SYFY expands animation lineup with wild new originals for TZGZ late-night block

After a successful rollout in 2019, SYFY's weekly block of late-night animation, TZGZ, is expanding its lineup in 2020 with new original shows and a couple of fan-favorite animated series from the web.

The network announced Friday (as first reported by Deadline) that it's ordered one new animated genre comedy straight-to-series, along with pilots for two more animated series and acquired content from some of the internet's favorite animation creators. First launched in 2019 and branded as TZGZ because "it comes after SYFY" (literally, those are the letters that come after S-Y-F-Y), TZGZ was conceived as a late-night block of adult-oriented genre animation initially anchored by the classic sci-fi comedy Futurama.

Now, as the new year dawns, the Planet Express crew is getting more company in the 90-minute block, which includes everything from original interstitials to fan-favorite shows to new series.

To kick off the refreshed block, SYFY has ordered six 15-minute episodes of Magical Girl Friendship Squad, a "female-driven anime comedy about two young women who are destined to save the Universe," according to an official description. Produced by Cartuna, the series is set to debut this summer. The network has also ordered two 15-minute animated series pilots. Wild Life is a series following "animal friends just trying to stay alive after the apocalypse," while Devil May Care is the story of the "unlikely friendship" between the Devil and the social media coordinator he hired to improve his image. Both pilots will air at some point in the TZGZ block to see how audiences respond to them. 

In addition to the new originals, TZGZ will also be adding a pair of new acquisitions that fans of web-based animation will probably be familiar with. SYFY has acquired numerous short episodes of Cyanide and Happiness, the beloved and goofy stick-figure webseries from Explosm Entertainment, and will begin airing them in February. The network has also acquired eight 12-minute episodes of Purgatony, a series produced by Explosm alongside Blackpills and Studio71. Purgatony will begin airing in TZGZ this month, and follows the adventures Tony Pergatelli, a claims adjustor for Death as he deals with daily life as a bureaucrat in Purgatory. 

TZGZ airs Saturdays at midnight-ish on SYFY.