Variety has released its annual broadcast and cable TV network ratings report covering 2025. Like the past several years, cable viewership is still cratering, per cord cutting. However, things aren’t in as big a decline as last year for animation related cable channels. Still, some of these figure changes are related to Nielsen changing how it calculates its ratings.
Below I take a look at how the major animation related cable channels fared in 2025.
Animation cable network ratings for 2025
The figures below are based on primetime viewing. (If you’re wondering why no Cartoon Network, since Adult Swim now runs all through primetime.) The numbers in parentheses are for rank, overall viewers, and the percentage change from 2024. I’ve also included some secondary and sister channels, such as Comedy Central (for “South Park”), TeenNick, and Nick At Nite, even if they’re largely live action.
- Nick At Nite (#40; 224,000; +8%)
- Comedy Central (#50; 182,000; -7%)
- Adult Swim (#53; 169,000; -20%)
- Nickelodeon (#60; 143,000; +9%)
- FXX (#69; 120,000; -17%)
- Disney Channel (#75; 108,000; -2%)
- MeTV Toons (#93; 80,000; N/A)
- Disney Jr. (#96; 73,000; -13%)
- Nick Jr. (#106; 58,000; -15%)
- Nicktoons (#110; 53,000; +4%)
- Boomerang (#126; 27,000; -21%)
- Disney XD (#129; 24,000; +33%)
- Discovery Family Channel (#135; 18,000; -22%)
- TeenNick (#135; 18,000; -25%)
- Universal Kids (#141; 12,000; -40%)
Adult Swim, Boomerang, and Cartoon Network
Adult Swim and Boomerang have both seen major declines from 2024, though the former is still one of the top-rated animation-related cable channels. It’s also the main animation cable channel focus by Warner Bros. Discovery at this point.
Things don’t seem as rosy (relatively speaking) for Boomerang. Along with the general decline in cable viewership, it’s also facing competition from several other outlets, such as MeTV Toons. MeTV Toons has more viewers, carries the classic Warner Bros. library, and has the advantage of being on free over-the-air TV. While not on the ratings list, Tubi’s also a major home for Warner Bros.’s classic cartoons—specifically Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, and a few Hanna-Barbera cartoons (the Flintstones, Yogi Bear, and Scooby-Doo). As for the classic Cartoon Network library, part of that’s currently on Hulu (the 2010s shows like ‘Steven Universe”).
Although it’s not on the ratings list (since it’s daytime-only), Cartoon Network at this point is very much a shell of its former self. Looking at its current schedule, while there’ s a variety of shows (versus all-”Teen Titans Go,” all the time at its worst), they’re almost all reruns of older programs. Again, Warner Bros.’s current owners couldn’t care less about animation, unless it’s related to DC Comics or Adult Swim (and the former’s debatable, per Amazon Prime Video and not HBO Max getting new Batman programs). To them, Cartoon Network seems to exist to fill daytime hours and/or satisfy the bare minimum for children’s programming.
That said, the fate of all of the above is up in the air with the sale of the Warner Bros. side of Warner Bros. Discovery to Netflix; the cable side’s fate is yet to be determined. One possibility as of this writing’s Paramount getting hold of it (likely just for CNN), even if they can’t buy the whole thing as they want. Still, whoever gets ownership of the cable channels has their work cut out for them, assuming any of these channels aren’t outright shuttered.
Disney Channel and related channels
The Disney-related channels (as well as FXX) are all either flat or down, save for Disney XD being significantly up. It’s unclear why that’s the case; checking Disney XD’s schedule, it’s still on autopilot like other cable channels. In XD’s case, most of the schedule’s only two shows, “Big City Greens” and “Phineas and Ferb.” Possibly a change in Nielsen measuring to blame?
Looking at its schedule, Disney Channel’s airing a lot of animation these days, as opposed to heavily relying on live-action sitcoms like during its 2000s and 2010s heyday. The schedule is largely: “Bluey” and “Spidey and His Amazing Friends” for the preschool block; and “Kiff,” “Phineas and Ferb,” and “Big City Greens” for the regular schedule.
On top of cable’s decline, Disney also owns one of the dominant streaming services, Disney+/Hulu; with Disney’s cable channels removed from some cable systems and parts of the world, the Mouse House clearly is more concerned about Disney+ than Disney on cable.
Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and related channels
After last year’s steep drops, things have stabilized for Nickelodeon and its sister channels, with an actual rise in viewership for the house of SpongeBob. However, even Variety agrees kids aren’t watching cable again. Instead, it’s likely related to a change in Nielsen ratings tracking, versus anything Nick’s done, which is… nothing. Checking their schedule, “Paw Patrol” and “SpongeBob” make up nearly the entire Nickelodeon schedule at this point.
Comedy Central viewership is also down, though I wonder if “South Park” seeing a revival in popularity (no thanks to the second Trump administration) might boost things.
With Paramount now owned by Skydance, it’s unclear what Nick’s future looks like, though “staying on autopilot” seems most likely. Paramount/Skydance seems more concerned with trying to buy Warner Bros. (despite the latter rejecting Paramount’s repeated offers) or steering their news division to a right-leaning slant than focusing on actually improving their own assets.
Other channels
Universal Kids signed off for good last spring, as part of Comcast’s plan to spin off its own cable channels into a separate company, Versant. As it’d seen a 40% drop in viewers and was a cellar-dwelling channel ratings-wise, it was just as well.
MeTV Toons went on the air in 2024, with 2025 marking the network’s first full year of broadcasting. So far, it seems to be doing OK as a niche digital subchannel network, not to mention pulling in more viewers than all the secondary cable channels mentioned above.
Conclusion
Kids’ main choices for cartoon viewing these days are Netflix, Disney+, and YouTube. I suspect kids in 2026 only see Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon as the logos attached to “Teen Titans Go”/”SpongeBob” (or their respective category names on HBO Max/Paramount+). A far cry from the “Nick is Kids!” 80s/90s, or Cartoon Network’s various memorable branding/blocks of the 1990s/2000s, that Gen Xers and Millennials may recall.
Meanwhile, adults who aren’t sports fans aren’t going to spring for cable en masse anytime soon, and who’d blame them—when I had cable TV, my cable company, Comcast, charged a $10 a month “high definition TV” junk fee. Not that the state of streaming is ideal these days, either: price hikes, content purges, a lack of meaningful regulation, etc. But still, I don’t see a mass shift back to cable TV boxes and contracts anytime soon.
As such, the future for Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, and Nickelodeon as cable channels (versus children’s programming brands) doesn’t look bright. The channels are largely on autopilot; their secondary channels are mostly redundant and cratering in viewers; and both their corporate owners and viewers are more concerned about their respective streaming services. Not helping is said owners seem creatively checked out, and have few major animation hits that’d define the 2020s, as I noted in my post about the 2020s in TV animation. The biggest animated hits from this decade are largely anime, other non-American productions (“Bluey”), or from smaller studios/streaming services (“KPop Demon Hunters,” “Hazbin Hotel”). When Gen Alpha nostalgically looks back on this decade in 10-20 years, I doubt watching Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, or Disney Channel will be among said YouTube/TikTok/whatever-exists-then retrospectives.
Photo by Ketut Subiyanto (Pexels)
