Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representati ...

'' and often abbreviated as s'') is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television

channel Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to: Geography * Channel (geography), in physical geography, a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water. Australia * Channel Country, region of outback Austral ...

that shares channel space with the

basic cable Cable television first became available in the United States in 1948. By 1989, 53 million U.S. households received cable television subscriptions, with 60 percent of all U.S. households doing so in 1992. with Data by SNL Kagan shows that about 58 ...

network

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

and is programmed by its in-house production studio, Williams Street. It is part of American media conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery. Adult Swim runs nightly from 9 p.m. – 6 a.m. ET/ PT. Debuting in 2001, Adult Swim served as the nighttime identity of Cartoon Network, and it was established as alternative programming during late night hours when Cartoon Network's primary target audience would normally be sleeping. By 2005, Adult Swim would be granted its own separate

Nielsen ratings Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

report from Cartoon Network due to its targeting a different audience. The block features stylistically varied animated and live-action shows, including original programming, syndicated series, anime, and short films with generally minimal or no editing for content. Adult Swim has frequently aired adult animation features, mockumentaries,

sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is ...

, and

pilots An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

. The block's shows are known for their sexual themes, frank sexual discussion, nudity, strong language, and graphic violence. Many of its programs are aesthetically experimental, transgressive, improvised, and surrealist in nature. Adult Swim has contracted with various studios known for their productions in absurd and shock comedy. Along with Cartoon Network, Adult Swim offers an alternate Spanish-language audio feed, either via a separate channel with the English audio track removed as part of a package of Spanish-language television networks sold by subscription providers, or a separate audio track accessible through the SAP option, depending on the provider. As with Cartoon Network, Adult Swim's reach through various services totals 95 million American adults as of March 2021.

History

Creation and development (1994-2001)

's original head programmer, Mike Lazzo, conceived Adult Swim. The block grew out of Cartoon Network's previous attempts at airing content appropriate for teenagers and young adults who might be watching the channel after 11 pm (ET/PT). The network began experimenting with its late night programming by airing anthology shows that presented uncensored classic cartoon shorts, such as ''

ToonHeads ''ToonHeads'' is an American animation anthology series consisting of Hanna-Barbera, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Bros., and ''Popeye'' cartoon shorts, with background information and trivia, prominently about animators and voice actors of the shor ...

'', '' The Bob Clampett Show'', ''

The Tex Avery Show ''The Tex Avery Show'' is an American animated showcase series of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Warner Bros. cartoon shorts prominently by animator Tex Avery (a.k.a. Fred Avery). In between the shorts, Don Kennedy gives short facts about the cartoons. ...

'', ''

Late Night Black and White This is a list of television programs currently or formerly broadcast by Cartoon Network in the United States. The network was launched on October 1, 1992, and airs mainly animated programming, ranging from action to animated comedy. In its e ...

'', and '' O Canada''. Another block, Toonami's "Midnight Run", aired the network's action programming uncut with minimal edits. At that time, one third of Cartoon Network's audience were adults. During the 1990s,

prime time Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

animation geared toward

adults An adult is a human or other animal that has reached full growth. In human context, the term ''adult'' has meanings associated with social and legal concepts. In contrast to a "minor", a legal adult is a person who has attained the age of majori ...

started growing popular due to the success of Fox's hit show '' The Simpsons''. This was followed by a trend of other adult-oriented animated shows throughout the decade, as well as more general-oriented animated series that garnered strong adult followings. '' Space Ghost Coast to Coast'', Cartoon Network's first foray into original programming, was created in 1994 specifically for late-night adult audiences. The series was created by Mike Lazzo's Ghost Planet Industries, which eventually became Williams Street Studios, the producers and programmers of Adult Swim. Between 4:00 am and 5:00 am on December 21, and December 30, 2000 (while ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast'' was on hiatus), several new Williams Street series made unannounced "stealth" premieres. '' Sealab 2021'', '' Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law'', '' Aqua Teen Hunger Force'', and ''

The Brak Show ''The Brak Show'' is an American Adult animation, adult animated sitcom created by Andy Merrill, Jim Fortier, and Pete Smith for Cartoon Network's late-night programming block, Adult Swim. ''The Brak Show'' serves as a Spin-off (media), spin-off ...

'' all premiered unannounced; the official schedules listed the shows as "Special Programming". Prior to that, in Entertainment Weekly, it was stated that

Michael Ouweleen Michael Ouweleen (born 1967) is an American television executive and screenwriter. He is the current president of The Cartoon Network, Inc., the operating company of Cartoon Network (which includes the Cartoonito and ACME Night blocks), Adult Swi ...

's next project was working on the ''Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law'' Pilot with

J.J. Sedelmaier J. J. Sedelmaier is an American animator, illustrator, designer, author and film director/producer, known for co-creating (with Robert Smigel) the " Saturday TV Funhouse" segment—including ''The Ambiguously Gay Duo'' and '' The X-Presidents''� ...

. In a 1999 interview, the indie pop rock band Calamine stated they had recorded the theme song for ''Sealab 2021''. While entertaining pitches for a variety of adult cartoons, Lazzo realized the potential for packaging them as a complete adult-focused block. Different names were considered, including "ibiso", which was said to be Spanish for "stop", and "Parental Warning", "Parental Block" but he eventually settled on "Adult Swim".

originally intended to launch the adult animation block on April 1, 2001, but was delayed five months. In June 2001, '' TV Guide'' had recorded an interview with Cartoon Network's former president, Betty Cohen. She stated there was a new programming block coming out in September that was aimed for an adult audience. During this month at the Cartoon Network Confidential, "Cartoon Network's best originals and outrageous animated shorts for discriminating adults" in New York City, an upcoming episode of '' Space Ghost Coast to Coast'' titled "Kentucky Nightmare", the stealth pilots from December, ''Captain Linger'', and an episode of ''Home Movies'' were screened for free. The screening was part of the Toyota Comedy Festival. On Saturday, July 21, 2001, the ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast'' panel at San Diego Comic Con had a trivia game in which the winners won a promotional CD that had the theme songs to the upcoming Adult Swim Shows. Everybody who attended got a free Adult Swim t-shirt that was packaged to look like a roll of bandages that a lifeguard might carry. At the Comic Con, audiences got to see clips of the upcoming shows and vote for what show they wanted to see as a sneak peek. '' Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law'' was the winner and the pilot was screened. The '' Leave It to Brak'' episode "War Next Door" and ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast'' episode "The Justice Hole" were also screened, as well as clips to the episode "Sweet for Brak". In an interview on creativemac.com on July 25, 2001,

talked about working on the '' Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law'' pilot. On August 12, the first commercial advertising the new block aired on Cartoon Network. Around this time a press kit came out that featured towels and a promotional CD. Another press kit that was designed as a first aid kit came with a promo VHS with info on all the shows. '' Access Hollywood'' also highlighted the upcoming premieres. Print ads were shown in an August issue of '' Entertainment Weekly''. On August 31, adultswim.com officially launched.

2001–2003

Adult Swim officially launched on September 2, 2001, at 10pm ( ET), with the original debut airing of the ''

Home Movies A home movie is a short amateur film or video typically made just to preserve a visual record of family activities, a vacation, or a special event, and intended for viewing at home by family and friends. Originally, home movies were made on ph ...

'' episode "Director's Cut", which had been shelved before airing on its original network, UPN. According to Linda Simensky, "We had a bunch of episodes to screen for Mike Lazzo and by only the second episode, he yelled, "Buy it!" Cartoon Network bought the original five UPN episodes and ordered eight more to complete the season. The series' first season was animated in Squigglevision; later seasons were done in

flash animation Adobe Flash animation or Adobe Flash cartoon (formerly Macromedia Flash animation, Macromedia Flash cartoon, FutureSplash animation, and FutureSplash cartoon) is an animation that is created with the Adobe Animate (formerly Flash Professional) p ...

. The first anime broadcast on the block also aired on the night of its launch, '' Cowboy Bebop''. '' Aqua Teen Hunger Force'' debuted on the block on September 9, with the episode "Escape from Leprechaupolis". The block initially aired on Sunday nights from 10:00 pm to 1:00 am ET, with a repeat of the same block on Thursday nights. Adult Swim had a disclaimer that read "Parents strongly cautioned—the following programs are intended for mature audiences over the age of 18. These programs may contain some material that many parents would not find suitable for children and may include intense violence, sexual situations, coarse language and suggestive dialog." Adult Swim's original bumpers shown in-between the shows featured footage of

elderly people Old age refers to ages nearing or surpassing the life expectancy of human beings, and is thus the end of the human life cycle. Terms and euphemisms for people at this age include old people, the elderly (worldwide usage), OAPs (British usage ...

swimming in

public pools A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built above ground (as ...

, eating, exercising, and doing other pool-related activities. It would show signs all around the pool saying things like "Warning Potential Violence", "Warning Strong Language in use", "Caution Sexual Innuendo", "Caution Limited Animation", "No Diving", "No Kids", "Warning Adult Situations", and more. Some of these bumpers were narrated by a

lifeguard A lifeguard is a rescuer who supervises the safety and rescue of swimmers, surfers, and other water sports participants such as in a swimming pool, water park, beach, spa, river and lake. Lifeguards are trained in swimming and CPR/ AED first a ...

who spoke through a megaphone. Most notably he would shout "All kids out of the pool". The logo was the words "Adult Swim" in all capital letters (or often an alternate version of the logo featured the block's name rendered in red and a black circle with a yellow

penumbra The umbra, penumbra and antumbra are three distinct parts of a shadow, created by any light source after impinging on an opaque object. Assuming no diffraction, for a collimated beam (such as a point source) of light, only the umbra is cast. Th ...

, which also used as the main logo from 2002 to 2003), shown after a freeze frame of the footage. Sometimes they were even shown in reverse. The block's original theme music, titled "D-Code," was a remix of "Mambo Gallego" done by the Melbourne musician Dust Devil, originally played by Latin jazz musician Tito Puente, Sr. When the programs were shown on TV, in the right corner of the screen big red letters would say Adult Swim. Two months later, the lettering was changed to white letters. Some of the bumps on the block included ''Aquaman Dance Party'' that featured a cartoon Aquaman dancing in front of live action

landfill A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste ...

footage, ''Captain Linger'', a series of shorts created by

J. J. Sedelmaier J. J. Sedelmaier is an American animator, illustrator, designer, author and film director/producer, known for co-creating (with Robert Smigel) the " Saturday TV Funhouse" segment—including ''The Ambiguously Gay Duo'' and ''The X-Presidents''� ...

, ''Watering Hole'', a series of shorts about animals talking in a bar created by Soup2Nuts, 1960s

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...

action cartoons dubbed with the voices of children, a series of shorts called ''Not for Air'' that had the speech of Hanna-Barbera characters bleeped to make it seem like the characters were swearing, ''The New Adventures of The Wonder Twins'', ''What They're Really Thinking'', which had a voice narrate a character's thoughts in a comedic way, and ''Brak Puppet Party'', a puppet show featuring classic Hanna-Barbera characters. Commercials starring characters from ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force'', ''

'', ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast'', ''Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law'', and '' Sealab 2021'' started to appear as well, such as

1-800-CALL-ATT AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...

Nestea Nestea is a Switzerland, Swiss brand of iced tea and pop beverages owned by Nestlé, manufactured by The Coca-Cola Company and distributed by Nestlé's beverage department in the United States and by Beverage Partners Worldwide (BPW),Dr Pepper, Coca-Cola, Dodge Ram,

Quizno's Sub Quiz Holdings, LLC, doing business as Quiznos, is an American franchised fast-food restaurant based in Denver, Colorado, that specializes in offering toasted submarine sandwiches. It was founded in 1981 by Jimmy Lambatos and sold to Rick and ...

