Sunday night, Fox gave viewers a preview of a new animated adult programming block they are calling ADHD (short for Animation Domination High-Def), right in the middle of prime-time viewing hours. The series will debut in its normal time slot of 11 p.m. ET/PT (10 p.m. CT and MT) this Saturday and already exists online.
What Fox showed viewers on Sunday night was tame compared with what they’ve made available online, and parents could understandably be misled into believing ADHD is perfectly suitable for their youngster to watch. It’s not.
Modeled on (and from the creator of) Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim programming block, Fox’s ADHD, as it exists online, features horrifically graphic, ultraviolent, sexually explicit and profanity-laden cartoons. It will become a tempting forbidden fruit for millions of children attracted to its animated format and themes like High School USA! and Scientifically Accurate Spider-Man.
Online, teens and even younger children can watch these X-rated cartoons for free and with absolutely no parental controls. Any 8-year-old could simply click and watch selections from a collection of three-minute cartoons more explicit than anything we’ve seen on broadcast television to date.
And now Fox is going to choose morsels from this digital menu and serve them up right in our living rooms, where Fox executives state they hope one of their animated shorts will catch on to become a new hit series. Fox Entertainment Chairman Kevin Reilly told Daily Variety, “I’d like to find the next Family Guy out of this block.”
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