Adult Swim Touts Q1 2024 Ratings Wins For Original Series

Adult Swim is touting some of its big ratings drivers including Toonami’s Ninja Kamui which has helped the network, along with Royal Crackers season two, increase viewership year over year. According to the press release:

Adult Swim garnered a 23 percent increase in prime ratings among Adults in Q1—the highest gain of the top 30 cable networks. Ninja Kamui was up 21 percent versus year-ago levels, while the second season of Royal Crackers delivered 32 percent ratings growth versus last year.

It should be noted that Royal Crackers debuted a year ago last week with Adult Swim touting the fact that the series was the network’s most-watched original new series and as the network has rightly-noted, the ratings have been very good for the show for the second season. For example, whilst last year Royal Crackers only broke two-million overnight viewers once during the show’s first season, already, the series has done it twice for season two which is still ongoing as of this writing. This is in stark contrast to the big ratings news late last year of Rick and Morty’s overnight ratings number  drastically declining year/over/year largely due to negative fan reaction to Adult Swim firing show creator Justin Roiland.

For my money, while the Ninja Kamui ratings increase is a good thing in that hopefully it will inspire the lineup to produce more original series as opposed to just porting over Crunchyroll reruns, I’m less impressed due to the fact that the action-toon lineup Toonami only had a lone original series premiere last year and that wasn’t until Fall 2023 with the return of FLCL so there’s not a lot of comparisons that can be done there. The future of Toonami is where I worry.

Season renewals for neither Ninja Kamui nor Royal Crackers have been announced as of yet.

In “Royal Crackers” Season Two, the storylines delve deeper into brothers Stebe (Ruiz) and Theo’s (Santino) daddy issues as they’re forced to confront their father’s dark past. Theo continues to grapple with the aftermath of his fall from stardom and attempts to navigate his way towards self-acceptance. Meanwhile, Deb (St. Clair) and Stebe’s highly sexually charged relationship undergoes significant challenges, putting their bond to the test. Matt (Flanagan) struggles to fit in at school and with his family. All the while the Royal Crackers company tries to not only maintain relevance, but also to become the most popular snack food in the whole frickin’ world.

“Royal Crackers” was created by Ruiz, who also serves as executive producer along with Seth Cohen (“The Last Man on Earth,” “Hoops”) and Evan Mann (“Arrested Development”). The series is produced by Titmouse.

New episodes of “Royal Crackers” are available the next day on Max.

An explosive story of revenge, “Ninja Kamui” follows a former ninja clan member who is haunted by the brutal murders of his family. Meanwhile, an FBI agent and his rookie partner also work to investigate the murders and uncover a vast global conspiracy.

“‘Ninja Kamui’ is a gripping action series about a hero hell-bent on payback. The ninja of old Japan has been reimagined for the near future,” said Park. “I hope fans will enjoy the intense fight scenes and the human drama with unique characters.”

“Ninja Kamui” features original character designs by Takashi Okazaki (“AFRO SAMURAI”) and a new song from Japanese band coldrain. It is produced by E&H production (“MONSTERS 103 Mercies Dragon Damnation”) and SOLA ENTERTAINMENT (“Lord of The Rings: War of The Rohirrim,” “Blade Runner: Black Lotus”).