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Disney Channel’s schedule is very inconsistent with little to no variety except for their live action sitcoms spamming the schedule. This post will be explaining how the channel treats their animated content, even summarized by just one promo.

Just look at one of the schedules courtesy of @disneyschedules​

I think this schedule is boring as what Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon are doing with their TV schedules.

Cartoon Network = Spamming Teen Titans Go! and Gumball while shows like Steven Universe, We Bare Bears, and OK KO! don’t get a lot of air time.

Nickelodeon = Spamming SpongeBob and Loud House, even Paw Patrol on it’s preschool block while it’s other shows get aired less and bumped to bad time slots (even some are on NickToons).

Disney Channel = Spamming Raven’s Home and Coop and Cami, also Sydney to the Max (even Bunk’d and Stuck in the Middle before they were removed). The issue is that they are focusing heavily on their sitcoms in terms of scheduling and advertising.

DuckTales and Big City Greens are being promoted regularly but they air at time slots where much of the channel’s demographic is at school. Right now, Big City Greens is seen at 2:30, 3, and 4:30, so it seems to be the only cartoon they care about (a lot like how they treat Phineas and Ferb).

All this but shows like Milo Murphy’s Law, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Tangled: The Series, and Big Hero 6: The Series, are promoted less, even using a same generic promo without any special new ones to hype up audiences, and placed at an inconvenient time slots between 7-9 AM. Even worse is that viewers have to wake up very early even in the Central and Mountain Time Zones.

For example, trying to get up at 5 AM in Colorado to watch Milo Murphy’s Law and Tangled might be difficult unless you set an alarm or go to sleep early. For Arizona, the issue is worse since there is no daylight savings time so, waking up at 4 AM just to watch it is a challenge.

With the four shows I mention, they only air a new episode once and they never rerun while they spam their schedule with the same sitcom repeats.

I have heard the senior vice president in charge of programming at Disney Channel, Paul DeBenedittis, was recently hired by Nickelodeon. Paul seems to be in charge of what we see on the channel. If he is gone, it’s unclear how things will change because Disney ABC Television has a team of executives still in control of the schedule, and we wonder who the new one is. But if Paul left before the spamming of Raven and Coop and Cami reruns, we have no idea if the new Senior VP is behind this.

TLDR: Disney Channel doesn’t schedule their animated content well and overshadows it while they only put so much focus on their Disney Channel sitcoms and stars (I mean Ruby Rose Turner, immediately had a song just after Coop and Cami aired).

Now, on to my next topic. I have some problems with this “Cram Session” promo.

Disney Channel has released a promo in September 2018 promoting audiences about it’s “Animation Cram Session” line up (which even includes Phineas and Ferb, before it was removed in January 2019 because they air it at 6 AM, not at 7.)

The promo still uses the same graphics that Disney Channel uses for it’s bumpers and commercials from 2017 up until February 2019.

https://miguelmonteagudo.com/disney-channel-2017-graphic-package



This was before the channel got a massive overhaul probably to reflect their new sitcom, Sydney to the Max. Appealing to the channel’s demographic of teenagers (mostly girls). Which if you were Walt Disney, this seems out of place from a company that had major successes in its movie divisions, theme parks, and merchandising.

The “Cram Session” promo was voiced over by none other than a man named Jim Pratt.

He has been doing Disney Channel promos/advertising since the 2010s alongside doing voice over for dozens a promos for other networks like TLC and Fox. In 2016, he has replaced the main Disney Channel voice over, Cam “Buzz” Brainard, and he ended up doing nearly every promo for the channel.

The way I describe his voice is “high energy” and “in your face” as a way to hype up people about a certain show or lineup.

http://www.jimprattvo.com/highenergy



Sure when I was very young, I have grown up with the voice overs of Mark Elliot, Brain Cummings, and even Beau Weaver but if I imagined them voicing over for the Disney Channel, they would’ve brought a new meaning of excitement while still keeping that trademark Disney magic.

It’s been updated a few times removing and adding clips from various shows.

- Version 1 (September 2018-October 2018), DuckTales, Big City Greens, Milo Murphy’s Law, Big Hero 6: The Series, Gravity Falls, Phineas and Ferb.



- Version 2 (October 2018-December 2018), DuckTales, Big City Greens, Milo Murphy’s Law, Gravity Falls, Phineas and Ferb.



- Version 3 (January 2019-February 24, 2019), DuckTales, Big City Greens, Milo Murphy’s Law, Star vs. the Forces of Evil



- Version 4 (February 25, 2019 - present), DuckTales, Big City Greens, Milo Murphy’s Law, Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure





Because I have seen this a bunch of times, I can even almost identify some of the clips they use from some respective episodes.

DuckTales: The Other Bin of Scrooge McDuck!, The Last Crash of the Sunchaser!

Big City Greens: Parade Day, Welcome Home!, Gridlocked (even audio from it), Blue Tater, Family Legacy

Star vs. the Forces of Evil: The Season 3 intro, Marco and the King, Puddle Defender, King Ludo, and Toffee

Gravity Falls: Roadside Attraction

Now onto the promo along with the voice overs used.

(We show a sad face of Cricket from Parade Day, then we cut to Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby from Last Crash of Sunchaser as they all groan (clip is out of context).

VO #1: Sad not having school on weekends.

Cricket: Aw, man. (Clip is from Blue Tater).

