Adult Animation Boom: Inside TV’s Hot Sellers’ Market, Studio by Studio
Netflix, HBO Max, Fox & Hulu, Amazon: The industry is bullish on toons, even with the AI elephant in room. Here’s who’s spending — and what they want
I write about TV from L.A. and host Ankler Agenda with Elaine Low. I reported on the microdrama boom, including Disney-backed app DramaBox, and wrote about sports doc fatigue and the growth of brand-funded TV. I’m elaine@theankler.com
Anyone who grew up on Family Guy, Daria or Samurai Jack knows cartoons have never belonged only to kids. It’s where TV gets to be weirder, darker and more subversive — and where shows outlive almost everything else. (South Park heading toward Season 30? The Simpsons eyeing Season 40? Only in animation.)
During the pandemic, animation was the most resilient mode of production as live-action sets shut down. But the sector hasn’t dodged the industry’s whiplash. “So many of our members are out of work and struggling to pay their bills while our employers axe productions, enact sweeping layoffs to boost their stock value and chase their shiny new toy, Generative A.I.,” Danny Lin, the newly elected Animation Guild president, said last week.
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And yet: If you’re trying to sell an adult animated series right now, it’s not the apocalypse insiders make it sound like elsewhere. Animation takes longer to cook but is cheaper to produce — and your cast never ages out. (The Stranger Things kids sprinted to finish the final season before adulthood won; the animated spinoff, Tales from ’85, faces zero biological deadlines; “no limits,” says Ross Duffer.)
Agents and insiders say that despite the recent downturn, buyer appetite for adult animated series is real. There’s “massive appetite” across the board, one major-agency rep tells me.
“As much as sports has become a big cornerstone of televised content, there is this whole new era and generation that isn’t consuming that as much, and is finding their own niche communities and these niche titles to really lean into,” this agent continues.
Some of the corporate parentage makes keeping track of who’s who and what’s what a little complicated. You won’t see adult animated series on ABC, but network parent Disney is actually a major producer of adult animation post-Fox merger: Its 20th TV Animation studio produces The Simpsons, Family Guy and other hits that air on Fox before they drop onto Disney+ and Hulu.
After getting the inside scoop from more agents, insiders and execs, today I break down who’s actually buying — and what they’re buying — in adult animation, including:
The going budget for an adult animated series — and the game adaptation that broke the mold
Who’s sold 2026’s big shows now, who’s buying one-hour animated formats and the should I-or-should-I-not YouTube question
The KPop Demon Hunters effect at Netflix, and the original series that’s broken big there
How “aggressive” Warner Bros. TV is exploiting its world-class IP, and which MVP shows it’s keeping in-house
What the sale or split of Warner Bros. Discovery could mean for its animation pipeline
Amazon’s diverse slate of animated hits and Prime’s growing investment
Fox’s flirtation with a new direction for its Animation Domination brand and the potential risks
Disney+’s smaller piece of the adult animation pie, and how its parentco is capitalizing on Fox’s iconic hits that stream on Disney+ and Hulu