As expected, Disney is following Warner Bros. Discovery and removing under-performing titles from its streaming services in a bid to write off nearly $2 billion from its bottom line.
Scripted titles set to be removed from Hulu and Disney+ include FX’s Y: The Last Man, Pistol, Little Demon, Hulu-turned-Disney+ series Mysterious Benedict Society, Disney+’s Big Shot, Willow and ABC-turned-Hulu comedy Maggie, as well as National Geographic’s The World According to Jeff Goldblum. In all, there are more than 30 shows that will be removed starting next week from the platforms in this first round of reductions. The titles, many of which are listed below, will vanish starting May 26. Sources say the programming could be made available elsewhere, like digital sell-through platforms, etc.
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Disney CFO Christine McCarthy revealed last week on Disney’s earnings call that the company would be reviewing the TV series and films on its various platforms and planned to remove “certain content from streaming platforms.” McCarthy noted that Disney expects to take an impairment charge of between $1.5 billion-$1.8 billion on the content it removes.
“Well, you work on something for years, pour your heart and soul into it, as do hundreds of other artists. You make it during a global pandemic, far from home. Then it is canceled before it even has a chance to finish airing. Then, it is disappeared,” Y: The Last Man showrunner Eliza Clark wrote on Twitter after the news came out.
The Disney content removal follows a similar move by David Zaslav’s Warner Bros. Discovery, which yanked titles from HBO Max including Westworld, The Nevers, Generation, FBoy Island, Legendary, The Time Traveler’s Wife, The Gordita Chronicles, Raised by Wolves and more in a bid to stop paying for under-performing library titles. The company instead licensed many of those same shows to Roku and Tubi in a series of licensing deals that helped to further monetize the programming that failed to live up to original expectations.
A list of the known Disney titles impacted follows.
Be Our Chef
Best In Dough
Best In Snow
Big Shot
Disney Fairy Tale Weddings
Dollface
Earth To Ned
Everything’s Trash
Foodtastic
Howard
It’s a Dog’s Life With Bill Farmer
Little Demon
Love In The Time Of Corona
Maggie
Magic Camp
The Making Of Willow
The Mysterious Benedict Society
The One And Only Ivan
Pistol
The Premise
The Quest
Stuntman
Timmy Failure
Willow
Wolfgang
The World According To Jeff Goldblum
Y: The Last Man
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