The Return of Animated Shows to the Disney Channel

[Dudley]

With the announcement of Amphibia and Owl House coming to the Disney Channel, and others speculate Star vs the Forces of Evil’s 4th season will premiere on the channel, many have noticed that animated shows are making a comeback to the Disney Channel. I don’t have to remind anyone how the popularity of tweencom shows drove their animated fare over to Disney XD (due to boys liking animation more, I guess?).
But the question now is why are more animated shows coming to DC? Is it because they’ve failed to find a hot tweencom show that was on the level of Hanna Montana’s popularity, and animation has proven to perform just as well, if not better than their current batch of shows? Is it that they noticed how popular cartoons are with the female demographic especially with online communities? Is it because female led animated cartoons have finally proven to be popular with both boys and girls? Or is it because cartoons starring girls would be better suited for the girl skewing Disney Channel as opposed to the boy skewing Disney XD? Or it could be all of the above?
Discuss!


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[jaylop97]

From the looks of both shows, I feel like Disney Channel might still be interested in remaining into the female demographic, since Tangled and Hotel Transylvania are both recent Cartoons airing on DC, and these newer ones seem to likely be female oriented as well. Sure they could have a good share of male viewers but for the most part I think from the look of it right now they are trying to garner a higher female demographic.

 

[Dragnatek]

Disney Channel has also been airing reruns of Gravity Falls lately. Yeah it does look like they have realized that their channel's target audience does like cartoons.

 

[PinkieLopBun]

others speculate Star vs the Forces of Evil’s 4th season will premiere on the channel

It's no speculation. Daron said it will be airing there.

 

[TheMisterManGuy]

The Popstar farming fad looks to be over for Disney. There's only so many samey sitcoms with the same style/character-tropes/laugh-track you can make before kids get bored and want something better. That's why Disney Channel is moving away from that format now, we're going back to the channel's earlier days where it was mostly made up of animated series and Single-camera shows with no laugh-tracks.

 

[Dudley]

The Popstar farming fad looks to be over for Disney. There's only so many samey sitcoms with the same style/character-tropes/laugh-track you can make before kids get bored and want something better. That's why Disney Channel is moving away from that format now, we're going back to the channel's earlier days where it was mostly made up of animated series and Single-camera shows with no laugh-tracks.

I’ve noticed Stuck in the Middle and Andi Mack fit those last criteria. They do seem like a vast improvement in terms of tweencom shows. Makes me miss the days of Phil of the Future....

Anyhoo, I think one of the reasons those pop-star farming shows are failing is because of a change of audiences taste, thanks to the rise of YouTube and e-celebs. Disney Channel is known to be safe and family friendly, but now kids can watch people be funny online, where the humor is raw, the topics are trendy, and where people can discuss real life things that they like and not some fake brand thing made up that’s lawsuit free. That’s why Disney Channel’s been failing in ratings lately. The people on YouTube act more like real people than the one’s on TV.

Also, Maybe Disney XD’s mostly animated content have been blowing the competition (namely Nicktoons, Boomerang, Universal Kids, and Discovery Family) out of the water ratings wise and now want to try that success on a channel with a bigger reach.
Isn’t it great how Disney Channel and Disney XD are going back to how they used to be? I really try to avoid complaining about dark ages in the media since trends go in a cycle in everything goes back to normal eventually.


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[TheMisterManGuy]

I’ve noticed Stuck in the Middle and Andi Mack fit those last criteria. They do seem like a vast improvement in terms of tweencom shows. Makes me miss the days of Phil of the Future....

Anyhoo, I think one of the reasons those pop-star farming shows are failing is because of a change of audiences taste, thanks to the rise of YouTube and e-celebs. Disney Channel is known to be safe and family friendly, but now kids can watch people be funny online, where the humor is raw, the topics are trendy, and where people can discuss real life things that they like and not some fake brand thing made up that’s lawsuit free. That’s why Disney Channel’s been failing in ratings lately. The people on YouTube act more like real people than the one’s on TV.

Not just that, but kids these days are demanding more mature content at a younger age now. That's why Andi Mack is a stark departure from what we've known about Disney Channel for years, Disney realizes more than most companies that its either adapt, or die.

Also, Maybe Disney XD’s mostly animated content have been blowing the competition (namely Nicktoons, Boomerang, Universal Kids, and Discovery Family) out of the water ratings wise and now want to try that success on a channel with a bigger reach.

