Inside the Making of CoComelon, the Children's Entertainment Juggernaut
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Inside the Making of CoComelon, the Children's Entertainment Juggernaut

Alana Semuels
Time, 2022
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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.

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.

Two former Disney executives bought Moonbug for $3 billion in November 2021. They ...

About the Author

Journalist Alana Semuels is a senior economics correspondent at TIME magazine. The story features additional reporting by Julia Zorthian. 

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