One word for you, Link - Merchandising! Where the real money is made. (nods to Mel Brooks and "Spaceballs")

One thing that has driven American TV is the desire to keep a network show going long enough so it can be packaged for syndication for constant reruns and have an enough people watching to generate lots of advertising revenue.

Animation? Well, sadly in America, it's still pretty much considered second-tier or kiddie-dominated dare. Simpsons and South Park are seen as exceptions to the rule. Plus, they have massive merschandising engines behind them generating obscene amounts of revenue secondary to the actual production of the show.

Compare that to Evo which does have licensing deals but nothing near the saturation levels of the Simpsons. These ancillary ventures can make or break a cartoon. Kids don't buy the action figures? Well, guess what show won't be coming back next year? Pretty lame.

Each show will have its own reason for demise. Lack of network support (Futurama!) or the production company feels they've done all they can and trying to do more will lose them money, not gain profit. (Is that what Evo is facing?)

Spongebob Squarepants. Funny little toon. Lots of kids and adults love it. Fairy widespread marketing tie-ins. Guess what? No more new episodes. It's getting made into a movie, and Nicklodeon probably feels they've harvested the TV waters well enough to have an ample supply of episodes to rattle off in endless reruns. Why bother doing more? Save money and just keep circulating what's on hand. (Note: No official announcement about the cancellation was made, but it seems fairly unlikely Bob's just on hiatus for the movie to get made.)

Animation is just like regular television - get it done as fastly and cheaply as possible. When costs start to rise and generated income doesn't match that, time to pull the plug.

Maybe Spongebob will come back. He's still popular. Ren & Stimpy made a comeback this year, it's true.

But Evo? Well, the next X-movie is years away. Interest is bound if fall off between now and then.

So if it doesn't get picked up for next season, don't hold your breathe.