Headed Stepchild / int_5ae0b268 | comment |
The British quiz show channel Challenge was lumbered with TNA Wrestling because it was previously shown on Bravo, and when Sky, who already air WWE, took over the Living TV Group, which included Bravo and Challenge, they closed Bravo down, but didn't want to put TNA on a Sky branded channel for fear of upsetting WWE. Since Living was rebranded as a Sky channel and is aimed at women anyway, Challenge was the only available home for TNA. It's completely out of place and definitely fits this trope. | |
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At least both are animated, you know. Professional wrestling, on the other hand, made a few jaws dropped when WWE announced their programming was about to air on 2x2. For once, it resulted in WWE finally visiting Russia for a couple of house shows, but at some point, 2x2 clearly stopped caring much, pushing RAW and Smackdown way past midnight and pretty much making a mockery out of shows in promos. They dropped WWE in favor of Lucha Underground, which makes a little bit more sense to air there. | |
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Lizzie McGuire was the first Disney show to involve a singer as the main character who could then be marketed everywhere. It later became impossible to find a Disney show (and increasingly, a Nickelodeon show) where this is not the case. | |
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Donkey Hodie is the first puppet show on PBS since It's a Big Big World, and another live-action series in a sea of Flash-animated cartoons. | |
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Mr. Robot on USA Network. Most of the other shows on USA are either prime time soaps or procedurals (whether medical, legal/police or otherwise), and thus are episodic shows. Mr. Robot is a heavily serialized, borderline Psychological Thriller about hacking with an Unreliable Narrator. The show almost seems like it would be more in line with the type of shows on AMC or HBO. | |
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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was generally treated as this over the years by Paramount and later CBS — always running as the secondary series (first to TNG, then to Voyager), it didn't receive as much promotion or push from Paramount compared to the other shows and movies, but gradually gathered an audience by way of their continuing storylines and evolving characterization as compared to the other shows. As of the 2010s the show has been Vindicated by History in the age of streaming, with much of the new Trek content taking some sort of influence from it (most notably the shadowy Section 31). | |
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In Cartoon Network's earliest days, The Banana Splits was aired despite being mostly live action, just with a few animated segments. | |
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When it premiered, The Magic School Bus was the first cartoon on PBS, sticking out against the kidcoms, sketch shows, and puppet shows. However, it proved to be a huge success, so more and more cartoons were greenlit by PBS. | |
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Star Trek: In its early years, UPN had Star Trek: Voyager, which, while undeniably the highest rated show on the network, failed to fit in with any other thing on its urban-oriented schedule. In its waning years, UPN had such a schizophrenic schedule, that it seemed every night of the week had a red-headed stepchild compared to the other nights. First was Monday, with its urban and minority-oriented comedies, then Tuesday with Buffy the Vampire Slayer cult horror-drama-comedy appeal, Wednesday with Star Trek: Enterprise a similar cult hit, but for a different cult, Thursday had WWE SmackDown, and Friday had a random selection of crappy movies. It was a strange thing to behold. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was generally treated as this over the years by Paramount and later CBS — always running as the secondary series (first to TNG, then to Voyager), it didn't receive as much promotion or push from Paramount compared to the other shows and movies, but gradually gathered an audience by way of their continuing storylines and evolving characterization as compared to the other shows. As of the 2010s the show has been Vindicated by History in the age of streaming, with much of the new Trek content taking some sort of influence from it (most notably the shadowy Section 31). |
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KaBlam!. Even during its airtime, this anthology show was thrown around the schedule with little promotion or was put in unfavorable timeslots. Once the show was canceled, Nickelodeon acted as though it had never existed, neglecting to even mention or feature the show in a Thanksgiving promotion showcasing every Nicktoon, the Continuity Cavalcade-laden Nicktoons: Attack Of The Toybots, or even The 90's Are All That before the block was rebranded as NickSplat (and later NickRewind). This is all the more glaring as KaBlam! is one of the network's biggest Cult Classics. It took more than ten years before it finally was acknowledged and announced to be given airtime on The Splat for the 25th anniversary of the Nicktoons brand. (However, it's been stated that Nick only owns the rights to the Henry & June segments and Action League NOW! note which is evident for the latter by the fact that the spinoff show aired on Nicktoons for years , thus making it legally tricky, which may explain why the show was ignored for so long after 2007.) | |
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Network Red-Headed Stepchild | |
| Network Red-Headed Stepchild / int_84da7e6f | comment |
Redwall, distributed by American Public Television and aired on select PBS stations, was very violent and serious in contrast to the rest of the lineup's sweet, slice of life lineup. It also wasn't educational, and was likely aired solely to get kids to read the Redwall books. | |
