[houkoholic]

Slayers' timeslot is not that late - it's pretty much standard time for anime now-a-days, plus you have other shows which airs later that has better ratings.

The problem is really to do with that it's too old of a franchise to have a revival now - they should've either remade the original story or do a complete overhaul with a new cast - not trying to continue the old story, since most Japanese fans of Slayers back then probably grew out of anime altogether now, and continuing the show makes it rather unattractive to new viewers. Also while trying to keep true to its roots, the show turns out story and comedy that is dated by today's standards, its (back then) hectic comedy is slow, I couldn't even laugh at guy who said "oh shi they found out the weakness!" as Lina and gang ran off because it was so OLD. The show would've work maybe 5-8 years earlier, but not now as things had changed alot since then. I'm not surprised that it did so poorly personally, as even as a fan of Slayers as well as a huge Hayashibara Megumi fan back in the late 90s, I found the first episode to be very underwhelming to the point that I almost fell asleep and had to fight the urge to switch channels.