Disney's One Too

Disney's Animation Weekdays was an American two-hour weekday and Sunday children's programming block that aired on UPN from September 6, 1999 to August 31, 2003. Marketed as a spin-off of the Disney's One Saturday Morning block on ABC, it featured animated series from Walt Disney Television Animation aimed at children between the ages of 6 and 11.

History

Beginning deal with UPN

In January 1998, UPN began discussions with The Walt Disney Company to have the company program a daily two-hour children's block for the network, airing on weekdays and Sunday mornings. Attempts to reach a time-lease agreement deal with Disney were canceled one week after negotiations started due to a dispute between Disney and UPN over how the block would be branded and the amount of E/I programming that Disney would provide for the block; UPN then entered into discussions with then-corporate sister Nickelodeon as both networks were owned by Viacom at the time to produce a new block, but never came to fruition and Nickelodeon eventually came to an agreement with CBS and Nickelodeon on CBS premiered two years later. That February, UPN entered into an agreement with Saban Entertainment, which distributed two live-action series recently aired on the UPN Kids block around that time, Sweet Valley High and Breaker High, to broadcast the Sunday-to-Friday block.
In March 1998, UPN resumed discussions with Disney and the following month, The Walt Disney Company and UPN came to an agreement to provide Disney-produced programs on the network on weekdays and Sunday. The block was originally announced under the working title Whomptastic to distinguish it from Disney's recently-launched One Saturday Morning block for ABC. However, amid the success of One Saturday Morning, the UPN block was rebranded prior to launch as Disney's One Too, aiming to capitalize on brand awareness.
The block premiered on September 6, 1999, replacing UPN Kids, which closed the day before on September 5 after four years. Compared to the format of One Saturday Morning, One Too varied in that, instead of incorporating hosted segments, short animated segment gags from the series featured in the block were actually shown, often preceding the beginning of each program, and after commercial breaks. The block also featured an alternate opening sequence, using more futuristic buildings and a theme similar to that used on One Saturday Morning. Many series previously aired on One Too continued in reruns on two Disney-branded cable TV networks, Toon Disney and Disney Channel.

Closure of block and syndication

In September 2002, the One Too branding was discontinued; although the UPN block did not rebrand. However, the Disney.com website referred to it under the title Disney's Animation Weekdays as a result of the rebranding of the ABC block from One Saturday Morning into ABC Kids.
In the final season of UPN's weekday morning block, it adds Digimon anime after leaving Fox Kids.
The block aired for the last time on August 31, 2003, with the time periods given back to UPN's affiliates. This left UPN as the only "big six" broadcast television network without a dedicated children's programming block, as well as joining PAX-TV as one of only two major commercial broadcast networks without a children's block. However, PAX, which had recently rebranded to i: Independent Television in June 2005, would reverse course in 2006 with the introduction of Qubo but it shut down nearly 15 years later because of Scripps' acquisition. Additionally, some Fox stations that declined to carry 4Kids TV passed on that block to an affiliate of UPN, The WB, or an independent station, in order for the Fox affiliate to air general entertainment programming or local newscasts on Saturday mornings.

Aftermath

UPN was not the first "big six" network to remove children's programming: NBC became the first to remove children's series entirely in August 1992, when the network launched a live-action block for teenagers called TNBC; children's programming returned to NBC in 2002, through a time-lease agreement with Discovery Kids. In the years since the block was discontinued, all other major broadcast networks, including UPN successor The CW, would gradually abandon children's programming by selling their respective children's blocks to Litton Entertainment, who produces primarily unscripted E/I content targeted nominally at teenagers, or in the case of Fox, removing children's programming entirely. Fox's sister network, MyNetworkTV, has never supplied children's programming as part of its lineup; both networks leave the responsibility of acquiring E/I programming to the affiliates, primarily through the syndicated block Xploration Station in the case of the former.

Programming

¹ Program also aired on ABC prior to the block.
² Program aired episode premieres.
Disney's One Too

Original programming

Acquired programming

† - Program transitioned to Disney's Animation Weekdays

Disney's Animation Weekdays

Original programming

† - Program transitioned from Disney's One Too

‡ - Program transitioned from final schedule of Fox Kids