One Magnificent Morning

Between May 31, 2014 and June 5, 2014, The CW announced that it would discontinue its existing Saturday morning block Vortexx, which was produced by Saban Brands, in favor of One Magnificent Morning, a new, five-hour block produced by Litton Entertainment and distributed by CBS Television Distribution, that would feature live-action educational programming aimed towards teenagers and their parents. The move came as part of a growing shift by broadcast television networks towards non-fiction programming to fulfill the FCC-mandated requirement to air a quota of educational programming weekly. The previous year, Litton began producing CBS Dream Team, a similar E/I block for sister network CBS (corporate parent CBS Corporation is a part-owner of The CW), and the company has also produced Litton's Weekend Adventure for ABC's affiliates since September 3, 2011.[3][4][5][6]

Vortexx aired for the final time on September 27, 2014. It was the conclusive Saturday morning block across the major U.S. commercial broadcast networks that primarily featured non-educational children's programming. Such content has gradually fallen out of favor because of the E/I rules, as well as shifts in viewing habits towards cable networks and online video on demand services for cartoons and other youth-oriented content. One Magnificent Morning debuted the following week on October 4, 2014, following the discontinuation of Vortexx in its 7:00 a.m. to Noon timeslot.[1][7][8][9] As a consequence of the block launching three weeks after the traditional start of the syndication television season, Litton provided a temporary barter package of Everyday Health and Culture Click (which both formerly aired on Litton's Weekend Adventure) to CW stations, allowing those who depended on the OMM block to fulfill E/I guidelines to have programming before it started.[10] Some initially announced shows that were not produced for the block were: America's Flavors, Social Media Mania, Swag, and Taste of Home.[11]

On January 7, 2016, The CW and Litton announced a five-year renewal for the block, extending it through the 2020–21 broadcast season.[12] On October 7, 2017, the block was reduced to the federally mandated minimum running time of three hours and began airing from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. ET. The CW gave its two hours of reclaimed time to its affiliate stations.[2]

Although One Magnificent Morning provides the three-hour minimum requirement of E/I programming each week, which exceeds defined under the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s Children's Television Act, some of The CW's owned-and-operated stations and affiliates continue to provide E/I-compliant programs acquired from the syndication market, mainly due to existing program distribution contracts. The CW Plus, in particular, continues to supply two hours of E/I-compliant syndicated programs within its national schedule following the block on Saturday afternoons, which further alleviates the service's subscription-subchannel affiliates from the responsibility of purchasing the local rights to such programs (the service's carriage of seven hours of E/I-compliant programming, and the fact that most of its affiliates operate as subchannels, allow The CW Plus's broadcast outlets to carry an additional subchannel without E/I interruptions under the Children's Television Act's programming regulations, as the local CW Plus outlet would have enough E/I content to cover both).