, Maximum Hair Dye, Verizon Wireless, and movie promos for '' Austin Powers in Goldmember'', ''

Kung Pow Enter the Fist ''Kung Pow! Enter the Fist'' is a 2002 American martial arts comedy film that parodies Hong Kong action cinema. Written, directed by and starring Steve Oedekerk, it uses footage from the 1976 Hong Kong martial arts film '' Tiger & Crane Fist ...

'', '' Jackass: The Movie'', '' Eight Legged Freaks'', and '' The Powerpuff Girls Movie''. Brak would also host a segment called ''Adult Swim News''. Due to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, episodes of ''Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law'', ''Cowboy Bebop'', and ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force'' were delayed. In the winter of 2001 another Adult Swim CD was made available for free to anyone who purchased issue 28 of ''Hitch Magazine'' and the same CD came with issue 29. When the Saturday night block debuted on February 23, 2002, it was known as ''Adult Swim Action'', with various anime programs displayed on the block from 11:00 pm to 2:00 am ET. Thus, programming on the block was divided between ''Adult Swim Action'' and ''Adult Swim Comedy''. ''Adult Swim Comedy'' was Sunday nights and ran from 10:00 pm to 1:00 am ET. Two days prior, on February 21, Adult Swim stopped airing on Thursday nights. '' The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show'' and '' The Popeye Show'' took ''Cowboy Bebop''s place for 12:00 am and 12:30 am ET. On June 15, 2002, Adult Swim had their first contest called "Adult Swim Happiness Sweepstakes" where winners could win a Master Shake

air freshener Air fresheners are consumer products that typically emit fragrance and are used in homes or commercial interiors such as restrooms, foyers, hallways, vestibules and other smaller indoor areas, as well as larger areas such as hotel lobbies, auto d ...

It became increasingly common for Adult Swim to act as a home for reruns of animated series that had been canceled prematurely, such as ''

'', '' Baby Blues'', ''

Mission Hill Mission Hills or Mission Hill may refer to: Places Communities ;In the United States (alphabetically by state) * Mission Hills, Santa Barbara County, California, a town north of the city of Lompoc * Mission Hills, Los Angeles, California, in the S ...

'', '' The Oblongs'', '' The Ripping Friends'', ''

Futurama ''Futurama'' is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of the professional slacker Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1000 years a ...

'', ''

Family Guy ''Family Guy'' is an American animated sitcom originally conceived and created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show centers around the Griffin family, Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter Griff ...

'', and '' God, the Devil and Bob'', as well as

burn off In American broadcast programming, "burning off" is the custom of quickly airing the remaining episodes of a television program, usually one that has already been or is planned to be cancelled, without the intent to attract a large number of vi ...

remaining episodes of said shows that never aired on their original networks, as a result of their premature cancellation. The block obtained ''Futuramas exclusive pay-TV syndication rights in September 2002 for a reported $10 million, and the series first aired on the network on January 12, 2003. ''Family Guy'' made its debut on April 20 of that year with the episode "

Brian in Love The second season of ''Family Guy'' first aired on the Fox network in 21 episodes from September 23, 1999, to August 1, 2000. The series follows the dysfunctional Griffin family—father Peter, mother Lois, daughter Meg, son Chris, baby Stewie a ...

", and immediately became the block's top-rated program, dominating late night viewing in its time period vs. pay-television and free-to-air competition and boosting viewership of both the block, and Cartoon Network itself, by 239 percent. (

Seth MacFarlane Seth Woodbury MacFarlane (; born October 26, 1973) is an American actor, animator, filmmaker, comedian, and singer. He is the creator and star of the television series ''Family Guy'' (since 1999) and ''The Orville'' (since 2017), and co-creator ...

had previously created ''

Larry and Steve ''The Life of Larry'' and ''Larry & Steve'' are two animated short films created by Seth MacFarlane in the mid-1990s that eventually led to the development of the animated sitcom '' Family Guy''. He originally created ''The Life of Larry'' as a ...

'', a cartoon predecessor to ''Family Guy'', that was aired on Cartoon Network's '' What a Cartoon! Show'' in 1997. MacFarlane had also worked on several Cartoon Network shows, such as '' Johnny Bravo'' and ''

Dexter's Laboratory ''Dexter's Laboratory'' is an American animated television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution. It follows Dexter, a short, enthusiastic boy-genius with a hid ...

''). On

New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve, also known as Old Year's Day or Saint Sylvester's Day in many countries, is the evening or the entire day of the last day of the year, on 31 December. The last day of the year is commonly referred to ...

2002, Brak from ''The Brak Show'' and Carl Brutananadilewski from ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force'' hosted a New Year's Eve special from 11:00 pm to 3:00 am. This was the first time Adult Swim aired on a Tuesday night. Beginning on January 13, 2003, Adult Swim was airing five nights a week, Sundays through Thursdays from 11:00 pm to 2:00 am. Saturday Nights were dropped. On February 9, 2003, after the

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

All-Star game, Adult Swim aired on TNT on a block called "Adult Swim All Star Extravaganza" as a one time special from 11:00 pm to 12:15 am ET.

2003–2014

On October 5, 2003, Adult Swim was on from 11:00 pm to 2:00 am ET. On October 26, 2003, Brak's Dad from ''

'' hosted

Halloween Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observanc ...

-themed bumps. That same night, Adult Swim hosted a live webcam show on its website, featuring the Adult Swim staff having a party. The ''

Big O Big O or The Big O may refer to: Fiction * ''The Big O'', a 1999 Japanese animated TV series Mathematics and computing * Big Omega function (disambiguation), various arithmetic functions in number theory * Big O notation, asymptotic behavior in ...

'' series finale episode "The Show Must Go On", was supposed to premiere that night at 11:00pm; however, Adult Swim had to reschedule the episode for the next week, on Sunday, November 2, taking the place of the scheduled previously unaired episode of ''Family Guy'', "

When You Wish Upon a Weinstein "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein" is the twenty-second episode of ''Family Guy''s third season, and the original series finale. The episode was intended to air on Fox during 2000, but Fox's executives expressed concern due to the content's potentia ...

", to air on November 9. When ''Big O'' premiered on November 2, a rerun episode, "Stripes" was airing but then Adult Swim said it was just a joke and they finally aired the correct episode. Adult Swim had another New Year's Eve special, this time featuring some of the Adult Swim characters having a party at Brak's house celebrating New Year's Eve. It was on this night where ''The Brak Show'' was officially canceled. On June 15, 2004, Adult Swim launched a Video on Demand. On July 19, 2004, Adult Swim had a publicity stunt telling viewers that they needed 1,000,000 people to go to their website so they could "Free Hockey Chicken". An employee was dressed as a chicken in front of a webcam being watched by viewers, and he could not leave the studio until they reached their goal. That same year Adult Swim hyped viewers by asking them to vote which would win in a fight: a "Flying Shark or a Flying

Crocodile Crocodiles (family (biology), family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to inclu ...

". In the fall of 2004, Adult Swim started a course at Kent State University with lessons by film professor Ron Russo, author of the book "Adult Swim and Comedy". On Halloween night in 2004, '' Phantasm'' actor Angus Scrimm hosted an '' Aqua Teen Hunger Force'' marathon. On November 2, 2004, Adult Swim ran a marathon of the '' Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law'' episode "Guitar Control" all through the night, until 2a.m.. The episode replayed 24 times to celebrate Election Day. On November 28, Adult Swim had a week showing off classic bumps from previous years. On March 28, 2005, Atlanta-based Turner Broadcasting System began recording Adult Swim

separately from Cartoon Network for demographic purposes. Promotions for Adult Swim are targeted towards the college age and those in their 20s and 30s, constituting the majority of their viewers. According to a September 1, 2004 article in ''Promo'' magazine, representatives travel to 30 universities across the U.S. to promote the Adult Swim lineup, including handing out posters for students' dorm rooms. On April 17, 2004, Adult Swim regained Saturday nights, making Friday the only night where Adult Swim did not air. On March 28, 2005, Adult Swim gained an extra hour, now ending at 6 a.m.. On October 2, 2005, Adult Swim regained the 10 p.m. hour on Sundays, continuing to start at 11 p.m. Mondays to Thursdays, and Saturdays. Adult Swim had a direct and important role in the revival of an aforementioned popular animated series, ''

''. Due to the series' popularity in reruns, the block burned off "

", an episode of the series that had been banned from airing on Fox, in 2003. On September 21, 2003, Seth MacFarlane guest voiced on the ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force'' episode "Super Trivia". In 2004, from July 26 through July 29 Adult Swim had a week dedicated to

where it had him host a ''Family Guy'' marathon showing select episodes. On March 29, 2004, less than one year after beginning reruns on Adult Swim,

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

announced it would be renewing ''Family Guy'' for a fourth season and reviving it from cancellation. Shortly after the announcement,

Jim Samples James Donald Samples Jr. (born 1963) is an American businessman and media executive. He is best known as the Senior Vice President and General Manager of TNT Latin America and Cartoon Network Latin America from 2000 to 2001, the General Manager an ...

, then-general manager and executive vice president of Cartoon Network, commented, "Bringing ''Family Guy'' to the Adult Swim lineup last April really helped turn the block into a

cultural phenomenon The bandwagon effect is the tendency for people to adopt certain behaviors, styles, or attitudes simply because others are doing so. More specifically, it is a cognitive bias by which public opinion or behaviours can alter due to particular act ...

with young adults." ''

'' was also revived in 2007 by Comedy Central for similar reasons: impressive viewership in syndication as well as high DVD sales. In 2006,

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

struck a deal to produce four direct-to-video animated features based on ''Futurama'', and, in 2009, the series was revived in normal half-hour installments beginning in 2010 on Comedy Central. In a 2006 interview, ''Futurama'' creator Matt Groening explained "There's a long, regal history of misunderstood TV shows, and to Fox's credit, the studio looked at the ratings on the Cartoon Network and how the show does overseas, and saw that there was more money to be made." Before Adult Swim lost the rights to ''Futurama'' reruns, they aired an all-night marathon from December 26–30, 2007, with the final reruns airing on December 31, thus, marking ''Futurama'''s last airing on the block until 2021. On New Year's Eve 2005, Adult Swim had a countdown for the new year featuring characters from their shows. Beginning on March 27, 2006, Adult Swim's time began at 10:30 pm ET weekdays. On January 31, 2007, Adult Swim attracted national media attention as part of the

2007 Boston Mooninite panic On the morning of January 31, 2007, the Boston Police Department and the Boston Fire Department mistakenly identified battery-powered LED placards depicting the Mooninites, characters from the Adult Swim animated television series ''Aqua Teen H ...

. Both the Boston Police Department and the Boston Fire Department mistakenly identified battery-powered LED placards resembling

The Mooninites This is a list of characters featured in the Adult Swim animated television series ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force''. Main characters Master Shake Voiced by Dana Snyder, Master Shake (or simply Shake) is a narcissistic, lazy, shallow, selfish, and idi ...

, characters from '' Aqua Teen Hunger Force'', as improvised explosive devices. These devices were in fact part of a guerrilla marketing campaign for the '' Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters''. The next day, Boston authorities arrested two men involved with the incident. Peter Berdovsky, 27, a freelance video artist from Arlington, Massachusetts, and Sean Stevens, 28, were facing charges of placing a hoax device to incite panic, as well as one count of disorderly conduct, according to CNN (which is also owned by Turner Broadcasting System). On February 5, Turner Broadcasting and marketer Interference, Inc. announced that they would pay $2 million in

amends "Amends" is episode ten of season three of the television show ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer''. It was written and directed by series creator Joss Whedon. Advertised as a Christmas episode, it was first broadcast on December 15, 1998. Plot It is C ...