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O'Grady was the only animated show on Noggin's overnight block for teens, called "The N." The goofy character designs and outlandish plots were a pretty stark contrast from the live-action dramas that dominated the block's lineup. | |
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Reba (starring Reba McEntire) fit this role during its run. While the network was lasering in on the young, hip, and urban demographic, Reba stood out as a much more traditional, conservative sitcom. The show almost didn't make the WB-to-CW jump, but when they realized the show was already renewed through season six and that the "kill fee" for canceling the show early would have been more expensive than making a season six, they ordered a shorted 13-episode final season to fill contractual obligations and quietly ignored it as much as they could. Even some industry professionals said the show would have been a sure hit on another network. | |
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Network Red-Headed Stepchild | |
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Odd Squad is this to the modern PBS Kids lineup. It's not animated unlike every other show (Sesame Street is more of an HBO show nowadays) and has serialization. However, it was a huge hit for PBS. | |
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Regular Show was a show that pretty much would have easily fitted with [adult swim] if it wasn't for the fact it did everything in its power to replace heavy themes such as addiction, killing, and the like with child-friendly similarities, but to say the resemblances were subtle would be an understatement. It's no wonder the show got no reruns right after the final episode aired. | |
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The Hard Times of RJ Berger was the only scripted series on the channel at the time and was canceled after two seasons. Awkward., which aired after RJ Berger was canceled, became a lot more successful despite even less advertising. | |
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FlashForward (2009) effectively revolved around the marketing hook "if you like Lost, watch this!" ABC even made a concentrated effort to cast Lost alumni on the show and hoped the show would replace Lost once it ended in 2010. It didn't work, and speculative fiction essentially disappeared from the network until the arrival of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. | |
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The Amazing World of Gumball: Its humor is constantly clashing with self-awareness not seen in any other cartoon in the block, though said humor proved to be so effective with even children that the network itself still keeps rerunning the show even after it ended; a rare privilege for a Cartoon Network series at that time. It is also much more episodic and less narrative-driven compared to the other shows, even after it became Darker and Edgier. | |
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Invader Zim seems like an Old Shame for the network. However, it was a Cult Classic that was eventually Vindicated by Reruns, attracted a decent Periphery Demographic, and became heavily merchandised at certain subculture retail chains, getting a comic series and a full-length movie. | |
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Network Red-Headed Stepchild | |
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Infinity Train is darker and more serial than the usual lineup of the network. It also deviates from most Cartoon Network series by being an anthology show where each new season has different main characters, lacking any one core protagonist. | |
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My Babysitter's a Vampire, a surprisingly dark (at least compared to the other shows on the network) supernatural dramedy - which is not made for/by Disney. | |
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Around the late 2000s, BET began airing reruns of The Proud Family. This trope is actually doubled with this example, as not only is it also an animated children's show, it's also a series from Disney Channel, on a channel owned by Paramount Global (or, named Viacom at the time). The show also reran on Centric (now BET Her). | |
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That not enough? It airs SpongeBob SquarePants. Let that sink in. | |
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Last Man Standing could be considered one because it was a conservative-leaning sitcom on ABC, whose other sitcoms like Modern Family and black•ish appeal to a more liberal audience. When ABC canceled the show (leaving Fox to pick it up), many fans naturally questioned whether it was because of an anti-conservative stance taken by the network heads (it certainly wasn't low ratings; it was the network's second highest-rated sitcom at the time of its cancellation), but this was denied by network head Channing Dungey, who instead cited scheduling issues as the deciding factor. Whatever uncertainty conservatives had over the cancellation were debunked when the very conservative-leaning Roseanne revival debuted, though it was canceled at the end of the season due to its star's racist Twitter comments as opposed to resentment for conservatives, and ABC demanded that the Black-ish producers shelve an episode condemning President Donald Trump that led to its showrunner quitting the program. | |
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The same can easily be said for Masters of Illusion and Penn & Teller: Fool Us. | |
