Ask John: Will Fruits Basket Ever Air on American Television?

Question:
I’ve been reading Fruits Basket till the latest volume, and it’s extremely good and has sold very well – both the DVD and the manga. So why hasn’t Fruits Basket aired on TV? Do you think a network will ever be interested in the series, because they’d certainly profit from it?

Answer:
The Fruits Basket television series is currently airing on the FUNimation Channel, but the odds of it ever airing on a more widely distributed, higher profile network may be rather slim, primarily because there probably isn’t actually a lot of potential profit in airing Fruits Basket on American television. Television networks profit from TV series by selling advertising time during broadcasts. When a television program is popular, advertisers will pay a lot to have their commercials aired during that program because a lot of viewers will see the commercial. Home video distributors like FUNimation profit from television broadcast because TV broadcast encourages the purchase of FUNimation DVDs. But TV networks pay to air programming, and don’t earn any profit directly from the programming itself. Their profit comes from advertisers paying the network to air commercials.

Fruits Basket is an animated romantic drama. There’s nothing like that on American television for one reason; mainstream American viewers aren’t interested in watching an animated romantic drama on TV. Anime specialty networks like the FUNimation Channel and The Anime Network may be available in millions of American homes, but they probably only have a few thousand actual viewers. A program like Fruits Basket is ideal for an anime specialty network because it’s a show targeted specifically at the anime fan community broadcast on a network targeted at the anime fan community. If Fruits Basket was broadcast on a major television network like Adult Swim or even ABC, CBS, or NBC, it probably wouldn’t attract a very big audience. As a result, few advertisers will be willing to pay premium prices for advertising space during the broadcasts, and the broadcasting network won’t earn any profit.

Fruits Basket is, unquestionably, a good show. But quality programming doesn’t guarantee success on American television. Children’s anime like Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh, and action/adventure anime like Naruto and Bleach air on American TV because those are the genres that mainstream American viewers are interested in watching. It’s possible that a massive American audience for animated romantic drama may lie undiscovered, but I don’t think that’s the case. Hardcore American anime fans are willing and eager to watch well written and produced involving, compelling, and entertaining dramatic anime about interpersonal relationships and character development, but I don’t see any evidence that average, mainstream American television audiences are similarly inclined. Evidence shows that American viewers prefer their animated TV shows to be action, comedy, and children’s “collecting” shows. As long as average American viewers remain disinterested in seeing animated drama or romance on TV, no major television network will choose to broadcast a show like Fruits Basket.