I was remembering when Cartoon Network was a fairly new network and it had started an action block known as Toonami. What cartoon kick started that block?
ThunderCats.
Of course, Toonami went on to be one of the greatest action/anime programming block ever. And we can thank ThunderCats for that.
More than 12 years later, Cartoon Network and ThunderCats are together again.
Could ThunderCats jumpstart Cartoon Network once again?
I hope so. The once reigning network for all things animated has really gone in a downward spiral in recent years, especially with competing networks like Disney XD and Nicktoons.
I have this feeling that just like the original ThunderCats helped make Cartoon Network become the premiere animation network in the US, that the new ThunderCats has the potential to do the same.
Anyone wanna weigh in on their thoughts on this?
I really believe that this new series is going to be special. 
It all hinges on how well they blend the old with the new. Toonami kicked off with Thundercats, and it was the flagship show for a while, but I’d argue that DBZ probably made that block of time what it was over the greater span of its peak fame. It was a nice way to try to bring in some old fans of the show in their teens and twenties now, and probably helped bring in some new Thundercats fans. But, again, I’d wager that DragonBall Z had a much larger impact on making Toonami as big as it was.
I don’t really think it can resurrect CN to the prominence it held in the early 2000’s per say, but I can definitely see it being a hit show and increasing the viewership of whatever time block they slot it for (probably prime time viewing somewhere between 3 and 7) if they can manage to NOT alienate older fans…which is really going to be the hard part.
Again, I’d much rather see an older take on it and see it in the Adult Swim lineup. I know that will never happen, but for once I wish a studio would partner up with CN with the older, original fans in mind…catering almost exclusively to those, with a more adult oriented animated reboot of an 80’s classic like Bravestarr, Transformers, Inhumanoids, or G.I. Joe
In summary, I’ll be surprised and pleasantly shocked if it does become a #1 hit series during its timeslot…but I think a more realistic outtake is that it will turn into a more story driven one that will fill in some holes, take some new directions, introduce some new characters, draw in a decent sized audience, increase CN’s viewership…but not to the magnitude they enjoyed with Toonami in the early 2000s.
Yes and No. It very much depends on how good/successful the new franchise is or if Cartoon Network plan on adding any other shows or doing anything like that.
Partly, I think Cartoon Network/Toonami owes alot of it’s success to DragonBall Z which was so massive at the time, especially in the UK. I remember a huge part of it’s advertising being for running episodes of DBZ - getting home on time so I could catch the 4PM showing. It was so fun to be a kid when that was on. When we went to America on holiday, they were caught right up to the Cell Saga whilst we were watching the Android Saga. We watched it, anyway, but then once DBZ ended and DBGT never picked up the way it should have, Toonami just seemed to fizzle out. I could be wrong, maybe apart from Sailor Moon, but Toonami used DragonBall Z to promote itself.
These days.. it seems to be Ben10 which is no DBZ. I remember Cartoon Network also airing the great 90’s cartoons at that time - Cow & Chicken, Two Stupid Dogs, Courage: The Cowardly Dog, and Johnny Bravo amongst others. If ThunderCats became successful again, they’d need to sustain it with other programming.
DragonBall Z definitely spiked the interest in Toonami, but without ThunderCats I don’t think DBZ shows up on Toonami. ThunderCats was a cornerstone of the animation block, which is the reason why it continued to come back time and again to Toonami, even after DBZ left the block.
DBZ put Toonami and Cartoon Network on the map, but I think our favorite feline heroes generated enough fan interest in Toonami to make it happen and introduce the show to a whole new generation of children.