The Toy Box season 2 renewal confirmed; consider this a happy surprise
The network’s official publicity account today confirmed the glorious news that you will be seeing a little bit more of the show hosted by Eric Stonestreet. It’s not clear how many episodes it will be, but odds are that it will air once more in the spring given that the current lineup for the fall is set up.
The reason for our surprise with this is that The Toy Box, while fun and a show we certainly enjoyed covering over the first season, was hardly a ratings dynamo for ABC. It also didn’t generate a lot of publicity for itself. The good news? It also probably cost next to nothing to make given that Stonestreet is the only real notable star on it, the toy “experts” have a fairly small role, and then you have the kids who serve as the judges. If this show lasts long enough, we do think that the show will replace the kids so that they can keep the central element of it intact. (This doesn’t mean they will do so anytime soon, though.)
The big challenge creatively for The Toy Box now is finding a way to keep the show as fun when the big surprise of the judges being kids isn’t there anymore. There could be way more pandering from the toymakers this year; with that said, the flip of that is that now that they show’s been on the air for a season, there may be more people coming out of the woodwork and interested in being on it. It’s often harder to get people to check out your show when they haven’t seen it before or heard about it.
Beyond all of this, the biggest thing the show needs to look at is changing the final episode, which was almost entirely a waste of time given that it was a giant recap episode. We’d almost prefer there to be four or five toys a week, and at the end of the season, America votes on the toy they want to see Mattel make. They can then just announce it online and spare us the finale.
Happy about The Toy Box season 2 coming on the air next year? Share below! (Photo: ABC.)