The Cartoon Network showings of Dragon Ball Z showed incredible strength at the end of the September, with five of the ten most-watched cable shows for the week of September 24-30. The 6 p.m. Wednesday, September 26th show was seen in nearly 2.75 million homes, and was the most-watched show in Cartoon Network history in terms of delivery. For four of the five weekdays that week, Dragon Ball Z was the number one show on cable; it was beaten by WWF on Monday.
Dragon Ball Z also sells product. The Irwin toys turned up recently as the third strongest toy line over-all in the PlayDate 2001 survey (beaten only by Bionicles and Bob the Builder). The PlayDate survey is done annually to predict the best-selling toy lines each holiday season. Among participating retailers in the PlayDate survey are Toys 'R' Us, Amazon, Electronics Boutique, KB/eToys, Babbages, Walmart, Kmart, Meiers, Blockbuster, and independent toy stores.
Of course, the Irwin toys are only the tip of the DBZ iceberg; other product lines include the Score CCG (which routinely turns up as one of the top games in pop culture stores -- see 'Top 10 Cool Games'), the FUNimation videos, Palisades busts, and R. Talsorian RPG. With this kind of mass appeal, stocking and merchandising DBZ aggressively for this holiday season is a way to attract some of the millions of DBZ fans to your store(s).