And then there’s Disney Channel, which has spent the last year in pursuit of boys. It’s no secret that Disney Channel has become a hot spot for girls in recent years, but it wasn’t necessarily planned that way.  Take a look at some of the shows in the network’s first wave of original series a few years back. Shows like The Famous Jett Jackson, The Jersey and Even Stevens featured male lead characters and stories that appealed strongly to boys.

But the runaway success of Lizzie McGuire in 2001, followed two years later by That’s So Raven, gave Disney Channel the reputation as the place to be for 9-to 14-year-old girls, and by early 2003, 60% of the network’s young viewers were female. Compare that with Nickelodeon, long the top network with kids and the cable leader in total-day ratings, which boasts a more even mix of boy and girl viewers.

Disney Channel programmers saw what they were missing out on, and last year began retooling the network’s strategy to connect with boys. Two Disney Channel Original Movies that premiered in summer 2003 – The Even Stevens Movie and Eddie’s Million Dollar Cook-Off – pulled in large numbers of male viewers. But the push for boys really began last fall with the arrival of Recess, the long running animated series that was a favorite with boys in its original run on ABC Kids, followed by the debut of Lilo & Stitch: The Series, whose blend of sci-fi action and gentle comedy is popular with both boys and girls.

The network reeled in boys through the winter with the premiere of theatrical releases like Stuart Little, Tarzan and Remember the Titans, and the sports-charged original movies Full-Court Miracle and Going to the Mat. And last January came Disney Channel’s first original series aimed directly at boys in its core 6-to 11-year-old audience – Dave the Barbarian, the manic medieval animated comedy about a cultured barbarian and his offbeat family and foes. A bit of an odd fit with the network’s other programs, Dave appeared to get off to a shaky start, marked by frequent shuffling around the Disney Channel schedule over the spring.

Still, the show returned this fall with a batch of new episodes, and more importantly, it’s helped boost the network’s plan to lure boy viewers. How well has the plan worked? The numbers speak for themselves: Disney Channel reported a 67% increase in 6-to 11-year-old boy viewers this past spring from the year before. But get this – just as Disney Channel was touting its success with boys earlier this year, its once dominant audience of 9-to 14-year-old girls began drifting away.

If you look at what the network was offering this past spring, the trend makes sense. The last new episode of Lizzie McGuire aired in February, and interest in the show has been cooling ever since. With only Raven remaining to supply new live-action episodes and a growing roster of shows and movies for boys, particularly younger ones, it’s safe to say Disney Channel began losing some of its appeal with those older girls.

Nickelodeon was more than happy to draw them away, attracting top tween audiences this year with series like Drake & Josh, Fairly Odd Parents and Unfabulous. It was just last year when Disney Channel overtook Nickelodeon as the top network with 9-to 14-year-old viewers. This year, Nickelodeon has taken that honor back. Cartoon Network has been grabbing more of those older kids too, drawing an army of 9-to 14-year-old boys with the edgy fare of its Toonami programming. And the network is about to unveil a pair of new shows for girls, starting this fall with Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi.

But the reality is that 9-to 14-year-old viewers don’t seem to strongly prefer any one network right now, and the battle for tweens is still anyone’s game. Disney Channel has the #1 show in the age group, That’s So Raven, which also ranks as a top-ten favorite with kids 6 to 11 -- an audience Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network boast an even greater lead with. But Disney Channel still dominates with kids and tweens in the primetime evening hours. In fact, the week of Halloweentown High’s premiere in October, Disney Channel scored its largest average primetime audience ever.

And the network has a major bright spot in the morning hours with Playhouse Disney.  Disney Channel’s preschool programming block has seen a double-digit jump in viewers this year, thanks to shows like JoJo’s Circus, the stop-motion animated series whose second season of episodes took a bow in October, and Higglytown Heroes, the delightful CGI-animated series about community helpers that became an immediate hit at its September debut.