: one million to the city of Boston, and one million in goodwill funds. Four days later, on February 9, Jim Samples, general manager and Executive Vice President of Cartoon Network since 2001, resigned. Turner Broadcasting later issued an apology for the ad campaign that caused the bomb scares. A statement emailed to '' The Boston Globe'' from Turner Broadcasting said:

"The 'packages' in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger. They are part of an outdoor marketing campaign in 10 cities in support of Adult Swim's animated television show ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force''. They had been in place for two to three weeks in Boston, New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Seattle,
Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...
,
Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. Parent company Turner Broadcasting is in contact with local and federal law enforcement on the exact locations of the billboards. We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger."

In 2007, Adult Swim announced it would expand to seven nights a week starting that July. Up until then, it was only on Saturdays-Thursdays, with Cartoon Network airing 24 hours on Friday. On July 6 of that year, Adult Swim had its first broadcast on a Friday with an all-night marathon of ''Family Guy'', with one episode, ''

Peter's Two Dads "Peter's Two Dads" is the tenth episode in the fifth season of the American animated television series '' Family Guy''. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 11, 2007. The episode was written by Danny Smith and ...

'', rerunning the April Fools gag of that year, running the first half-hour of '' Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters'' in a small square on the bottom left hand corner. In October 2007, Adult Swim launched a video on demand service available on DirecTV channel 1886. On January 1, 2009, Adult Swim began airing reruns of '' King of the Hill'' and its sign-on time was expanded back from 11 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET. On December 27, 2010, Adult Swim moved its start time from 10 p.m. to 9 p.m. ET, extending the network's daily schedule to nine hours. On April 1, 2012, as part of their annual April Fools' Day stunt, Adult Swim revived Toonami, the defunct Cartoon Network programming block that primarily aired anime and action cartoons. Following positive reception, Toonami would return full-time as a rebrand of Adult Swim's Saturday night action block on May 26, 2012.

2014–2019

On March 31, 2014, Adult Swim's sign-on time moved up to 8:00 p.m. ET, further extending the network's daily schedule to ten hours (and effectively matching the airtime of most nights that

Nick at Nite Nick at Nite (stylized as nick@nite) is an American nighttime basic cable television channel that broadcasts over the channel space of Nickelodeon. It typically broadcasts Mondays to Thursday nights from 9 p.m. - 6:30 a.m. Eastern Time Zone, ET/Pac ...

has). Cartoon Network still airs programming in the 8:00 p.m. ET hour on occasion, primarily in the months leading up to Christmas. In 2015, Adult Swim launched ''The Virtual Brainload'', the first animated VR experience from a TV network. On May 7, 2015, it was announced that Adult Swim had ordered an untitled pilot by

Million Dollar Extreme Million Dollar Extreme (MDE) is an American sketch comedy troupe. The group consists of Sam Hyde, Nick Rochefort, and Charls Carroll. The group remains largely inactive since the cancellation of their show ''World Peace'' in 2016. They are kno ...

described as a "sketch show in an almost present day post apocalyptic nightmare world". Based on that pilot, it was announced on March 3, 2016, that it would go to series with the group presenting it under the additional subtitle ''World Peace'', and the first season consisting of six episodes under the network's traditional eleven-minute episode structure. Adult Swim announced on December 5, 2016, that it would not be renewed for a second season; the network faced internal opposition to its continuation, mainly regarding accusations of MDE's documented connections to the

alt-right The alt-right, an abbreviation of alternative right, is a far-right, white nationalist movement. A largely online phenomenon, the alt-right originated in the United States during the late 2000s before increasing in popularity during the mid-2 ...

and accusations that the show promoted racism, sexism and bigotry. While the show did not predominantly deal with political themes, Sam Hyde's Twitter feed containing political references and his other controversies like crashing a TEDx talk, added to the suspicion. Buzzfeed writer, Joseph Bernstein, was active in criticizing the show after a heated interview with creator Sam Hyde. He wrote that a source told him the network's standards departments repeatedly discovered and removed coded racist messages, including hidden swastikas. When asked, Hyde explained that despite Adult Swim executives' interest to pick up the show for a second season, Turner Broadcasting ultimately decided to cancel the show. On September 28, 2017, Pete Smith, a long-time producer at the studio and co-creator of ''The Brak Show'', retired from the company. On that night, Adult Swim celebrated his career with an all-night marathon of just '' Bob's Burgers'' (consisting of episodes that his daughter, Nora Smith, wrote) and ''The Brak Show'', with promos and bumpers made by Pete Smith airing during breaks. This became an annual event, with each following event also consisting of a 10 hour marathon of both shows until 2021, when there was only a two hour marathon of ''The Brak Show''. The following events also added newly produced shorts and interstitials from ''

Cartoon Planet ''Cartoon Planet'' is an American animated variety show that originally ran from 1995 to 1998 and 2012 to 2014 on Cartoon Network. A spin-off of ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast'', the series centered on Space Ghost recruiting his imprisoned evil neme ...

'', which Pete wrote for. Adult Swim began losing the syndication rights to various

20th Television 20th Television (formerly 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Century-Fox Television, and TCF Television Productions, Inc.) is an American television production company that is a division of Disney Television Studios, part of The Walt Disney Compa ...

animated series in 2018; Comedy Central acquired the syndication rights to ''King of the Hill'' and ''The Cleveland Show'' that year. On April 8, 2019, it was announced that FXX would acquire the rights to season 16 and beyond of ''Family Guy'' (sharing those rights with sister networks Freeform and FX) and season 9 and beyond of ''Bob's Burgers'', with rights to the seasons currently airing on Adult Swim and sister network TBS set to transfer over to the Disney-owned networks. ''Family Guy'' was the first to leave on September 18, 2021, with ''Bob's Burgers'' to follow in 2023. ''American Dad!'', which has been a TBS original series since 2014, is set to remain. On March 4, 2019, AT&T announced a major reorganization of WarnerMedia's Turner Broadcasting division, which involves Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Boomerang, and Turner Classic Movies being transferred to

Warner Bros. Entertainment Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American Film studio, film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, Califo ...

under a new Kids, Young Adults, and Classics division. Although AT&T did not specify any timetable for the changes to take effect, WarnerMedia had begun to remove all Turner references in corporate communications and press releases, referring to that unit's networks as "divisions of WarnerMedia".

2019–present

In December 2019, Mike Lazzo retired from the company, which was announced by a bumper that aired on the network that month. On April 29, 2020,

, previously the chief marketing officer of Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, and Boomerang and the co-creator of '' Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law'', was named the President of Adult Swim, a new position that gives Ouweleen responsibility for all aspects of the network and its properties. Adult Swim faced layoffs in November 2020, resulting in the closing of ''

Pocket Mortys ''Pocket Mortys'', also known as ''Rick and Morty: Pocket Mortys'', is a free-to-play role-playing video game developed by Big Pixel Studios and Tag Games, and published by Adult Swim Games. The game was released worldwide on January 13, 2016 for i ...

'' developer Big Pixel Studios and the cancellation of all of Adult Swim's online live stream series.

Keith Crofford Keith Crofford (born April 14, 1956) is the former executive vice president of production for Adult Swim, the adult-oriented division of Cartoon Network, and general manager of Williams Street. He was executive producer for several Williams Stree ...

retired from the company in December 2020, which was celebrated with two bumpers featuring Meatwad from ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force'' and Seth Green and Matthew Senreich from ''Robot Chicken''. On April 23, 2021, WarnerMedia announced that Adult Swim would merge with HBO Max's adult animation development teams, under the leadership of Suzanna Makkos. On September 18, 2021, ''

'' officially ended its 18-year long run on Adult Swim, as the network presented a farewell bumper at the end of the show's final rerun, "

Stewie Is Enceinte The thirteenth season of ''Family Guy'' aired on Fox in the United States from September 28, 2014, to May 17, 2015. The series follows the dysfunctional Griffin family, consisting of father Peter, mother Lois, daughter Meg, son Chris, baby Stew ...

", featuring other Adult Swim characters waving goodbye to the

Griffin family The Griffin family is a fictional family which appears in the List of animated television series, animated television series ''Family Guy''. The Griffins are a dysfunctional family consisting of the married couple Peter Griffin, Peter and Lois G ...

. Starting October 18, 2021, Adult Swim began airing shows syndicated from 20th Television in a compressed format for the first time, doing split-screen credits in a similar fashion to Cartoon Network. Some episodes would also be sped up to accommodate additional time slots for advertising sales, similar to sister network TBS. Initially, split-screen credits affected episodes with tag scenes, although this was later fixed by January 2022. Adult Swim regained the rights to both ''King of the Hill'' on November 22, 2021 (beginning with the season 6 premiere "Bobby Goes Nuts") and ''Futurama'' on December 27, 2021 (beginning just as it did on Comedy Central, Syfy, and FXX, as well as how the original run on Adult Swim began and ended, with the pilot episode " Space Pilot 3000"), sharing the rights with FXX and in ''Futurama''s case with Comedy Central. In May 2022, following WarnerMedia's merger with Discovery Inc. to form Warner Bros. Discovery, the Warner Bros. Global Kids, Young Adults, and Classics division was dissolved. Adult Swim was moved under the Warner Bros. Discovery U.S. Networks Group, while Williams Street moved under Warner Bros. Television. Michael Ouweleen still oversees both units, while also gaining oversight to Cartoon Network and Boomerang.

Special events

Death tributes

Adult Swim occasionally airs bumpers that pay tribute to a recent celebrity death, in which there is no music or sound effects, but only a fade-in, showing the person's name, along with the year of their birth and the year of their death, followed by a fade-out. This has been done for many celebrities, some including

Johnny Cash John R. Cash (born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003) was an American country singer-songwriter. Much of Cash's music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially in the later stages of his ca ...

, John Ritter, Harry Goz,

Johnny Carson John William Carson (October 23, 1925 – January 23, 2005) was an American television host, comedian, writer and producer. He is best known as the host of ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' (1962–1992). Carson received six Pr ...

, James Doohan, Richard Pryor,

Vincent Schiavelli Vincent Andrew Schiavelli (; November 11, 1948 – December 26, 2005) was an American character actor noted for his work on stage, screen, and television. Described as an "instantly recognizable sad-faced actor", he was diagnosed with Marfan s ...

, Alex Toth,

Joseph Barbera Joseph Roland Barbera ( ; ; March 24, 1911 – December 18, 2006) was an American animator, director, producer, storyboard artist, and cartoon artist who co-founded the animation studio and production company Hanna-Barbera. Born to Italian im ...

, Iwao Takamoto, George Carlin, Bernie Mac, Issac Hayes, Ricardo Montalban,

Farrah Fawcett Farrah Leni Fawcett (born Ferrah Leni Fawcett; February 2, 1947 – June 25, 2009) was an American actress. A four-time Primetime Emmy Award nominee and six-time Golden Globe Award nominee, Fawcett rose to international fame when she playe ...

, Michael Jackson,

Les Paul Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 12, 2009), known as Les Paul, was an American jazz, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid-body electric guitar, and his prototype ...

, Gary Coleman, Richard Dunn, Frank Buckles,

Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. ...

, Randy Savage,

Peter Falk Peter Michael Falk (September 16, 1927 – June 23, 2011) was an American film and television actor. He is best known for his role as Lieutenant Columbo in the long-running television series ''Columbo'' (1968–1978, 1989–2003), for which he ...

, Eddie Horst,

Steve Jobs Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; a ...

Joe Frazier Joseph William Frazier (January 12, 1944November 7, 2011), nicknamed "Smokin' Joe", was an American professional boxer who competed from 1965 to 1981. He was known for his strength, durability, formidable left hand, and relentless pressure fi ...

, Amy Winehouse,

Larry Munson Lawrence Harry Munson (September 28, 1922 – November 20, 2011) was an American sports announcer and talk-show host based out of the U.S. city of Athens, Georgia. He was best known for handling radio play-by-play of University of Georgia B ...

, Don Cornelius, Whitney Houston, Dick Clark, Michael Clarke Duncan, Adam Yauch,

Maurice Sendak Maurice Bernard Sendak (; June 10, 1928 – May 8, 2012) was an American author and illustrator of children's books. He became most widely known for his book ''Where the Wild Things Are'', first published in 1963.Turan, Kenneth (October 16, 200 ...

