Rumour: Warner Bros. Discovery Will No Longer Be Producing Original Programming For Preschoolers, International Cartoonito Remains Safe

Last year, WarnerMedia and Discovery Inc. formalised their merger which lead to the creation of Warner Bros. Discovery which saw properties such as HBO, TNT, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Cartoonito, TLC, Discovery Channel, Investigation Discovery and HGTV fold under one hub.

Of course, this merger had also stirred up controversy as the current CEO of the brand David Zaslav had axed various productions from the Warner part of the brand including Mao Mao: Heroes Of Pure Heart and Batman: Caped Crusader on Cartoon Network and Cartoonito's entire catalogue of original shows.

Cartoonito was introduced in 2021 as rival to Disney Junior and Nick Jr. with Warner Bros. Discovery planning to conceive 50 preschool programs by 2023. So far only Batwheels and Bugs Bunny Builders were introduced alongside the recently launched Jessica's Big Little World.

According to sources on Reddit, Jessica's Big Little World will end after its current season as Warner Bros. Discovery will no longer be producing original preschool programs and this follows last year's move which saw them scrap further production of live-action kids and family shows.

This news doesn't come as a surprise considering the amount of exposure Cartoonito is given on Cartoon Network. Although Warner Bros. Discovery had never disclosed the ratings for the block, Cartoonito's airtime has declined from last year initially 6 hours dropped to 1.5 hours part of which may to do with the purge.

In Africa, Warner Bros. Discovery content from its kids multiplex dominates the Top 20 shows across all kids’ channels. More than 105 000 children watch CoComelon with almost 90 000 watching Interstellar Ella on average. Batwheels and Bugs Bunny Builders rank as the #5 and #6th most watched shows in thez a market.

All of which might not have any impact pertaining to the future of these shows. If it's any consolation, Cartoonito will most likely continue to broadcast in most parts of Europe seeing as it was structured as a family channel which is probably the most safest thing for the brand right now.

Prior to this development, Max acquired rights to Hop (from Marc Brown, creator of Arthur) and Barney's World based from the Barney And Friends franchise. It's likely that Cartoonito will continue (without original programming) or get scrapped before any of this is released.

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