Dive into the captivating world of CoComelon, the children’s show that’s become a global sensation. Discover the innovative strategies that catapulted this simple cartoon to unprecedented success.
Continue reading to uncover the secrets behind CoComelon’s allure and its transformative impact on children’s media.
Table of Contents
- Genres
- Review
- Recommendation
- Take-Aways
- Summary
- CoComelon became the most popular children’s show in the world in part due to the dramatic increase of “kids in front of screens” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- CoComelon’s characters are kind, diverse and harmonious. Their audience is 56% non-Caucasian.
- Some parents wonder if CoComelon provides a positive experience for their children.
- About the Author
Genres
Educational, Animation, Music, Family, Entertainment, Digital Media, Streaming, Preschool, Edutainment, YouTube
The article “Inside the Making of CoComelon, the Children’s Entertainment Juggernaut” by Alana Semuels explores the extraordinary success of CoComelon, a children’s program that has become one of the most streamed shows globally. With over 33 billion minutes watched last year, CoComelon has surpassed popular Netflix series in viewership.
The show’s parent company, Moonbug Entertainment, utilizes data from YouTube to enhance and expand its reach, emphasizing a data-driven approach to content creation. The acquisition of Moonbug by Disney alumni for $3 billion signifies the substantial financial interest in CoComelon’s future, which includes a live tour, Spotify podcast, and extensive merchandise.
Review
Semuels’ article provides an insightful look into the mechanics of CoComelon’s success. It highlights the shift from traditional children’s programming to a data-centric model that leverages digital platforms for audience feedback.
The piece is well-researched, shedding light on the industry’s evolution and the show’s impact on both parents and children. It’s a compelling read for anyone interested in the intersection of technology, entertainment, and education.
Recommendation
In 2005, Jay Jeon created CoComelon, a children’s show targeting the youngest demographic: Babies and toddlers. As Alana Semuels reports in TIME, he took the show from zero to two billion views per month on YouTube by 2018, then sold his company to Moonbug Entertainment in 2020. Two Disney executives acquired Moonbug and CoComelon for a cool $3 billion in November 2021. Today, CoComelon is a runaway hit broadcast in ten languages and packed with toddler charm. But for all of its success, some parents wonder whether it’s truly educational or if it – and other shows directed to the littlest kids – could possibly be addictive to those too young to resist its power.
Take-Aways
- CoComelon became the most popular children’s show in the world in part due to the dramatic increase of “kids in front of screens” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- CoComelon‘s characters are kind, diverse and harmonious. Their audience is 56% non-Caucasian.
- Some parents wonder if CoComelon provides a positive experience for their children.
Summary
CoComelon became the most popular children’s show in the world in part due to the dramatic increase of “kids in front of screens” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
CoComelon’s target audience is babies and toddlers, and its programming is a huge hit with those demographics – and with their parents. In January 2022, CoComelon racked up 3.6 billion views on YouTube. It also streams on Netflix, where it proved more popular in 2021 – when it was a top 10 show for more than 100 days – than the blockbusters Squid Game or Bridgerton.
CoComelon’s approach to production is unusual for a children’s show since kids’ programs normally take years of development before they earn a green light from a network or production company. Instead of assuming what kids want to watch or guessing incorrectly, CoComelon’s production company, Moonbug Entertainment, aggregates popular programs from YouTube and other platforms, buys the rights and builds them into hit programs by closely monitoring audience feedback data.
“Data is really at the heart of everything we do…with YouTube, you’ve got an audience there that literally tells you whether they want to watch something or not, in real time.” (Richard Hickey, head of creative, Moonbug)
Two former Disney executives bought Moonbug for $3 billion in November 2021. They multiplied the number of channels carrying CoComelon content and merchandise and translated the show into 10 languages.
CoComelon’s characters are kind, diverse and harmonious. Their audience is 56% non-Caucasian.
Video maker Jay Jeon and his wife, a children’s book author, created CoComelon in 2005 to help their two children learn. YouTube ad revenues eventually allowed Jeon to focus on developing the show’s programming full-time. In 2017, he changed its storyline to revolve around JJ, an adorable toddler, and his family and nursery school friends.
Jeon also improved the production by going from 2-D to 3-D animation. These changes doubled viewership within two months. By the end of 2018, views skyrocketed to two billion per month. Jeon sold his company, Treasure Studio, to Moonbug, which took the show international. Moonbug also bought two other YouTube hits: Blippi, a toddler-level, live-action program, and the nursery rhyme show Little Baby Bum. Moonbug also profits from its success by selling CoComelon-branded merchandise, including pillows, booster seats, snacks, toys, books, and more.
“The show is deceptively simple. Each episode is a self-contained song that lasts two to three minutes. Some of them are nursery rhymes like ‘Wheels on the Bus’; others are original earworms about the moments that make up a toddler’s life.”
Moonbug shoots CoComelon at low angles as if it is being seen from a toddler’s viewpoint. The hues are vivid, and the animation has no hard edges. The topics are basic and universal, such as potty training or sharing. Moonbug puts these topics to song, using either familiar tunes or originals that vary from catchy and cute to rhymes that don’t quite scan, as in, “Good, good, carrots are good for you/ Yay, yay, yay, I love them, ooh.”
New episodes air each Monday on YouTube. Moonbug crunches the data to see what aspects of each show win the best audience responses. By the time episodes get to Netflix, show executives are certain of their popularity with toddlers. Because of its unusually short production schedule — 12 to 14 weeks — the show can adapt quickly to current events. For example, in response to the pandemic, CoComelon created a hand-washing episode. The show also has worked to become more diverse, adding kiddie characters such as Cody, who is Black, and Nina, who is Hispanic. According to Nielsen, this apparently reaped good results: 56% of CoComelon audience members hail from Black, Hispanic or Asian-American families.
Some parents wonder if CoComelon provides a positive experience for their children.
The show’s focus is on modeling how ideal, loving families behave. But the episodes, which seem educational, may not always attain that level despite vetting by educators, according to Dimitri Christakis, director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children’s Research Institute. He finds that its concepts may not be “accessible to little kids in the process of learning language.” Christakis contrasts CoComelon with shows such as Sesame Street or The Electric Company, which are based on curricula developed by pediatricians.
“As parents juggled childcare and remote work, demand for kiddie content spiked 52% between January 2020 and February 2022.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends against screen time for kids younger than 18 months, except when video chatting with relatives. But parents struggling with kids suddenly at home all day during the pandemic found CoComelon a godsend.
Still, adults – from parents to producers – express concern that children’s TV is sending messages to very young viewers. For example, when a planned episode featured a character who dismissed a pacifier as something “for babies,” show executives debated whether that could give toddlers the idea that they should refuse their pacifiers because the character did so. In the end, the producers changed the script.
“If all content were driven by what YouTube viewers liked most, we’d be watching endless videos of dogs befriending cats.”
Former preschool instructor Jerrica Sannes warned on Instagram in 2021 that the show is “hyperstimulating” and could lead to symptoms of addiction in its toddler viewers. Some parents reacted by turning it off, while others felt Sannes was “scaremongering.” Susan Linn, author of Consuming Kids, notes that the problem isn’t specifically with CoComelon; the problem is more general in that all screens are addicting. She cautions that kids are starting at younger ages to amuse and soothe themselves with screens rather than learning how to perform those crucial developmental functions without electronic stimuli.
About the Author
Journalist Alana Semuels is a senior economics correspondent at TIME magazine. The story features additional reporting by Julia Zorthian.