, Ray Bradbury, Andy Griffith, Phyllis Diller,

Neil Armstrong Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who became the first person to walk on the Moon in 1969. He was also a naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor. ...

, Jonathan Winters, Ray Harryhausen, James Gandolfini,

Dennis Burkley Dennis Henry Burkley (September 10, 1945 – July 14, 2013) was an American actor. In a career spanning four decades, he appeared in numerous films and television series. He was best known for his role as Theo in Son in Law. Early life Burkley ...

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. ...

Peter O'Toole Peter Seamus O'Toole (; 2 August 1932 – 14 December 2013) was a British stage and film actor. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and began working in the theatre, gaining recognition as a Shakespearean actor at the Bristol Old Vic ...

, Robin Williams, Joan Rivers, Leonard Nimoy, Yogi Berra, David Bowie, Alan Rickman,

Harper Lee Nelle Harper Lee (April 28, 1926February 19, 2016) was an American novelist best known for her 1960 novel ''To Kill a Mockingbird''. It won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and has become a classic of modern American literature. Lee has received numero ...

, Prince, Gene Wilder,

George Michael George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou; 25 June 1963 – 25 December 2016) was an English singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the most significant cultural icons of the MTV generation and is one of the best-selling musici ...

, Carrie Fisher,

Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka James Reiher Snuka (born James Wiley Smith; May 18, 1943 – January 15, 2017) was a Fijian American professional wrestler. He is better known by the ring name Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka. Snuka wrestled for several promotions from the 1970s to 201 ...

, Charlie Murphy,

Dolores O'Riordan Dolores Mary Eileen O'Riordan ( ; 6 September 1971 – 15 January 2018) was an Irish musician, singer and songwriter. She was best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist for the alternative rock band the Cranberries. One of the most recogniza ...

, Chris Cornell, Verne Troyer, Stephen Hawking, Jon Schnepp,

Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the " Queen of Soul", she has twice been placed ninth in ''Rolling Stone''s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". With ...

Kevin Barnett Kevin Rees Barnett (born May 14, 1974) is an American former volleyball player. He played for the United States national team at the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics. Barnett worked as a broadcaster for the Pac-12 Networks and FOX Sports West in ...

, Stephen Hillenburg,

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...

, Monkey Punch, Rutger Hauer, John Witherspoon, Fred Silverman, Neil Peart, Terry Jones,

Kobe Bryant Kobe Bean Bryant ( ; August 23, 1978 – January 26, 2020) was an American professional basketball player. A shooting guard, he spent his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely r ...

Fred the Godson Frederick Thomas (February 22, 1985 – April 23, 2020), known as Fred the Godson, was an rapper from The Bronx, New York. At his death in April 2020, he became one of the most notable New Yorkers to have died of COVID-19 complications early in ...

, Carl Reiner, John Lewis, Grant Imahara,

Herman Cain Herman Cain (December 13, 1945July 30, 2020) was an American businessman and Tea Party movement activist within the Republican Party. Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Cain grew up in Georgia and graduated from Morehouse College with a bachelor's d ...

, Chadwick Boseman, Joe Ruby,

Eddie Van Halen Edward Lodewijk Van Halen ( , ; January 26, 1955 – October 6, 2020) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Van Halen, which he co-founded along ...

, Billy Joe Shaver, Naya Rivera, Ken Spears,

Alex Trebek George Alexander Trebek (; July 22, 1940 – November 8, 2020) was a Canadian-American game show host and television personality. He is best known for hosting the syndicated general knowledge quiz game show ''Jeopardy!'' for 37 season ...

, MF Doom and Billy Kametz. In addition, they also made a memorial bumper for Sherman Hemsley, but did so in 2014, two years after his death, adding "Sorry, we just found out. That shit sucks." When news broke of the death of ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast'' voice actor and animator

C. Martin Croker Clay Martin Croker (January 10, 1962 – September 17, 2016), generally credited as C. Martin Croker, was an American animator and voice actor. He was best known for having provided the voices of Dr. Weird, Zorak, and Moltar on the animated serie ...

, who died on September 17, 2016, the network paid tribute to him by playing the first ''Coast to Coast'' episode in his memory the following night, with two bumpers also made in tribute. Toonami also paid tribute to Croker that week with a bumper featuring T.O.M. and S.A.R.A. saying farewell to former host Moltar (voiced by Croker). Following the death of Norm Macdonald on September 14, 2021, Adult Swim aired an hour of ''

Mike Tyson Mysteries ''Mike Tyson Mysteries'' is an American adult animated television series, and is the first collaboration between Warner Bros. Animation and Williams Street. It premiered October 27, 2014 on Adult Swim. The series features Mike Tyson solving myster ...

'', where he played Pigeon, on the 14th and the 15th.

April Fools' Day stunts

Adult Swim has an annual tradition of celebrating April Fools' Day by tricking and fooling their audience by altering programs or airing different and obscure programs. The pranks generally start at 12 a.m. ET on April 1, technically considered part of the March 31st schedule, with an additional prank on the April 1st schedule rarely. * Starting in 2004, all of the regularly scheduled episodes were aired with random mustaches drawn on the characters; however, the next night the episodes were aired again this time without the random mustaches. * In 2005, Adult Swim aired an early, unfinished version of the '' Squidbillies'' pilot, instead of ''

Robot Chicken ''Robot Chicken'' is an American adult animated stop motion sketch comedy television series, created and executive produced for Adult Swim by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich along with co-head writers Douglas Goldstein and Tom Root. The writers, ...

''. Right after the rough cut, it was announced that the animated series would premiere later in October 2005. * In 2006, Adult Swim aired old re-runs of '' Mr. T'' and ''

Karate Kommandos ''Karate Kommandos'' (also known as ''Chuck Norris: Karate Kommandos'') is an American animated television series that originally aired in 1986 as a syndicated five episode mini-series. It was created by and starred Chuck Norris as himself, and ...

'', and then aired episodes of '' Fullmetal Alchemist'' and '' Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex'' with fart noises added to the dialog. * On March 31, 2007, Adult Swim aired every episode of '' Perfect Hair Forever'' in reverse order. The episodes were digitally degraded to look like several generations-old videotapes with grammatically incorrect subtitles in Engrish. At one point, the subtitles shown on screen were actually for an ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force'' episode. * On April 1, 2007, Adult Swim had been advertising that it would be airing '' Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters'' in its entirety on April Fools' Day. Technically, they made good on their promise by showing the first two minutes (which had long been available on the movie's website) full-screen and the entire rest of the film in a very small picture-in-picture window with its sound played over SAP during normal programming. * In 2008, Adult Swim aired a night of unfinished sneak peeks, pilots and stealth premieres of future upcoming shows in place of its regularly scheduled programming, featuring ''

Fat Guy Stuck in Internet ''Fat Guy Stuck in Internet'' is an American science-fiction comedy television series created by John Gemberling and Curtis Gwinn for Cartoon Network's late-night adult-oriented programming block Adult Swim; and ended with a total of ten episode ...

, The Venture Bros.,

Delocated ''Delocated'' (or known in the title card as ''Delocated New York'') is an American television series that premiered February 12, 2009 on Adult Swim. The original pilot for the show was aired on April 1, 2008. Jon Glaser plays a man in the Witnes ...

, Superjail!, Young Person's Guide to History, Metalocalypse,

,'' and ''

Moral Orel ''Moral Orel'' is an American adult stop-motion animated sitcom created by Dino Stamatopoulos which originally aired on Cartoon Network's nighttime programming block Adult Swim from December 13, 2005 to December 18, 2008. The series has been des ...

''. Some of these premieres included introductory segments hosted by Robert Osborne from Turner Classic Movies. The repeat block did air the scheduled ''ATHF'' movie, with bumps teasing the viewer about missing the premieres. * In 2009, Adult Swim aired '' The Room'', a critically panned 2003 independent film that was considered a cult classic, with

sex scenes Sex in film, the presentation of aspects of sexuality in film, specially human sexuality, has been controversial since the development of the medium. Films which display or suggest sexual behavior have been criticized by religious groups or hav ...

obscured with black boxes. That was followed by the '' Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!'' episode "Tommy", which featured the star and director of the film Tommy Wiseau. * In 2010, Adult Swim re-aired ''The Room'' for a second year in a row, with bumps featuring Tommy Wiseau being interviewed on ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast''. Sex scenes remained censored, but the parental rating was raised to TV-MA. * In 2011, ''The Room'' was aired once again with the TV-MA rating and was followed by a 15-minute special titled ''Earth Ghost'', a CGI version of the ''Lowe Country'' pilot shown on Adult Swim's website in 2007. * In 2012, Adult Swim replaced its lineup with Toonami, a former programming block from

. After first playing the opening sequence of ''The Room'', the scene switched to the Toonami host T.O.M. noting that it was April Fools' Day before introducing that week's scheduled episode of ''

Bleach Bleach is the generic name for any chemical product that is used industrially or domestically to remove color (whitening) from a fabric or fiber or to clean or to remove stains in a process called bleaching. It often refers specifically, to ...

''. The Toonami bumps and programming would continue throughout the night, featuring ''

Dragon Ball Z ''Dragon Ball Z'' is a Japanese anime television series produced by Toei Animation. Part of the ''Dragon Ball'' media franchise, it is the sequel to the 1986 '' Dragon Ball'' anime series and adapts the latter 325 chapters of the original ...

'', '' Mobile Suit Gundam Wing'', '' Tenchi Muyo!'', '' Outlaw Star'', '' The Big O'' season 1, '' Yu Yu Hakusho'', ''

Blue Submarine No. 6 , officially translated in Japan as "Blue Sub 006", is a post-apocalyptic 3-volume manga series written and illustrated by Satoru Ozawa. The manga was published in 1967 by Shogakukan's ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' magazine. When the OVA ada ...

'', '' Trigun'', the original version of '' Astro Boy'', and '' Gigantor''. T.O.M. also presented a review of '' Mass Effect 3'' and promoted the recent DVD releases of the series featured. Subsequently, on May 16, 2012, Adult Swim announced via Twitter and later by a press release that Toonami would return to Adult Swim on May 26, 2012, as a regular weekly Saturday night programming block. * In 2013, Adult Swim featured images of cats throughout much of its programming. All of the bumps contained videos and images of cats, while the episodes of the live-action shows aired that night had cat faces covering up the faces of the actors. The

logo was replaced with "

eow meow Eow or EOW may refer to: *Auiones, Germanic tribes of the 1st century C.E. *E. O. Wilson (1929–2021), American biologist, theorist, naturalist and author *Electrolysed water, produced by the electrolysis of ordinary tap water containing dissolve ...

. * In 2014, Adult Swim premiered an eighth episode of '' Perfect Hair Forever'', seven years following the series finale. This was followed by an unannounced ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast'' marathon featuring creator-chosen episodes (including the full version of "Fire Ant", which has rarely been aired on TV). During the marathon, bumps were included between episodes showing outtakes and commentary from the writers and staff. The prank streamed on a loop on Adult Swim's website the next day. * In 2015, Adult Swim aired a 6 hour marathon of '' Aqua Teen Hunger Force'', with superimposed coins on the screen, replicating the "Coin Hunt" game from Adult Swim's online live stream show '' FishCenter''. The main characters of the show collected points by hovering over the coins during the episodes, with the points counted and tabulated throughout the night. Master Shake was ultimately declared the winner. ''FishCenter'' streamed live during the whole event, featuring special guest Trixie Mattel, Zach White, a guitar music performance from Jared Hill, and several confused call-ins. * In 2016, advertisements were shown for the April Fools' broadcast, recapping their 12-year history of pranks and hyping up that year's prank. When midnight did occur, regular programming played, with the implication being that the prank for 2016 was that there was no prank. * On the broadcast night of March 31, 2017, all the regularly scheduled episodes after midnight had a weird audio mix, including added laugh tracks, ''

Seinfeld ''Seinfeld'' ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. It aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, over nine seasons and List of Seinfeld episodes, 180 episodes. It stars Seinfeld as Jerry Seinfeld ( ...

