Teletoon at Night (formerly The Detour) is a defunct Canadian English-language late night programming block airing on Teletoon, which is owned by Corus Entertainment. The block featured programming targeted towards older teen and adult audiences.

It was similar in format to Adult Swim, the late night block on Cartoon Network. The block's French counterpart, Télétoon la nuit, airs on Teletoon's French-language channel, Télétoon.^[1]

The block aired for the last time on March 31, 2019, with most of its programming moving to Adult Swim.

History

Teletoon at Night's roots lie in two former program blocks that aired on Teletoon: the teenage-oriented block formally known as "The Detour," and the adult-oriented "Teletoon Unleashed" block, which had been dropped due to lack of new content. In September 2004, the two blocks were amalgamated, with all-new branding created by Guru Studio.^[2] For the start of the 2006–07 season, a new Friday night companion block, F-Night, debuted, featuring a slightly different lineup, mainly comedy series from Adult Swim (such as Tom Goes to the Mayor and Squidbillies).

In 2007, most of the shows that were featured on "F-Night" were removed to make room for the "F'N Good Movie" (later "Detour Movie") segment, which aired on Thursdays and Fridays at 10:00 p.m. EST, followed by a repeat of the earlier movie telecast. Movies shown during this block were mostly animated or were derived from comic books (such as Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) and other animated series. A majority of the films were designed to target an older teenage or adult audience, which was the intended target and purpose of the block. If the movie did not fill the entire two- to 2{{frac|1|2}}-hour block, animated shorts (such as short films from The Animatrix) were used to fill the remaining time.

On September 1, 2008, the block amended its name to Teletoon Detour. In 2009, the Teletoon at Night branding was introduced but as the name of a separate block; with Teletoon at Night airing on weekdays and Teletoon Detour airing on weekends. In 2010, the "Detour" branding was dropped entirely. In the fall, Teletoon at Night's weekend schedule was branded as Fred at Night, hosted by Fearless Fred of Toronto radio station CFNY-FM. From December 31, 2010, Teletoon at Night's weekend schedule was rebranded as Double Night. In recent years, "Fred at Night" moved to Thursdays and, with the launch of the Canadian version of Adult Swim (via the Canadian version of Cartoon Network), most of the original programming from the U.S. service has migrated to its Canadian counterpart.^[3]

In the summer of 2014, movies on Saturdays were branded as the "Saturday Night Funhouse Double Feature".^[4] Meanwhile, Teletoon acquired broadcast rights to The Awesomes, a Hulu original series.^[5] In October 2014, Bento Box Entertainment, the studio that produces The Awesomes, announced they would be producing a new slate of shows for Teletoon at Night.^[6] In the same month, Blue Ant Media, Mondo Media, and Corus announced that Teletoon at Night would air a new series featuring shorts from Bite on Mondo, a program in which content creators pitched ideas for new shows. In 2014, it was announced that Bite would be shutting down, and some series would moving to Teletoon at Night on August 24.^[7][8] It was later revealed on Adult Swim's Facebook page that the new series, dubbed Night Sweats, will air on Adult Swim instead. In 2014, it was announced that Bite would be shutting down, and some series would be moving to Teletoon at Night on August 24, 2015.^[9]

During the week of September 1, 2015, it was announced on-air that, on that date, several of the block's shows (including original series Fugget About It), would move to Adult Swim.^[10][11][12] In a press release posted on September 3, 2015, it was announced that the block would now air Mondays through Thursdays starting at 10:00 p.m, with a movie at 11:00 p.m. Teletoon's Superfan Friday block expanded in Teletoon at Night's place.^[10][13] It was later announced in December 2015 that, starting on January 4, 2016, Teletoon at Night would be adding more movies to their schedule and their remaining shows moved over to Adult Swim.^[14]

In February 2016, several shows that were airing on Adult Swim began airing on Teletoon at Night. On February 24, 2016, it was announced in a press release that the seventh season of Archer would air on both blocks.^[15] In the same month, Teletoon at Night's website revealed that its Fred at Night segment would be discontinued after six years, with the final installment airing on February 25, 2016.^[14] On March 23, 2016, it was revealed that Archers seventh season would instead air on Teletoon at Night, although the season premiere did air in simulcast on Adult Swim.^[16] From 2016-2017, the block was broadcast Monday to Thursday nights from 8:00 p.m to 3:00 a.m and from 9:00 p.m to 3:00 a.m on weekends. In its final configuration starting in September 2017, it aired every night from 9:00 p.m to 3:00 a.m.

On March 4, 2019, it was announced that Teletoon at Night would be discontinued due to the planned re-launch of Action as Adult Swim on April 1, and it ended the evening before.^[17] The equivalent French-language Télétoon la nuit block continues to run on Télétoon, unchanged.

Programming

Original series

Acquired series

References