'Hall of Game Awards' on Cartoon Network

Tony Hawk hosts this ceremony honoring "the biggest plays, sickest stunts and best athletes in the world of sports."

In other words, Game goes for the kicks your kids care about.

Fans voted online at hallof game.com in sports-straddling categories such as Alti-Dude (big air skate/snowboarders), My Bad (in-game bloopers), Best Foes Forever (BFF) and Gnarliest Newb. Dance Machine nominees managed to span NASCAR's Jimmie Johnson, football's Terrell Owens, tennis star Venus Williams and the South African soccer team.

Amped Up Anthem covers sports songs to pump up the crowd, while Most Awesome Mascot and Coolest Video Game explain themselves.

WHY IT EXISTS Everybody in TV wants their own awards show. ESPN has one. TV Land has one. Nickelodeon has one. MTV, VH1 and BET have a few.

Cartoon came up with a "kudocast" (Variety's word) appealing to the channel's core demo of boys and young men, then partnered with high-powered agency IMG, Turner Sports and Sports Illustrated Kids to get games' big guns on board.

Among those walking the red carpet at the Feb. 21 taping in Santa Monica: Kobe Bryant, Drew Brees, Ryan Sheckler, Lisa Leslie and Landon Donovan, plus music's Nelly and Monica. Performing during the show: Far East Movement and Travie McCoy.

Producers also included a ramp on the stage in a Santa Monica airport hangar, with T-shirt cannons to fuel that athletic energy vibe.

MY SAY Cartoon Network has been broadening beyond animation with live-action scripted shows like "Tower Prep" and "Unnatural History," only to draw so-so ratings. More successful have been activity-oriented unscripted entries "Dude, What Would Happen" and "Destroy Build Destroy," and the action game show "Hole in the Wall."

That makes "Hall of Game" seem a natural morph, combining the action appeal of sports with the larger-than-life celebrity caricature of awards glam. Cartoon previously hit pay dirt with "Total Drama Island," an animated show lampooning the live-action competition genre, so it's figuring out how to blend the best (worst?) of both.

Core animation devotees have organized an online backlash - it is called "Cartoon" network - but original-format fans of "broadened"-appeal channels like AMC, MTV and TLC can tell you how much good that does.