'' stings, robotic and pitch-shifted filters added to particular voices, various sound effects and alternate musical pieces. * On April 1, 2017, the evening portion of Adult Swim was replaced with the unannounced '' Rick and Morty'' Season 3 premiere, "

The Rickshank Rickdemption "The Rickshank Rickdemption" is the first episode in the third season of the American animated television sitcom ''Rick and Morty'', and the twenty-second episode overall in the series. It was written by Mike McMahan and directed by Juan Meza-Leo ...

". It aired repeatedly from 8:00p.m. until midnight on TV, shortening Toonami in the process, and streamed on a loop on Adult Swim's website. Newly commissioned ''Rick and Morty'' idents and announcement promos for upcoming shows and seasons aired during the prank. The episode then repeated every night at 10:00 p.m. until April 7. * On the broadcast night of March 31, 2018, Toonami aired its anime after midnight in Japanese with English subtitles, breaking the block's policy of only playing dubbed anime. The subbed anime included the stealth premiere of ''

FLCL Alternative The third season of the ''FLCL'' anime series, titled ''FLCL Alternative'', is produced by Production I.G, Toho, and Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, ...

'', the 2004 film '' Mind Game'', and most of Toonami's scheduled programming for that night. The short ''Scavengers'' finished off the block at 5:45 a.m. The block aired special bumpers with T.O.M. and S.A.R.A. and a game review of '' Nier: Automata'', all dubbed to Japanese with English subtitles. The Adult Swim logo was also changed to Japanese (stylized as ��ダルトスイム. The originally scheduled programming affected by the prank aired normally the following week. * On April 1, 2018, Adult Swim aired an animated parody of '' Rick and Morty'' titled "Bushworld Adventures", created by Michael R. Cusack, at 11:00 p.m., instead of ''Rick and Morty'' and ''Mike Tyson Mysteries''. It follows Rick and Morty in Australia going on wild adventures in search to find the green cube that was left at Bendigo. All of Adult Swim's nature-themed bumpers that aired throughout the hour were Australian-themed. The short also streamed on a loop on Adult Swim's website. * In 2019, Adult Swim aired '' Gēmusetto Machu Picchu'', an anime parody that ran continuously from midnight to 5:45 a.m. It was simulcast both on TV and on Adult Swim's online live stream, with a live Q&A with creator Maxime Simonet airing after the program on the live stream. The special was simulcast on Action in Canada as its second-to-last program ever (with an episode of '' NTSF:SD:SUV::'' airing as the last program at 5:45 a.m.), which rebranded into a new 24/7

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

and often abbreviated as s is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television Television channel, channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programme ...

network in Canada at 6:00 a.m. * In 2020, Adult Swim aired "Post's Game", a night of sneak peek programming hosted by Post Malone and friends, playing casual games during the broadcast. The prank started with a tease to a new season of ''Gēmusetto'', only to be interrupted by Malone. New episodes of ''

Primal Primal may refer to: Psychotherapy * ''Primal'', the core concept in primal therapy, denotes the full reliving and cathartic release of an early traumatic experience * Primal scene (in psychoanalysis), refers to the witnessing by a young child of ...

'', ''

Dream Corp LLC ''Dream Corp LLC'' is an American black comedy television series created by Daniel Stessen for Adult Swim. Dream Corp LLC is an absurdist workplace comedy set in a run-down dream therapy facility located in a dilapidated strip mall. In each ep ...

'', '' Tigtone'', ''

The Shivering Truth ''The Shivering Truth'' is an American adult stop-motion animated anthology horror comedy television series created by Vernon Chatman and directed by Chatman and Cat Solen. The show is produced by Solen with PFFR and ShadowMachine, and feature ...

'', ''

Lazor Wulf ''Lazor Wulf'' is an American adult-animated television series produced by Williams Street for Adult Swim that premiered on April 8, 2019. Originating as a webcomic on Tumblr in 2013, it is directed by creator Henry Bonsu, with Daniel Weidenfeld ...

'', ''

12 oz. Mouse ''12 oz. Mouse'' is an American adult animated television series created by Matt Maiellaro for Cartoon Network's late-night programming block, Adult Swim. The series revolves around Mouse Fitzgerald, nicknamed "Fitz" (voiced by Maiellaro), an alc ...

'', and '' Tender Touches'' aired. The series premieres to '' YOLO: Crystal Fantasy'' and ''

JJ Villard's Fairy Tales ''JJ Villard's Fairy Tales'' is an American adult animated horror comedy television series created by J.J. Villard. The series premiered on Cartoon Network's late night programming block, Adult Swim on May 11, 2020. Cast *J.J. Villard as Police ...

'' were also shown, along with the pilot for ''

Smiling Friends ''Smiling Friends'' is an adult animated television series created by Zach Hadel and Michael Cusack for Cartoon Network's night-time programming block Adult Swim, which revolves around a small company dedicated to making people smile. The pilo ...

'', a ''Rick and Morty'' short by

Studio Deen is a Japanese animation studio founded in 1975 by Sunrise producer Hiroshi Hasegawa and ex-Sunrise animators. The studio owns three subsidiaries: Danny Donghua (丹尼動画), a Chinese sub-contracting studio; Megumi (め組), a digital work sub-c ...

, and a new trailer for the second half of ''Rick and Morty'' season 4. Malone made silent cameos on each show (aside from ''Primal'' and ''Smiling Friends'') via green screen. ''Smiling Friends'' was quickly uploaded to the website due to popular demand. The Adult Swim network in Canada simulcast the event. ''FishCenter'' streamed live during the event on the website, taking calls from viewers. * In 2021, Adult Swim became Adult Swim Junior from midnight to 12:45 a.m., with "kid-friendly" versions of normal programming and station bumpers. The ''Rick and Morty'' episode "

Total Rickall "Total Rickall" is the fourth episode of the second season of the Adult Swim animated television series ''Rick and Morty''. Written by Mike McMahan and directed by Juan Meza-León, the episode premiered on August 16, 2015. It shows the Smith famil ...

" (renamed as ''Rick and Morty Babies'') and the ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force'' episode "

Revenge of the Mooninites The first season of the animated television series, '' Aqua Teen Hunger Force'' originally aired in the United States. Season one unofficially started on December 30, 2000 with the unannounced early morning stealth airing of "Rabbot" on Cartoon Net ...

" (renamed as ''Aqua Child Hunger Force'') were dubbed over by children, with new intros, revised scripts to remove inappropriate language, and re-edited scenes to remove adult content. Promos aired during the prank featured more Adult Swim series made "kid-friendly". Both episodes were rerun from 12:45 to 1:30 a.m. The prank simulcast on Adult Swim in Canada and was streamed to YouTube. * In 2022, Pibby and Bun Bun, the main characters from the ''Come and Learn with Pibby'' proof-of-concept short, appeared in Adult Swim’s programming and bumpers from midnight to 2:00 a.m., occasionally having characters and the environment be visually corrupted. The prank repeated from 3:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m., simulcast on Adult Swim in Canada, and was streamed to YouTube. Adult Swim later posted a compilation of all the corruptions done in the night's prank. A ''Pibby''-related song played over the network sign-off at 5:59 a.m. HBO Max added the short, and themed the Adult Swim hub around the prank for the following week.

Alternate reality games

Adult Swim began an

ARG Arg or ARG may refer to: Places *''Arg'' () means "citadel" in Persian, and may refer to: **Arg, Iran, a village in Fars Province, Iran **Arg (Kabul), presidential palace in Kabul, Afghanistan **Arg, South Khorasan, a village in South Khorasan P ...

campaign on August 27, 2017, by airing a cryptic bump "transmission" during a new episode of '' Rick and Morty''. The bump referred viewers to a Twitter account. Players were told that they were trying to rescue a stolen AI named Delilah. Weekly bumps provided puzzles to be solved by viewers with solutions submitted via Twitter. The solutions were then confirmed by both the Twitter account and subsequent bumps. Later in the game, Delilah was forced to self-destruct to prevent a security breach. The Twitter account then rebranded itself as a marketing company and claimed that the entire game was an experiment. Soon after this, a new Twitter account followed all the previous account's existing followers. This new account informed everyone that they were searching for their missing sister named Amelia. The bump transmissions then started referring viewers to this new Twitter account as well as several new

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

accounts, continuing to provide puzzles that required solving. Some players have used Discord to work together as a team in a dedicated server to solve the puzzles and share theories about the game. The ARG has been consistently broadcasting new messages and puzzles every Sunday since the initial August 2017 broadcast, with only a short hiatus during the 2017 holiday break. On March 25, 2018, it was revealed that Amelia was safe and had been for quite some time. Players learned that Amelia's messages asking for help were actually sent 3 years prior and that their delay in being received was caused by time dilation. This revelation effectively completed the second chapter of the ARG, it also alluded to the next phase which has just started as of June 2018.

Programming

Original shows currently in-production and seen on Adult Swim include '' The Eric Andre Show'', '' Rick and Morty'', and ''

''. Adult Swim is best known for its inaugural slate of programming, which were mainly parodies and remakes based on

cartoons (including '' Space Ghost Coast to Coast'', '' Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law'' and '' Sealab 2021''). Adult Swim also airs syndicated programs from

('' Bob's Burgers'', ''

, King of the Hill''), original series produced for sister network TBS (''

American Dad! ''American Dad!'' is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane, Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman for the Fox Broadcasting Company. Since 2014, the series has been airing new episodes on TBS. ''American Dad!'' is the first television ...

''), and have acquired and co-produced various anime series. Adult Swim is currently one of the only networks in the United States that broadcasts anime (besides Disney XD) and the only network that airs such programming aimed at young adults and teens rather than children. Currently, most anime and action-genre programming air on Saturday nights as part of Toonami, a former Cartoon Network programming block that was relaunched by Adult Swim on May 26, 2012, as a "block-within-a-block". Cartoon Network shows that have gained a following among older viewers have also aired on Toonami; in particular, '' Samurai Jack'' proved popular enough in reruns to warrant a revival in 2017.

Merchandise and media offerings

Official website

Adult Swim's official website features full episodes of shows, online streams and podcasts, music streaming, comics, a programming schedule, and a section dedicated to its Toonami programming block. User accounts could once be made on the site, initially for the site's messaging boards, which launched in May 2003 and shut down in October 2016. By 2018, the only main functionality for user accounts left was for creating profiles and participating in the live stream chatrooms. User accounts were permanently disabled in January 2021, following the removal of the chat function. A store was available on the site, although initially only through the main Cartoon Network store from 2001 to 2004. The store later spun-off into its own website, the Adult Swim Shop, in 2004, and ran until 2012. Another store, As Seen on Adult Swim, launched in 2013 and only sold a single item at a time until 2017, when a

QVC QVC (short for "Quality Value Convenience") is an American free-to-air television network, and flagship shopping channel specializing in televised home shopping, owned by Qurate Retail Group. Founded in 1986 by Joseph Segel in West Chester, Penn ...

-like show was launched with the same name on the Adult Swim streams. The site later shut down in January 2021, following the end of the series in November.

