NEW YORK — Cartoon Network, caught up in the heat of a presidential election year, has chosen to greenlight its newest series based on the votes of cable and satellite viewers.
The finalists boiled down to three pilots, scheduled during a 53-hour, all-original-programming “Big Pick Weekend” this past Friday through Sunday. Winner, by a margin of more than two to one, was “The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy.”
Created by Maxwell Atoms, “Billy & Mandy,” which harvested 57% of the votes, is a macabre toon chronicling “the everyday trials and mishaps of childhood,” featuring “an immovable little girl and her dim-witted brother.”
Also-rans were “Whatever Happened to Robot Jones” (23% of the vote) and “Longhair & Dobledome” (the final 20%).
Cartoon scheduled a run of each of the three pilots over the weekend. After each run, Cartoon urged viewers to call a toll-free number with their votes or vote online at CartoonNetwork.com.