First off, this wouldn’t make sense if you were the channel’s main demographic of 6-14 (or even teenagers if you like some of these shows), because usually cartoons were a bit of a after-school (3-5 PM)/early morning before school (5-7 AM) thing because it was a way of entertaining children, sometimes even teens where their high schools start as early as 7 AM. Usually, children are happy there’s no school on weekends.

VO #2: You can still learn a thing or two with the Animation… Cram Session!

I sorta think think this is tedious and gives a mixed message. Usually real life cramming is a negative effect.

https://www.gavilan.edu/tutor/documents/DONTCRAM.pdf



This PDF page from Galivan College says,

“Cramming deposits information in your short term memory. Material reviewed in cramming sessions is not learned. Some students think they have learned the material and will be able to recall it for the midterm or final. Wrong! It’s gone! The information is generally unavailable to recall after one or two days. So, when students rely on cramming they cheat themselves out of a true education.

Cramming is also more work. It takes longer to learn material when it is done under pressure. Cramming does not save time. Cramming also has its limits. If you haven’t cracked a book in any of your courses, have daydreamed through the classes, or haven’t attended, cramming will not help. Cramming for several courses also doesn’t work.”



To apply this with how Disney Channel schedules their cartoons, they of course only air their animated shows once within the early morning hours of 6-9 AM on Saturday and Sunday. With the fact they only air one new episode of a show once (Milo Murphy’s Law, Tangled, Big Hero 6, Star vs, the Forces of Evil), this makes it even worse for people who don’t have access to DVR, Direct TV/Dish/Premium Cable (Spectrum) with Disney XD, On Demand, and even DisneyNOW, but only get Disney Channel through basic cable.

Once they see the episode once, they might try and remember it, but with different mindsets, it’s highly possible they will forget it and move on with their repetitive sitcom reruns or the next cartoon to cram in. They wouldn’t be able to recall anything from the show, unless it’s amazingly entertaining and appealing thanks to either bright and fast-paced animation, emotional moments, or even the funniest moments.

Also, it seems odd they attached two random clips from two shows and edited them together.

Webby (in The Other Bin of Scrooge McDuck): Diamond dagger cuts through anything.

Cricket (in Blue Tater): Wait. Come again?

Well, it does segue into the next voice over but it gets kinda boring once you’ve seen it again and again.

VO #3: Every Saturday and Sunday morning, Cram in… all the adventure!

VO #4: Cram in… all the action!

These two does seems like a generic way to promote a lineup but it is all “in your face”

Now it features clips from the DuckTales episode, Last Crash of Sunchaser.

Dewey: Nothing can’t stop us.

(The plane jerks as Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby jerk in a halt too.)

Cut to a later scene

Louie: WE GOTTA GO NOW!!

Launchpad: Now?

Dewey/Scrooge: No!

(Launchpad starts the Jeep)

The scene then cuts to a clip from Big City Greens’ “Blue Tater as the show’s main characters fly out of a shopping cart.

Note: These clips being edited together like that and seeing it over and over again when it comes on during commercials is just flat in some way.

(Shows clips of characters laughing/having fun. One of them is from Gridlocked.)

VO #5: And cram in all the laughs in the Animation Cram Session!

VO #6: Weekend mornings starting at 7 on Disney Channel

Again, the issue with airing these shows once at 7-9 AM seems to be inaccessible for people who want to sleep in. Or don’t know it’s on because they live in the Central and Mountain Zone and it airs 1 and 2 hours early respectively.

Gramma Alice talks to Tilly

Gramma Alice: You kids are smarter than you look.

All set to generic high-energy music (pop/rock/electronic), this “Cram Session” promo just doesn’t make sense and with some of the shows just getting generic promos alongside it, and seeing it a bunch of times with the same clips reused, especially focusing more on DuckTales and Big City Greens, not giving as much spotlight on the other cartoons, makes this a questionable promo.

It all comes together the main issue with how Disney Channel is treating their cartoons.

Bad time slots, little to no promotion, not even individual promotion with the exception of DuckTales and Big City Greens (which the channel favors more than their other cartoons).

Plus this promo is basically saying to the channel’s demographic of 6-14 year olds that you should “Cram In All”.

Sure this seems to be a Saturday Morning cartoon lineup thing but the fact that this is Disney Channel, they choose to put all their animated shows at an inconvenient air time while they spam their sitcoms. It’s more of a lose-lose situation. Milo Murphy’s Law, for example, suffers in low ratings.

Sadly but true, cable is decreasing (even prices are increasing) as Disney is launching its new streaming service, Disney+ very soon. Even DisneyNOW seems to be the current way of watching/streaming shows (with TV provider or Apple TV).

Still, I just don’t see why Disney Channel would spam their sitcoms (alongside Big City Greens which is a good exception), while their animated shows don’t meet up to the potential if the channel airs them at prime time.

To conclude, Disney Channel’s schedule isn’t full of variety, the “Cram Session” promo has some issues, and the future of our favorite shows and how we watch Disney’s TV animated cartoons is uncertain. Also, Disney Channel after Paul DeBenedittis’ departure leaves us in a mystery who is his replacement and how the schedule will change in the future. Plus, I provided you some brief Disney Channel history.

P.S. I hope Amphibia, 101 Dalmatian Street and The Owl House have potential for great ratings if Disney Channel cares for their cartoons more.