Disney XD is an anomaly in the digital cable space, in that it's ratings can rival that of channels on basic cable thanks to strong content from a company who for the most part, knows how to give people what they want. Most digital cable networks, at least the ones aimed at kids, are used as little more than dumping grounds for archived content from the parent network. Hell, Disney XD's predecessor, Toon Disney was basically the same deal, especially in its later years where Jetix took up 80 % of schedule and the actual Toon Disney blocks were just reruns of cancelled Disney Channel/OSM shows.

 

[TsWade2]

Good. They finally come to their senses that a pop star teen sitcoms are now overrated. They brought Mickey Mouse and friends for their shorts five years ago and a couple of holiday specials too. And then they brought Tangled The Series and Hotel Transylvania The Series. The 101 Dalmatian Street is coming later this year. And now, next year, they're going to add two new animated series and SVTFOE coming to Disney Channel. This is wonderful. Maybe they should try to show Disney classic animated features every once in a while. I'm so glad that Disney Channel, Disney XD, and DIsney Junior are doing better than before.

 

[SaneMan]

I have heard rumors about Disney planning to shut-down Disney XD
People say this due to the Disney XD app being merged with other Disney apps, as well as the apparent lack of planned new content for the channel

 

[TsWade2]

I have heard rumors about Disney planning to shut-down Disney XD
People say this due to the Disney XD app being merged with other Disney apps, as well as the apparent lack of planned new content for the channel

I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon.

 

[Red Arrow]

I have heard rumors about Disney planning to shut-down Disney XD
People say this due to the Disney XD app being merged with other Disney apps, as well as the apparent lack of planned new content for the channel

I find this hard to believe, but if it were true, I wonder what would happen in the Netherlands. They can't close down Disney XD. They would have to change Disney XD's name to Disney Channel and close down the 'other' Disney Channel.

 

[SaneMan]

I find this hard to believe, but if it were true, I wonder what would happen in the Netherlands. They can't close down Disney XD. They would have to change Disney XD's name to Disney Channel and close down the 'other' Disney Channel.

context?

 

[Red Arrow]

context?

In the Netherlands, Disney XD shares its broadcasting time with a local channel called "Veronica" from 6am till 6pm and this has been the case since August 1997. (previously Fox Kids / Jetix)

Disney Channel, on the other hand, is some premium channel no one has that launched in 2009.

 

[D-nice is the man.]

Well animation has always been a part of Disney Channel, even their animated shows from Disney Junior I mean they still animated shows either way.

 

[RandomMe]

When it comes to animation, in recent years, Disney Channel's efforts seem to be focusing more on female leads. This is fitting in with the channel's current demographic and also some of the channel's content.

 

[Light Lucario]

I have heard rumors about Disney planning to shut-down Disney XD
People say this due to the Disney XD app being merged with other Disney apps, as well as the apparent lack of planned new content for the channel

That would be a surprising development. I'd be more worried about how it could affect Pokemon and their other third party titles. They could just air them on Disney Channel proper, but shows like Pokemon and Beyblade Burst wouldn't really fit on the channel. I don't think that's going to happen though, or at least not anytime soon. Disney XD has been doing pretty well for itself and I think it is available in more homes than the other secondary channels. It would be a waste to get rid of the channel when they can still use it to air shows from their library on it.

 

[emocobra666]

Yes star vs on Disney channel cuz I don't get Xd and have to watch online

 

[UberHamster]

Since Disney XD are doing pretty well I wouldn't be suprised if animation comes back to the channel. Hopefully animation will be dominate over sitcoms in the future.

 

[Dragnatek]

I would be disappointed if Disney XD dies but I wouldn't be surprised if Disney's plan is to turn it into a brand rather then a channel and have a Disney XD section on their new Streaming site, keeping it alive in a new form. Of course if that happened what would to the anime titles?

 

[ToonJay723]

I have heard rumors about Disney planning to shut-down Disney XD
People say this due to the Disney XD app being merged with other Disney apps, as well as the apparent lack of planned new content for the channel

All the Disney apps merged into DisneyNow. And I'm not sure about it shutting down. They still have Milo Murphy's Law, Big City Greens, Big Hero 6, DuckTales the Marvel shows and their acquired anime, so it's not like there's no content there. It looks like they're just gendering their networks again.