Video on demand and online streaming

In mid-2004, Adult Swim launched a video on demand service on subscription television providers. The service includes several episodes from various Adult Swim original series, syndicated series, and anime licensed for Toonami. The anime series '' s-CRY-ed'' initially premiered on demand before debuting on the regular block in May 2005. Adult Swim introduced online video streaming in 2006, providing a free online video on demand service for recent and older episodes of select programming. Initially, some episodes premiered on the website early, although eventually episodes began appearing 1–3 days after broadcast. This became a week after broadcast in June 2010. In August 2011, Adult Swim began requiring TV Everywhere authentication for most episodes on the site, greatly reducing the amount of free content. This service was combined with the Adult Swim mobile app in 2014. Around this time, Adult Swim began posting every episode of select series online for free viewing, although some of these were removed in 2015 when

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

acquired the rights to multiple shows, and once again in 2020 when sibling service HBO Max launched. Most of Adult Swim's library is available on HBO Max, while select series are available on Hulu. Some series are also available on Tubi, a free ad-supported streaming service. Several Adult Swim shows are also available for purchase on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

Google TV Google TV may refer to: * Google TV (interface), an updated interface of Android TV launched in 2020 * Google TV (service), a video-on-demand service formerly known as Google Play Movies & TV * Google TV (operating system), a discontinued operating ...

, Amazon, Microsoft Movies & TV, and

Vudu Vudu is an American digital video store and streaming service owned by Fandango Media, a joint-venture between NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery. The company offers transactional video on demand rentals and digital purchases of films, ...

Video games

Adult Swim once had many Flash-based online games available on their website, including ''

Robot Unicorn Attack ''Robot Unicorn Attack'' is an endless running video game released by Spritonin Media Games on February 4, 2010. In the first week after its release, the game garnered one million plays. Following Robot Unicorn Attack, Adult Swim released three ...

'' and ''Five Minutes to Kill (Yourself)'', but all of the games were removed in 2020 following the discontinuation of Adobe Flash Player. Starting in 2005, Adult Swim began publishing mobile games, including those based on Adult Swim franchises and original content. In 2011, the division Adult Swim Games was created to publish original

indie game An indie game, short for independent video game, is a video game typically created by individuals or smaller development teams without the financial and technical support of a large game publisher, in contrast to most "AAA" (triple-A) games. ...

content, largely focusing on the hardcore gamer market.

Music

Adult Swim has partnerships with several independent music labels, and has co-produced and released compilation albums with

Stones Throw Records Stones Throw Records is an American independent record label based in Los Angeles, California. Under the direction of founder Peanut Butter Wolf, Stones Throw has released music ranging from hip hop to experimental psychedelic rock. '' LA Weekl ...

, Ghostly International, Definitive Jux, and

Chocolate Industries Chocolate Industries was an American record label. Founded in Miami, Florida by Marvin "Seven" Bedard and cofounder Edgar Farinas the label moved to Chicago, Illinois. The label has released studio albums by the likes of Push Button Objects, Dive ...

through their own label, Williams Street Records. Many of Adult Swim's bumps and packaging make use of instrumental and electronic music. Various music is also often borrowed from artists signed onto a wide array of different labels, including Warp Records and

Ninja Tune Records Ninja Tune is an English independent record label based in London. It has a satellite office in Los Angeles. It was founded by Matt Black and Jonathan More (better known as Coldcut) and managed by Peter Quicke and others. Inspired by a visi ...

Live events

Adult Swim has held various live events throughout the years through its Adult Swim Presents division. The network frequently appears at San Diego Comic Con, often holding sneak previews, games, musical performances, among other things. Since 2018, the network has held an annual Adult Swim Festival, with a mix of music, comedy, panels, and more. 2018 and 2019's festivals took place in Los Angeles, and had select performances streamed live on the Adult Swim Streams. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 and 2021's festivals were held online, through prerecorded videos and live streams on YouTube. The 2022 festival, known as the Adult Swim Festival Block Party, took place in Philadelphia, with highlight reels and select full performances being streamed to YouTube.

Podcast

Adult Swim offered a video podcast on

from March 21 to September 19, 2006. The podcasts featured behind-the-scenes segments of shows and exclusive content; such as an interview with '' Saved by the Bell''s Dennis Haskins and a look at Brendon Small and

Tommy Blacha Thomas Blacha (born August 25, 1962) is an American voice actor, writer, and producer. He is known working for shows such as ''Metalocalypse'', ''Da Ali G Show'' and ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien''. Career Blacha started as a local Chicago Co ...

's ''Metalocalypse''. The podcast reached number two in iTunes' ranking of most downloaded podcasts. A new audio-only podcast, called the ''Adult Swim Podcast'', was launched on July 11, 2019, hosted by Matt Harrigan. In regular episodes, Harrigan interviews different Adult Swim contributors, show creators, and actors.

Max Simonet Maxime Simonet is a Franco-American writer, producer, editor, and voice actor for various shows who is best known for co-creating and hosting the internet talk show ''FishCenter Live'', co-creating and starring in ''Tender Touches'', and for cre ...

was later added as a co-host, with interviews still done solo by Harrigan. The podcast also featured a few spin-offs, such as a companion podcast for season 4 of ''Rick and Morty'', a tournament bracket competition for Adult Swim's original comedies, and a tournament bracket for Toonami programming; most episodes of these spin-offs aired live on the Adult Swim Streams. No new episodes of the ''Adult Swim Podcast'' have released since November 2020. Adult Swim also teamed up with

Abso Lutely Productions Abso Lutely Productions is a film and television production company owned by actor-producers Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim and producer Dave Kneebone. It is known for producing TV shows such as ''Tom Goes to the Mayor''; '' Nathan For You''; '' ...

to produce season 2 of the ''This is Branchburg'' comedy podcast.

Live streams and web series

On September 25, 2013, Adult Swim began simulcasting their channel through the Adult Swim mobile app and website, although TV Everywhere authentication is required. Both the East and West Coast feeds are available. In late 2014, Adult Swim added several free

24/7 In commerce and industry, 24/7 or 24-7 service (usually pronounced "twenty-four seven") is service that is available at any time and usually, every day. An alternate orthography for the numerical part includes 24×7 (usually pronounced "twenty ...

live streams to their website, most of them airing marathons of different shows on a loop. One of the live streams, a feed of the Williams Street office's fish tank, became its own series: '' FishCenter Live'', and led to the creation of the Adult Swim Streams. The Adult Swim Streams consisted of several online-exclusive originals, usually broadcast live, and featured a chatroom, similar to that of Twitch. Many of the shows also accepted calls from viewers to interact with the hosts or change the course of a program. Select shows aired daily on the service, these included: * '' FishCenter Live'': A parody of ''

SportsCenter ''SportsCenter'' (SC) is a daily sports news television show, television program that serves as the flagship program and brand of United States, American cable television, cable and satellite television television network, network ESPN. The show ...

'' and the flagship series, consisting of Matt Harrigan, Max Simonet,

Dave Bonawits Dave Bonawits (or David Bonawits) is an American actor, filmmaker, and editor. He was one of the hosts of ''FishCenter Live'', from the show's start on Adult Swim's website in 2014 to its cancellation in 2020. Career Bonawits directed ''Plea ...

, Andrew Choe, and Christina Loranger narrating over footage of the Williams Street fish tank. Fish scored points through games started by the hosts and games played by callers. Special guests, like musicians and comedians, often performed. * ''Stupid Morning Bullshit'': A morning (later, evenings) talk show hosted by Sally Skinner, discussing strange news stories and current events. * ''Williams Street Swap Shop'': A phone-in trading show in the vein of tradio programs hosted by Zachary White and Matt Hutchinson. A spin-off, ''Traveling Tuesdays'', had Zach visit places around Atlanta. * ''Bloodfeast'': A crossword puzzle solving show hosted by Max Simonet and Dave Bonawits that frequently used surreal content intended to disturb viewers, including animations, poetry, and short films. The show received two animated TV spinoffs, '' Tender Touches'' in 2017, followed by ''

Gēmusetto ''Gēmusetto'' (stylized as ''ゲームセット'') is an American adult animated series created by Max Simonet, that premiered on April 1, 2019 on Adult Swim. The first season, titled ''Gēmusetto Machu Picchu'' (stylized as ''ゲ–ムセッ� ...

'' in 2019. A stream spin-off known as ''Bloodfeast Presents'' featured musical performances using the same special effects to create unique visuals. * ''Desperate Losers'': A show hosted by various Adult Swim employees that had them play with scratch-off tickets in an attempt to supplement their incomes. The show alternated between the Williams Street streaming studios in Atlanta, Georgia and a New York City streaming studio, until the New York City studio's closure in early 2020. Some shows aired weekly or on special occasions, these included: * ''Assembly Line Yeah!'' : An arts-and-crafts show hosted by Jiyoung Lee and Anca Vlasan. * ''Last Stream on the Left'': A podcast-style show hosted by Ben Kissel, Henry Zebrowski, and Marcus Parks. The hosts discuss dark or disturbing stories, conspiracy theories, and paranormal happenings. * ''Digikiss'': A live one-on-one video dating show where viewers could ask questions and watch the date unfold. * ''Truthpoint: Darkweb Rising'': A show hosted by dril and Derek Estevez-Olsen, a parody of InfoWars. * ''As Seen on Adult Swim'': A show hosted by Nick Gibbons, in the style of a home shopping network program, selling Adult Swim merchandise and giving away a rare item as the last item every night to a winner of a contest. * ''Development Meeting'': A show hosted by development coordinators Walter Newman and Cameron Tang where viewers could pitch programs to Adult Swim. Unfinished sneak peeks to upcoming productions were also shown until 2019. One pitch, ''Skeleton Landlord'', eventually made it on air as a part of '' Infomercials''. * '' Toonami Pre-Flight'': A show hosted by Jason DeMarco and Gill Austin, where they discussed programming, took fan questions, and showed sneak peeks to upcoming promos and game reviews. * ''Block or Charge'': A comedy clip show hosted by

Rex Chapman Rex Everett Chapman (born October 5, 1967) is an American former professional basketball player and social media influencer. Chapman was a high school phenom in Kentucky, winning numerous awards for his play. In two seasons at the University of ...

and David Helmers, based off Chapman's tweets. * ''The Cry of Mann'', ''The Call of Warr'', and ''The Weather'': Three series from

Wham City Wham City is an art and performance collective based in Baltimore, Maryland. Members of Wham City include musicians Dan Deacon and Ed Schrader, visual artists Jimmy Joe Roche, Peter Ryan O'Connell, Mason Ross, Adam Endres, Dina Kelberman, April Ca ...

, where viewers could call in and either play characters or change the story. Some of the live stream shows aired edited down versions of their shows on the network on Fridays at 4:00 am, under the collective name ''Williams Stream''. Several previously recorded web series are also available on demand on the website, including '' On Cinema at the Cinema'' and its spin-off '' Decker'', which later became a TV series for Adult Swim. Archived episodes of Adult Swim Streams programming are also available. Almost all of Adult Swim's then ongoing web series, including the Adult Swim Streams as a whole, were cancelled by November 2020. Adult Swim Smalls, a shorts program produced by ''Off the Airs

Dave Hughes David William Hughes (born 26 November 1970) is an Australian stand-up comedian, television and radio presenter. He is known for his larrikin personality, drawling Australian accent, and deadpan comedic delivery. Hughes co-hosts ''Hughesy, ...

, was the only web series to remain. Some series, like ''On Cinema'', have continued on independently. New web series, including spin-offs of ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force'' and ''Rick and Morty'', started releasing in 2022. Currently, the website features several free live streams consisting of marathons of specific Adult Swim programming, with the mobile and OTT apps including a few more streams. Additionally, there is ''Channel 5'', a live stream consisting of various Tim & Eric productions made for the network, along with original series made for the stream, TimAndEric.com sketches, content made for Jash, and the Super Deluxe series '' Tim and Eric Nite Live!'' Some of the marathon streams had chatrooms similar to the live stream, though these were removed along with the live stream chatroom in January 2021.

Mobile and OTT applications

Since its premiere in 2001 Adult Swim executives have worked extensively to extend the network's reach to viewers in venues outside of the normal pay-television services. This includes the launch of the adultswim.com website and the release of apps for various mobile and over-the-top platforms providing access to current and past Adult Swim programming, live marathons, live and pre-recorded original programs and the nightly online simulcast of the Adult Swim broadcast. Currently apps are available in the U.S. only for Amazon Fire TV,

Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

(including Google Cast on Android TV),

Apple TV An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

, iOS,

Chromecast Chromecast is a line of digital media players developed by Google. The devices, designed as small dongles, can play Internet-streamed audio-visual content on a high-definition television or home audio system. The user can control playback with ...

