What happened to Saturday morning cartoons?

Saturday morning cartoons didn’t disappear overnight — they gradually faded from major U.S. broadcast networks as kids’ TV habits changed and broadcasters shifted to other kinds of programming.

What changed:

• Children’s TV rules: The Children’s Television Act increased pressure on broadcasters to provide educational and informational programming, which made traditional entertainment cartoons less central to network schedules.
• Cable competition: By the 1990s and 2000s, kids could watch cartoons throughout the week on channels like Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Disney Channel, so a Saturday-morning-only block mattered less.
• Streaming and on-demand viewing: Services like YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and similar platforms made appointment viewing much less important.

In broad terms, the major broadcast networks moved away from the classic Saturday-morning cartoon format over time, replacing it with educational blocks, live-action kids’ shows, or other programming. The last widely recognized traditional Saturday-morning broadcast cartoon block in the U.S. was on The CW’s Vortexx block, which ended in 2014.

Bottom line: Saturday morning cartoons were mostly replaced by educational shows, cable channels, and streaming. They still exist in some form on specialty outlets, local stations, and retro TV blocks, but they’re no longer the nationwide broadcast tradition they once were.