Toonattik launched on 5 February 2005 as the new children's weekend morning slot on GMTV, featuring a mix of imported cartoons for ages 4–12. The slot was originally split into two, with the first half featuring pre-school programming with out-of-vision continuity, and the second half featuring shows for older children, which featured in-vision continuity links provided by Jamie Rickers and Anna Williamson. Initially the show relied heavily on phone-in competitions. After a few months on-air the slot was split into two, each adopting their own individual branding to separate the age categories. The pre-school slot for ages 0–6 became known as Wakey! Wakey!, with the 7-12 slot using the Toonattik name. The re-launch focused more on audience participation, with the presenters showcasing drawings and letters sent in by the viewers. Each week Rickers and Willamson would lead teams of boys and girls in a battle of the sexes, playing various games to earn as much points as they could, a format later adopted by Holly and Stephen's Saturday Showdown in 2006. Viewers had the chance to send in suggestions for games, these were pulled from a special chest named the "Challenge Chest". Then the final game would be randomly chosen by the "Golden Wheel of Twizzle", and a spin of the "Toonattik Twizzler" would determine which of the two presenters would be playing that game. At the end of each show the losing team would receive a 'pie in the face' from the winners. A new Toonattik website was created by 4T2 and launched in late January 2006, allowing viewers to play virtual versions of their favourite "Toonattik Twizzler" games, as well as send emails to Rickers and Williamson, read about their favourite cartoons and unlock bonus content by entering a secret code word revealed at the end of each show. On 12 March 2006, ITV began simulcasting Toonattik on the CITV Channel, allowing younger Sky Digital, Virgin Media and Freeview viewers to access the show through the children's section of the EPGfor the first time. Also, the EPG showed details for the programmes broadcast during the Toonattiktime slot, instead of merely saying Toonattik. A Toonattik board game was produced by Character Options Ltd in 2007. On 6 March 2010 it was reported that Toonattik presenters Rickers and Willamson would be made redundant, as part of ITV plc's buyout of Disney's 25% share in GMTV. They presented Toonattik together for the last time on 9 May 2010, which featured a big song finale at the end. Soon after their departure, Jamie & Anna were hired to work for Nickelodeon. From the following weekend, the slot re-launched with out-of-vision presentation, and this remained until its eventual axing at the end of 2010. From May to December 2010, the programme was hosted by the animated characters named the "Toonteam", in place of Rickers and Willamson. On 18 January 2014 children's in-vision presentation during the ITV Breakfast slot at weekends returned in the form of Scrambled!.
Action Stations! was a children's strand, featuring action themed cartoons for children aged 9 to 12 every weekday, airing from 6am - 9.25am on the CITV channel and ITV4 when Toonattik was not on. Originally, Action Stations! featured the voices of Toonattik presenters Jamie Rickers and Anna Williamson in the form of robots with pre-recorded links in between cartoons. Between September 2009 and May 2010, the slot developed to include live action characters, the only remaining crew stranded on the Action Station space base 85,000 feet above the earth. Commander Action, a Spanish veteran of the skies led the rest of this team made up of Gribulous Bertnog Pimplewix, an alien, Boogaloo, a protocol droid and library management system and Akira Neo 'Rocket Girl', the ships engineer in their mission to 'Save the world, one cartoon at a time' from the evil Dr. Poopanski - Poopants.