, Roku and Xbox One. Due to licensing agreements certain parts of the apps including access to the network's live simulcast and most episodes of their shows require the viewer to use their subscription-television provider or OTT-platform username and password to authenticate their right to access such content. A downside to these apps is the fact that, unlike free-to-air television, they are not currently compliant with U.S. closed captioning requirements.

International

Adult Swim has been actively expanding its reach across the world since 2005. Localized versions have aired in Australia, Russia, Brazil and the rest of Latin America. Adult Swim is usually not paired with Cartoon Network due to local market conditions or government content restrictions and regulations – such as

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-ranging powers acros ...

in the United Kingdom. In such markets, Adult Swim programming is licensed to other broadcasters instead.

Africa

In November 2018, Adult Swim made its African debut in South Africa's MultiChoice's streaming service Showmax featuring shows such as '' Rick and Morty'', '' Samurai Jack'', ''

'' and '' Eagleheart'' at launch. In June 2019, the brand was temporarily made available on TNT as a programming block.

Australia and New Zealand

The Australian and New Zealand version of Adult Swim was broadcast on Cartoon Network until December 31, 2007. Shows aired at that time were ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force'', ''Sealab 2021'', ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast'', ''Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law'' (which also aired on SBS), '' Tom Goes to the Mayor'', ''Home Movies'', '' The Venture Bros.'', and before its closure, ''Squidbillies''. The comedy block aired every Friday and Saturday and an action block aired during the week, including mature anime like ''Cowboy Bebop'', '' InuYasha'', ''Bleach'', '' Air Gear'', ''

Black Cat A black cat is a domestic cat with black fur that may be a mixed or specific breed, or a common domestic cat of no particular breed. The Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA) recognizes 22 cat breeds that can come with solid black coats. The Bombay b ...

'' and '' Ghost in the Shell''. Presently, original comedies have premiered on The Comedy Channel in Australia. The block would return on The Comedy Channel in March 2008, with ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force'' joining the lineup on July 1. The channel has also aired ''

The Boondocks Boondocks are remote, usually brushy areas. Boondocks may also refer to: * The Boondocks (band), an Estonian rock band * ''The Boondocks'' (comic strip), a comic strip by Aaron McGruder ** ''The Boondocks'' (2005 TV series), the television ser ...

'', but not under the Adult Swim banner. To date, Adult Swim has grown considerably with the block now airing every Saturday from 12 to 2am AEST and 6:30 to 7:30 pm AEST to keep with the late night tradition of the former block. Adult Swim's programming has been released to Region 4 DVD by Madman Entertainment, including shows that have never been shown in Australia. Madman Entertainment has also released R4 exclusive DVDs not available in the United States, including Volume 2 and 3 of ''Moral Orel'' and complete collections of ''

Minoriteam ''Minoriteam'' is an American adult animated television series on Cartoon Network's late night programming block, Adult Swim. It ran from 2005 to 2006, with a total of one season and 20 episodes. The show was not renewed for another season and wa ...

'' and ''

Assy McGee ''Assy McGee'' is an American adult animated sitcom created by Matt Harrigan and Carl W. Adams for Cartoon Network's late-night programming block Adult Swim. The series features a police detective named Assy McGee, a parody of tough-guy cop cha ...

''. The '' Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters'' has also been quietly released to DVD. After moving to The Comedy Channel in January 2008, Adult Swim stopped airing in New Zealand until 2021. In October 2013, Turner Broadcasting in partnership with MCM Media and Movideo launched an Adult Swim video on demand service. In June 2016, Channel 9 signed a two-year deal with Turner Broadcasting to air a block of Adult Swim shows on 9Go!. After the deal expired, 9Go! did not renew with Turner Broadcasting, and thus the block was shut down. In February 2021,

TVNZ , type = Crown entity , industry = Broadcast television , num_locations = New Zealand , location = Auckland, New Zealand , area_served = Nationally (New Zealand) and some Pacific Island nations such as the Cook Islands, Fiji, and the So ...

began airing Adult Swim programming on

TVNZ Duke TVNZ Duke ( mi, Te Reo Tātaki Tiuka), formerly Duke and stylized as TVNZ DUKE or DUKE, is a New Zealand television channel run by state broadcaster Television New Zealand. It screens programming targeted at a male audience. It was launched on 20 ...

in New Zealand. Shows that are currently airing on the channel, such as '' Aqua Teen Hunger Force'', ''

Birdgirl Birdgirl may refer to: *Birdgirl, a nickname of ornithologist Mya-Rose Craig *''Bird Girl'', the sculpture on the cover of the book ''Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil'' *Birdgirl, a character in the ''Birdman and the Galaxy Trio ''Birdma ...

'', '' Eagleheart,'' '' Mr. Pickles'', ''

'', ''

'', '' The Eric Andre Show'', ''

'', '' The Venture Bros.'', and '' YOLO: Crystal Fantasy'', are available to stream for free on

TVNZ+ TVNZ+ ( mi, Te Reo Tātaki Ā-Tono), formerly known as TVNZ OnDemand, is an online New Zealand television and video on demand streaming service offered by TVNZ. It offers a variety of free content, such as news updates and programmes seen on TVN ...

Canada

Teletoon's English and French-language service previously offered adult-oriented blocks that carried Adult Swim programming and aired similar shows: Teletoon at Night and Télétoon la nuit. On February 2, 2012, then-parent company TELETOON Canada Inc. announced that it would be launching a Canadian version of

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

, sharing channel space with the Canadian version of

as one

specialty channel A specialty channel (also known in the United States as a cable channel or cable network) can be a commercial broadcasting or non-commercial television channel which consists of television programming focused on a single genre, subject or targeted ...

just as its American counterpart does. The block launched on July 4, 2012. From September 2015 – September 2017, all of Adult Swim's original series was aired exclusively on the block. Meanwhile, YTV has aired anime series that premiered on Adult Swim in its

Bionix Bionix may refer to: * Bionix (TV programming block), a program block on the Canadian channel YTV * Air Creation BioniX, a French ultralight trike wing design * '' AOI: Bionix'', a 2001 album by De La Soul, and its title song * Bionix AFV, a famil ...

block. G4's

Anime Current Anime Current was an anime television block running on G4 Canada, in which one series is broadcast from beginning to end. It was similar to Anime Unleashed, a former programming block on the American version of G4. It premiered on 6 November 2006 ...

block, Razer's (now

MTV2 MTV2 (formerly M2) is an American pay television Cable television, channel owned by the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. The channel launched initially as an all-music video service, once the original MTV had started to sh ...

) Kamikaze block, the defunct Scream (later Dusk), and Super Channel have also aired various anime titles that were broadcast on Adult Swim. In June 2009, G4 Canada launched ''

Adult Digital Distraction Adult Digital Distraction (ADd) is a block airing on G4 Canada. Similar to Adult Swim and Teletoon at Night, Adult Digital Distraction airs mature comedies. It parallels the American counterpart's ''Midnight Spank'' block. Its programming consist ...

'', programming that featured many Adult Swim shows. In late 2011, the block was discontinued due to pressure from the CRTC on account of the channel deviating from its original format (which was to air technology-related programming). The block would be briefly relaunched before being dropped again in 2012. '' Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!'' aired on Bell Media's

CTV Comedy Channel CTV Comedy Channel (often shortened to CTV Comedy and formerly known as The Comedy Network) is a Canadian English-language specialty channel owned by Bell Media which focuses primarily on comedy programming. The channel first launched on Octobe ...

(formerly The Comedy Network). In December 2013, sibling network

Much Much may refer to: *Much (TV channel), a cable network in Canada and its domestic and international spin-offs *Much TV, a satellite cable channel in Taiwan * ''Much'' (album), a 2001 album by Ten Shekel Shirt * Much the Miller's Son, one of Robin ...

began airing '' Childrens Hospital'' and, later, its spinoff, ''

Newsreaders ''Newsreaders'' is an American television comedy that aired on Cartoon Network's late night programming block Adult Swim. ''Newsreaders'' is a spin-off of ''Childrens Hospital'', presented as the fictional television news magazine program ''Ne ...

''. They also aired the short-lived series ''

The Jack and Triumph Show ''The Jack and Triumph Show'' is a television sitcom from Universal Television for Adult Swim that premiered on February 20, 2015, and ended on April 3, 2015, with a total of 7 episodes. The live-action series was created by Robert Smigel, Michae ...

''. In October 2014, Netflix began streaming ''

'' the day after its U.S. television premiere. On February 25, 2016, Williams Street launched a Canada-specific subscription video-on-demand service for iOS and

devices. The app contains the majority of Adult Swim produced content, including programming not seen on Canadian television. New premieres are added soon after their U.S. broadcast, with the exception of new episodes of ''

'' and, initially, '' Rick and Morty'', which are added the day after its premiere on the Canadian block. The app was discontinued in November 2018. On March 4, 2019, Teletoon and YTV's current parent company, Corus Entertainment, announced the launch of a full-time 24/7 Adult Swim network on April 1, 2019, as a rebrand of Action. This marks the first time an international version of Adult Swim was launched as its own television channel. With the channel's launch, the Canadian block, as well as Teletoon at Night, were both discontinued as both channels would now focus exclusively on age-appropriate programming. The Canadian Adult Swim block was dropped on March 3, 2019, and Teletoon at Night closed on March 31, 2019.

France

The block was launched on March 4, 2011, and airs nightly from 11p.m. to 6a.m. on

Cartoon Network France Cartoon Network is a French pay television channel aimed at kids, available for France, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Francophone Africa. It was launched on 23 August 1999 and is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery International under its Fren ...

. It has aired ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force'', ''Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law'', '' Metalocalypse'', ''

'', ''

'' and ''Squidbillies''. Like most international Adult Swim blocks, it does not air

and action shows. Most of the block's programming is not dubbed and airs with English audio and French subtitles. In the early 2000s, there was a late-night block called "DZAQC" (pronounced "Désaxé"), which carried the 2001 Adult Swim look, but did not have any adult shows, except for ''Home Movies'' and ''Captain Linger''. ''

Case Closed ''Case Closed'', also known as , is a Japanese detective manga series written and illustrated by Gosho Aoyama. It has been serialized in Shogakukan's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' since January 1994, with its ch ...

'' was aired on Cartoon Network and Toonami. DZAQC aired random Cartoon Network shows and old promos in English with French subtitles. A new Adult Swim block launched in March 2015 on L'Enôrme TV. The block stopped broadcasting in June 2016. On May 15, 2019, Warner Media France announced through a Twitter post that Season 4 of ''Rick and Morty'' would air exclusively on Adult Swim in November. In the same post, they announced that a new Adult Swim block would launch in France in July 2019. On July 24, 2019, Adult Swim France announced on Twitter that the block would return at 11p.m. CET on Toonami. From this day on, Adult Swim's French counterpart airs each night on Toonami between 11p.m. and 2a.m. with on-demand services available on French online TV and on-demand provider Molotov TV.

Germany

The Adult Swim block was launched on January 28, 2009, on

TNT Serie WarnerTV Serie (until 24 September 2021: ''TNT Serie'') is a German pay television channel dedicated to broadcast television series. The channel was rebranded into WarnerTV Serie on 25 September 2021. Distribution The station was operated by Tu ...

(now known as WarnerTV Serie). In 2016, TNT Glitz became TNT Comedy (now known as WarnerTV Comedy) and took over Adult Swim. Programs on the block include ''

American Dad ''American Dad!'' is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane, Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman for the Fox Broadcasting Company. Since 2014, the series has been airing new episodes on TBS. ''American Dad!'' is the first television ...

