Bionix - History

History

Bionix breaks away from YTV's "Keep It Weird" style and has a more technological feel to it in an effort to appeal to a teenage and older audience. While visually similar to Cartoon Network's Toonami block, the lineup itself bears more similarity to the action portion of Adult Swim.

Although YTV had seen years of success with audiences under twelve, they had done very little to appeal to the older teen audience which, as a youth broadcaster, they were also obliged to cater to. Since YTV had become Canada's number one station for teens the year before, thanks mainly to the debut of InuYasha, Bionix was launched on September 10, 2004 specifically for this older youth audience, along with special disclaimers aired after commercial breaks.

Generally the programming is animated with series intended for older teen audiences, with a fair portion being anime. However, other programs are often included in order to ensure that Canadian content regulations are met, including reruns of older Mainframe Entertainment series, Beasties, ReBoot, and Shadow Raiders. Live action YTV productions have also been previously infused into the block.

Since Saturday, July 19, 2008, Bionix has been moved from Fridays to its new time slot on Saturdays from 8 pm to 10 pm. Starting March 7, 2009, Bionix became a one-hour block, airing from 10-11pm on Saturdays. On May 16, 2009, the block was pushed further back to midnight, as the "Viewer Discretion Is Advised" promos were switched from the Bionix version to YTV's generic version. But even though when Naruto was added to Tuesdays-Fridays 4am, the "Viewer Discretion Is Advised" promos came from Bionix, even though the reruns aren't part of that block. In June 2009, YTV's website removed their Bionix page, leading to speculation that the block will be canceled soon. However, links to Bionix On Demand, as well as the Bionix forums, still remain.

In September 2009 Bionix once again became a 2-hour block airing at midnight and featured two episodes of both Naruto and Bleach. The Bionix promos and bugs were removed from the final year of the block.

YTV pulled the Bionix block, with the final episodes being the back-to-back reruns of Bleach at 1am on February 7, 2010. Bleach had been airing reruns since December 2009, after the finale of Naruto that month.

During its early years, the block ran Fridays from 9 p.m. to 12 a.m.(and later 2 a.m.), however, Starting in 2008, the block aired Saturdays from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.(and later 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.). It then aired Saturdays (technically Sundays) from 12 a.m. to 2 a.m. before even being taken off the air.