Cartoon Network enjoyed its highest-rated Thanksgiving ever with help from the very first Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends movie. Good Wilt Hunting premiered on Thursday at 7 p.m. and proved to be the day’s top-rated program on all cable among kids 6-11 and boys 2-11, according to preliminary data from Nielsen Media Research. Counting Friday’s two encore broadcasts, the one-hour special attracted more than 10.5 million unique viewers over the age of two.
Good Wilt Hunting served as the programming anchor for an all-day marathon of Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends episodes that kicked off at 7 a.m. Cartoon Network also entered a Foster’s float in the 80th Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and attracted millions of young Internet users to CartoonNetwork.com to play the year-long Foster’s game Big Fat Awesome House Party.
‘Thankfully, these promotional efforts appear to have worked extremely well at satisfying Foster’s core audiences and hopefully inspired program sampling from new viewers as well,’ says Cartoon Network exec VP and general manager Jim Samples.
Created by Craig McCracken and produced at Cartoon Network Studios in Burbank, Calif., Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends centers on 8-year-old Mac and his imaginary friend, Blooregard, who was sent to a rather unique orphanage when Mac’s mother decided he was too old for invisible pals. In Good Wilt Hunting, the annual Creator Reunion Picnic once again finds a lonely Wilt without a visitor. When he sets out across country in hopes of reuniting with his long-lost creator, the rest of the gang begins to worry and embarks on a road trip to find him.