'', ''

Lucy, The Daughter of the Devil ''Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil'' is an American adult computer-animated television series that aired on Cartoon Network's late-night programming block Adult Swim. It was created and directed by Loren Bouchard (who later made the Fox show ''Bob ...

'', '' Metalocalypse'', ''

'', ''

'', '' Rick and Morty'', ''

Stroker and Hoop ''Stroker & Hoop'' is an American adult animated television series created by Casper Kelly and Jeffrey G. Olsen for Cartoon Network's late night programming block, Adult Swim. The series is a parody of buddy cop films and television series suc ...

'', ''

Venture Bros. ''The Venture Bros.'' is an American adult animation, adult animated action comedy TV series created by Chris McCulloch (also known as "Jackson Publick") for Cartoon Network's late night programming block Adult Swim. Following a pilot episode on ...

'', '' Aqua Teen Hunger Force'' and '' The Eric Andre Show''.

Italy

In Italy, several Adult Swim series such as '' Aqua Teen Hunger Force'', ''

'', '' China, IL'', '' NTSF:SD:SUV::'' and '' Mr. Pickles'' are available on-demand via TIMvision and, since 2021, on

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming and Renting, rental service of Amazon (c ...

. '' Rick and Morty'' and ''

Final Space ''Final Space'' is an adult animated space opera comedy drama television series created by Olan Rogers and developed by Rogers and David Sacks. The series involves an astronaut named Gary Goodspeed and his immensely powerful alien friend Mooncak ...

'' were also dubbed in Italian for release on Netflix, ''The Boondocks'' aired on Comedy Central and

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

, while '' The Oblongs'' aired on Italia Teen Television and All Music. On Facebook, Adult Swim Italy has confirmed the possibility of airing on

and

Boing Boing may refer to: Places * Boing, South Sudan, a town in Upper Nile state on the Yabus River Arts, entertainment, and media Music * "Boing", a song by Ween from the album ''The Pod'' * "Boing!" (song), a 2006 song by Nik & Jay * "Boing!", ...

. In 2018, ''Robot Chicken'' and ''Rick and Morty'' were released on DVD and

Blu-ray Disc The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and c ...

from Eagle Pictures in that country.

Latin America

In Latin America, an Adult Swim block aired during the overnight hours on Cartoon Network beginning on October 7, 2005. It was originally carried on the regional version of the channel, when it was pulled off and picked up by

I.Sat I.Sat (contraction of the Spanish phrase ''Imagen Satelital'', which means "Satellite image") is an Argentine cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery International. It airs movies, series, music and shows. It is headquartered in ...

on November 19, 2007, another Turner Broadcasting System Latin America-owned-and-operated network, due to the fact that it was received with negative reviews from parents. On December 1, 2010,

revealed that it was cutting Adult Swim programming due to low ratings, adding: "No matter if we add new shows, it would not work". Adult Swim once had a SAP audio in early 2007. In 2014, it was announced that Adult Swim would return to Latin America that same year. Adult Swim premiered on the Brazilian feed of TBS on November 3, 2014. Adult Swim relaunched in Latin America on April 3, 2015, on

, in English with Spanish subtitles, premiering '' Rick and Morty'' and many other shows for the first time on the region. On January 6, 2018, the block began broadcasting throughout Latin America on TBS. Unlike I.Sat, this block was being broadcast in Spanish. After ceasing broadcasts on

and TBS,

Warner Channel Warner TV is a pay television channel mainly airing in Latin America, Europe, parts of South Asia and Southeast Asia, which is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through its International unit that focuses on airing American series and films. Most ...

began airing the block on May 2, 2020, for Latin America and Brazil, now showing the slogo and new content, such as ''

'' and the rest of '' Aqua Teen Hunger Force'' and ''

'' series. The block lost the schedule from Monday to Thursday and Saturdays on September 14, airing only on Mondays at midnight, and the following month, it stopped releasing new bumpers. On November 15, Adult Swim dropped out of Warner Channel's programming, being its last broadcast on November 8, 2021. On June 24, 2021, HBO Max announced a list of some original Adult Swim content that will be available since the platform's launch, including: '' Rick and Morty'', '' Aqua Teen Hunger Force'', ''

'', ''

'', '' Squidbillies'', ''

'' and '' Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell''. Its launch took place on June 29, 2021.

Russia

From its relaunch in March 2007 to March 2021, 2X2, a Russian channel specializing in animation, aired Adult Swim's original series. There was a separate Adult Swim block, and also an English-language block, where shows were broadcast in English without dubbing, both now being defunct. Adult Swim–produced shows that have aired include ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force'', ''Robot Chicken'', ''

'', ''Sealab 2021'', ''

'', '' The Venture Bros.'', ''The Brak Show'', ''Stroker and Hoop'', '' Tom Goes to the Mayor'', ''Squidbillies'', ''Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law'', ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast'', '' Frisky Dingo'', '' Perfect Hair Forever'', '' Metalocalypse'', ''

Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil ''Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil'' is an American adult computer-animated television series that aired on Cartoon Network's late-night programming block Adult Swim. It was created and directed by Loren Bouchard (who later made the Fox show ''Bob ...

'' and others. 2×2 also broadcast many of the anime that premiered in the U.S. on Adult Swim, although not on 2×2's Adult Swim's schedule. Some shows including ''

'' and '' Rick and Morty'' also premiered outside Adult Swim's block. On November 1, 2019, 2x2 announced an addition of the Adult Swim section on its site with library containing selected Adult Swim series broadcast earlier on the channel and also new series, like '' The Heart, She Holler'', '' Off the Air'', '' The Eric Andre Show'', ''

'' and ''

Neon Joe, Werewolf Hunter ''Neon Joe, Werewolf Hunter'' is an American television series that originally ran as a five episode miniseries, mini-series on Adult Swim, created by and starring Jon Glaser. The series originally aired consecutively each night between December 7 ...

'', premiering directly on the site uncut. After the discontinuation of Adult Swim shows on 2x2 in March 2021, the shows were removed from the site. '' Rick and Morty'' is available on another streaming service, '' KinoPoisk'', although 2x2 still maintains TV broadcast rights and has the last premiered episode available for a small amount of time after the premiere.

Spain

In Spain, Adult Swim was a programming block that aired on Fridays from midnight on the TNT channel, between 2007 and 2012. Despite the fact that the block no longer exists in Spain, several of its original series have their own section on the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

streaming platform. In December 2020, Adult Swim returned alongside Toonami as a premium pack of the Orange TV service. In it, there are more than 600 episodes of 19 different series such as '' Rick and Morty'', '' Metalocalypse'', ''

'', among others.

United Kingdom and Ireland

In 2002, CNX was launched in the United Kingdom as a spin-off of Cartoon Network. It featured much of the content found on Adult Swim and Toonami, anime shows and adult action films, but closed operations after a year in 2003. A nightly Adult Swim channel was launched on July 8, 2006, on the now defunct

Bravo Bravo(s) or The Bravo(s) may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Groups and labels *Bravo (band), a Russian rock band * Bravo (Spanish group), represented Spain at Eurovision 1984 *Bravo Music, an American concert band music publishing company ...

owned by Virgin Media Television, generally starting at midnight. Shows that were previously a part of the UK's Adult Swim block are ''Robot Chicken'', ''Aqua Teen Hunger Force'', ''Sealab 2021'', ''The Brak Show'', '' Tom Goes to the Mayor'', ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast'', ''The Venture Bros.'', ''

'', and ''Metalocalypse'',. Bravo (UK). Retrieved July 19, 2006. Non-Williams Street shows on the block include '' Stripperella'' and ''

Kid Notorious ''Kid Notorious'' is an American adult animated sitcom that aired from October 22 to December 17, 2003 on Comedy Central. It starred Hollywood film producer Robert Evans as himself. Episode plots were often bizarre and absurdist in nature, featu ...

''. The first "action" series was the anime ''

Afro Samurai is a Japanese ''seinen'' ''dōjinshi'' manga series written and illustrated by manga artist Takashi Okazaki. It was originally serialized irregularly in the avant-garde ''dōjinshi'' manga magazine ''Nou Nou Hau'' from November 1998 to Septe ...

'', which aired on May 4, 2007, alongside a new UK animated show ''

Modern Toss ''Modern Toss'' is a British comic by Jon Link and Mick Bunnage. Renowned for their scurrilous humour and highly stylised animation, it was created in 2004, initially as a website publishing single panel jokes and then as series of irregularly ...

''. On July 7, 2008, Adult Swim ceased to broadcast on Bravo. Former Sony Pictures Television channel TruTV started airing Adult Swim shows every night from 11 pm to around 3 am in November and December 2016. It broadcast episodes of '' Rick and Morty'', ''

'', '' Mr. Pickles'' and '' Squidbillies''. The UK Adult Swim website offers free access to full episodes of shows including ''Squidbillies'', ''Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law'', '' Tom Goes to the Mayor'', ''

'', ''Stroker and Hoop'', ''

'', ''

'', '' Perfect Hair Forever'', '' Metalocalypse'', and '' Frisky Dingo''. Revolver Entertainment began distributing original Adult Swim series on DVD in the UK and Ireland. FX aired ''Robot Chicken'', ''Titan Maximum'', ''Venture Brothers'' and ''Metalocalypse''. These shows were advertised with

branding. They began airing on June 5, 2010, in conjunction with the channel's regular schedule and ended on November 27, 2010. On December 14, 2011, the '' Robot Chicken: Star Wars'' trilogy appeared on

Syfy Syfy (formerly Sci-Fi Channel, later shortened to Sci Fi; stylized as SYFY) is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. Lau ...

at 10 pm. The block began airing on TCM 2 starting on January 4, 2012. Adult Swim returned to UK and Irish television starting with a new block on the

FOX Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

channel on September 4, 2015. This was discontinued in September 2017, and Adult Swim was then not broadcast on television, although '' Rick and Morty'' has since moved to Comedy Central and is available to stream on Netflix in the UK and Ireland. Adult Swim once again returned to the UK with a new block on E4 in February 2019. This block shows Adult Swim shows as well as some other shows being able to stream on All 4 such as '' Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!'', '' Rick and Morty'' and much more.

High definition channels and service

A high-definition feed of Adult Swim is available on many subscription-television providers, and is shared with its daytime counterpart Cartoon Network. The high definition feed broadcasts in

1080i 1080i (also known as Full HD or BT.709) is a combination of frame resolution and scan type. 1080i is used in high-definition television (HDTV) and high-definition video. The number "1080" refers to the number of horizontal lines on the screen. ...

high-definition on nearly all providers, and was launched on October 15, 2007 along with Cartoon Network HD. Like all WarnerMedia networks, 4:3-sourced content is

stretched Stretching is a form of physical exercise in which a specific muscle or tendon (or muscle group) is deliberately flexed or stretched in order to improve the muscle's felt elasticity and achieve comfortable muscle tone. The result is a feeling ...

on the high definition feed to fill the 16:9 aspect ratio. Exceptions include 4:3-sourced content that has been remastered to high definition, such as '' Dragon Ball Z Kai'', '' Cowboy Bebop'' (since 2015), '' Samurai Jack'' (since 2018), ''Home Movies'', ''King of the Hill'', and ''Futurama'' (all three since 2021), and any recent programming that intentionally uses the 4:3 aspect ratio for its visual style, such as season 1 of '' The Eric Andre Show'' and '' Jack Stauber's OPAL''. Network bumpers and promos were still made in the 4:3 aspect ratio until 2010, and therefore also appeared stretched on the high definition feed. The network's HD content airs with letterboxing on the standard definition channel. As of 2013, many subscription providers carry the high definition feed (along with Cartoon Network HD) and downscale it for the standard definition feed.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Adult Swim 2000s in comedy 2001 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) Adult animation studios Cartoon Network Cartoon Network programming blocks Television programming blocks in the United States Williams Street