DC Nation Slips to 2013 After Only Airing 2 Episodes Following Summer Hiatus

Tired and groggy after a closing night of partying at NYCC followed by an early flight back to my home in DC, I turned on my television to hit my DVR and catch the stuff I missed over the con weekend.

As I unpacked, I looked my recordings of DC Nation.  Young Justice and Green Lantern: The Animated Series are excellent examples of great, youth-oriented animated series (although not without faults), and I'd be able to enjoy them while nearly passing out.

But then, something odd happened.

Neither Young Justice's "Before the Dawn" and Green Lantern's "Steam Lantern" were recorded -- instead two episodes of Dragons: Riders of Berk were in their place.

A little searching revealed that the entire DC Nation block was pushed back to January 2013, based on a mysterious tweet from the Cartoon Network:

Hey #DCNation fans! Have you heard?? DC Nation will return in January with all new episodes!

— Cartoon Network (@cartoonnetwork) October 13, 2012

A bit curious, considering that the shows literally returned from an extended hiatus two weeks prior.

The schedule change must have been so abrupt that even the people in NYCC didn't seem to know it happened -- as the new DC Nation sizzle reel was released for all to see over the weekend.

Cartoon Network seems to be avoiding all opportunity to give any extended rationale for the abrupt push back, but some are speculating that they will be holding off until Beware the Batman finally arrives, while others are saying that TMNT's recent success on Nickelodeon (starring friend of OTF, Rob Paulsen!) are pulling viewers away.

Either way, the only people this really affects are the fans of Young Justice and GL:TAS.  Young Justice, being a extensively serialized series, would be the most troubled by these schedule shifts, as the constant breaks alienate potential new viewers and disappoint current viewers.

To say we're disappointed would be an understatement. Hopefully our DVRs will automatically record the new episodes when they resume in January because, by that point, we'll forget they were ever even set to air in the first place.