To a lesser extent, stunting has also been seen on television, most commonly in conjunction with April Fools' Day, or to emphasize a major programming event being held by a channel.
[90] Numerous complaints were received about this particular event, generally fielded by Cartoon Network's cable providers, who had been left in the dark about the stunt.
[91] Adult Swim has held a number of their own April Fools' programming stunts, such as promoting a television premiere of Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters before its theatrical release (but displaying it in a comically-small window over regularly-scheduled programming), airings of the cult Tommy Wiseau film The Room, episodes of Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Rick and Morty redubbed by children and edited to be family-friendly ("Adult Swim Junior"),[92][93] a one-off revival of Cartoon Network's former action and anime block Toonami (which later relaunched under the auspices of Adult Swim by popular demand), an airing of Toonami with programs in their original Japanese audio with subtitles (including Masaaki Yuasa's 2004 experimental film Mind Game) rather than an English dub,[94] and preceding an announced season 2 premiere of Smiling Friends with airings of several season 1 episodes recreated with puppets.
[96][92][97][98] For 35 days in early-1998, Birmingham, Alabama's CBS affiliate WBMG—which had recently been acquired by Media General—stunted during some of the timeslots of its local newscasts with a clock counting down to a major relaunch of the station and its fledgling news department on February 5.
[110][111] MLB Network aired a continuous loop of baseball highlights and promos as a "soft launch" in the weeks before its formal debut on January 1, 2009.
[112] Since 2017, one of ESPN's networks has stunted as "ESPN8: The Ocho" on or near August 8 (8/8), carrying a marathon of programming featuring sporting events and competitions that are either obscure or unconventional, such as chess boxing, disc golf, dodgeball, esports, Highland games, kabaddi, lawn mower racing, mini-golf, and roller derby.