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Boardwalk Empire eventually took the redheaded stepchild, as it got a lot less attention than Game of Thrones or even the Adored by the Network Girls (of which the network promoted like there was no tomorrow, despite falling ratings every season that it dropped to under a million viewers a week). | |
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When it started in 2008, truTV's programming consisted on reality shows, countdowns of "suspense" videos, and... World's Dumbest..., a comedic take on the latter format. Turns out the red-headed stepchild became better-received than the other programs and by 2015, truTV became an all-comedy network. | |
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Pokémon: The Series on Russian cable network 2x2 is this. While 2x2 is animation-centered, it is more skewed towards an older demographic (The Simpsons and Family Guy are getting constant marathons and reruns, and [adult swim] shows are aired as well). Then again, it is the only network in Russia where anime has a considerable amount of airtime. Still, it clashes with the overall feel on the network. That not enough? It airs SpongeBob SquarePants. Let that sink in. At least both are animated, you know. Professional wrestling, on the other hand, made a few jaws dropped when WWE announced their programming was about to air on 2x2. For once, it resulted in WWE finally visiting Russia for a couple of house shows, but at some point, 2x2 clearly stopped caring much, pushing RAW and Smackdown way past midnight and pretty much making a mockery out of shows in promos. They dropped WWE in favor of Lucha Underground, which makes a little bit more sense to air there. |
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Network Red-Headed Stepchild | |
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The Legend of Korra never fit in the network’s offerings during its run between 2012-2014. In its first season, the show did extremely well on Saturday mornings but didn’t fit in the slot from a programming angle due to its Darker and Edgier nature, including a murder-suicide in the finale. In the second season, it was moved to the Friday Night Death Slot with less marketing where it didn’t do well on live viewings but did very well on their website and various digital platforms due to the audience skewing young-adult. Then came the third season which had four (of thirteen) episodes mistakenly uploaded to the Latin American affiliate’s website and for damage control, had to be dumped once again on Friday night with no marketing, this time in the middle of the summer. At that point, the damage had been done and Nick completely stopped caring about the show. Mid-way through the season, it was moved to digital only after the ratings tanked even further. However, coincidentally or not, the episode that was the first to move, just happened to be the one with the brutal, unambiguous murder by asphyxiation. The season ends with the titular heroine getting mercury poisoned. Nick has said that they always intended to move the show to digital but if it was due to the content or the demographics of the viewership making the show this way remains unknown. | |
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On HBO, True Blood is a show about vampires and the supernatural (among other things) on a network whose original programming tends toward showing gritty reality. Same for Carnivà le when it was on. Boardwalk Empire eventually took the redheaded stepchild, as it got a lot less attention than Game of Thrones or even the Adored by the Network Girls (of which the network promoted like there was no tomorrow, despite falling ratings every season that it dropped to under a million viewers a week). Primarily beginning in the late 1980s-1990s era, HBO entered the children's market and began airing kids shows. Usually, out of all times, on Sunday evenings. Considering their history with "Taxicab Confessions" and other gritty shows, this could come off as a surprise to somebody. Eventually with the launch of HBO Family the children's programs migrated there. This example wouldn't be seen on HBO again until Sesame Street began airing in 2016, followed by Esme & Roy two years later. |
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In its early years, UPN had Star Trek: Voyager, which, while undeniably the highest rated show on the network, failed to fit in with any other thing on its urban-oriented schedule. In its waning years, UPN had such a schizophrenic schedule, that it seemed every night of the week had a red-headed stepchild compared to the other nights. First was Monday, with its urban and minority-oriented comedies, then Tuesday with Buffy the Vampire Slayer cult horror-drama-comedy appeal, Wednesday with Star Trek: Enterprise a similar cult hit, but for a different cult, Thursday had WWE SmackDown, and Friday had a random selection of crappy movies. It was a strange thing to behold. | |
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Nick News with Linda Ellerbee was this when it ended in 2015— it was created in 1992, when the network's mission was much more focused on elevating and educating kids in addition to entertaining them (as opposed to now, when seemingly every show is either a kidcom or animated show that either is rerun endlessly or abruptly pulled). | |
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Sitcom-wise, The Other Kingdom was constantly seen a oddball among Nickelodeon's live-action programming. Leaving out the fact that it's not considered part of the Nick Verse, despite most of the network's other programs being so, the series was more story-driven and dramatic than the average Nickcom at the time. Also it doesn't have a Laugh Track. This is especially the case as it was produced in Canada and co-created by Family Channel, but sadly, the network did very little to advertise the show and it was quietly cancelled with tons of loose plot-threads. | |
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