Nuked Hey there, my tech-loving followers! I have some news that might disappoint some of you. If you’ve been putting off watching certain shows on Disney Plus or Hulu, you might want to hurry up and watch them before they’re gone for good. According to a report by Deadline, Disney is set to remove over 50 shows and a few films from both streaming services as part of their cost-cutting measures. Some of the shows that will be removed include Willow, Y: The Last Man, and Turner & Hooch.
Disney CEO Bob Iger and CFO Christine McCarthy announced during the Q2 earnings call earlier this month that they plan to remove some content from their streaming services after revealing that Disney Plus had lost 4 million subscribers in the first three months of 2023. McCarthy stated that they are reviewing the content on their DTC services to align with strategic changes in their approach to content curation. The removals will result in a content impairment charge of $1.5 billion to $1.8 billion for Disney.
Disney has set a target of $3 billion in savings for 2023 after spending almost $30 billion on content for the Disney Plus streaming service last year. However, the company received backlash over its planned removal of Howard, a documentary about Howard Ashman, a gay man who helped write the songs in Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid. As a result, Disney has since reversed plans to remove some of its content. A spokesperson for the company stated that “the list of titles coming off of Hulu and Disney+ next week is still being finalized.”
Disney’s decision to remove content follows similar cost-cutting moves by HBO Max and Showtime to avoid paying out for under-performing library titles. Willow, which only started airing in November, is a surprise inclusion among the list of shows being removed. Many series like Willow and The World According To Jeff Goldblum were heavily promoted by Disney. “This business has become absolutely cruel,” tweeted Willow writer John Bickerstaff in response to the news.
This wave of content removals follows a rough couple of years for Disney’s economic outlook. The company laid off 7,000 employees and announced plans to restructure key parts of the business earlier this year. Disney has also been hesitant to buy out Comcast’s 33 percent stake in Hulu as it intended in 2019, and recently announced the closure of its absurdly expensive Star Wars-themed hotel experience.
According to Deadline, the following titles are anticipated to be removed from Disney Plus and Hulu on May 26th:
- Big Shot
- Turner & Hooch
- The Mysterious Benedict Society
- The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers
- Willow
- The Making Of Willow
- Diary of a Future President
- Just Beyond
- The World According to Jeff Goldblum
- Marvel’s Project Hero
- Marvel’s MPower
- Marvel’s Voices Rising: The Music of Wakanda Forever
- Rosaline
- Cheaper by the Dozen remake
- The One and Only Ivan
- Stargirl
- Artemis Fowl
- The Princess
- Encore!
- A Spark Story
- Black Beauty
- Clouds
- America the Beautiful
- Better Nate Than Ever
- Weird but True!
- Timmy Failure
- Be Our Chef
- Magic Camp
- Earth to Ned
- Foodtastic
- Stuntman
- Disney Fairy Tale Weddings
- Wolfgang
- It’s a Dog’s Life with Bill Farmer
- The Real Right Stuff
- The Big Fib
- Rogue Trip
- More Than Robots
- Shop Class
- Pick the Litter
- Own the Room
- Among the Stars
- Harmonious Live!
- Pentatonix: Around the World for the Holidays
In addition to these shows, Y: The Last Man, Pistol, Little Demon, Maggie, Dollface, The Hot Zone, The Premise, Love in the Time of Corona, Everything’s Trash, Best in Snow, Best in Dough, Darby and the Dead, and The Quest will also be removed
