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‘It caught everyone by surprise’: inside the rise and fall of the Disney Channel | Books

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2 days ago

September 26, 2024

In late 2005, executives at the Disney Channel were caught off-guard. The cable channel had high hopes for High School Musical, one of its Disney Channel Original Movies (DCOMs), among the target demographic of so-called “tween” viewers, kids between ages nine and 12. The film, directed by Kenny Ortega, had slick choreography, original pop music, a diverse cast and palpable romantic chemistry between stars Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens. But no one, according to a new book on the millennial-beloved cable channel, expected it to transcend kids programming, long considered a cultural backwater both within and beyond Disney. “Despite what some executives later tried to say, that they saw it coming, they did not,” said Ashley Spencer, author of Disney High: The Untold Story of the Rise and Fall of Disney Channel’s Tween Empire. “This caught everyone by surprise.”

Within weeks, High School Musical was a bona fide cultural phenomenon, and a new, unprecedented gold standard for the business potential of kids programming. Along with tweens, younger kids and older teens were obsessed with its stars. The soundtrack topped the Billboard 200 and became the bestselling album of the year of any genre. By the end of 2006, more than 90 million people in more than 100 countries had seen the movie; a whopping 17 million people (myself included) tuned in for the premiere of the sequel. And more crucially for the company, the franchise generated revenue for Disney across 10 different divisions – theme parks, home entertainment, merchandise, a licensable theater show, among others.

Spencer identifies the High School Musical boom as the peak of the Disney Channel’s power – a haphazard, trial-and-error rise that culminated in the kind of cultural ubiquity and cachet any company today would kill for. Concurrently the channel’s talent became synonymous with mainstream, bubbly, at times oppressive stardom – Hannah Montana’s Miley Cyrus, Wizards of Waverly Place’s Selena Gomez, Camp Rock’s Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers. “Even if you weren’t a kid then, even if you didn’t have kids then, [Disney Channel] became so big that you know what that means,” said Spencer. “Most people can conjure in their mind an image of a brightly lit sitcom with loud colors and a perky kid. It became ubiquitous, and it created something that a generation rallied around.”

Selena Gomez in Wizards Of Waverly Place. Photograph: c W Disney/Everett/Rex Feature

The cultural significance of the Disney Channel is self-evident to anyone coming of age at that time, one deep in viewers’ brains and floating in snippets around social media but not recorded in a serious, chronological business history. “I couldn’t believe it hadn’t been done before,” said Spencer, a former Disney Channel kid from central Florida turned culture journalist. “For a certain age group, it’s so obvious – of course there’s a story to be told here.”

Disney High goes behind the scenes of the erratic rise of the cable channel, featuring interviews with many current and former Disney Channel executives, producers, directors, writers, actors and crew who witnessed the channel’s frictions within the company and its notoriously heavy-handed censorship team in real time. Though it was founded in 1983, Spencer starts the story in 1995, with the hiring of Anne Sweeney, a former Nickelodeon executive, as channel president. Sweeney, then 38, was tasked with turning what was essentially a channel with little kids shows, or musical shows whose talent graduated too early (the Mickey Mouse Club), into competition for the dominant kids network of the era.

Sweeney faced an uphill battle, both within the company, where it was viewed as small potatoes, and in the larger cultural consciousness, where Nickelodeon held kids’ attention as a brash, parent-free zone. “Disney was not a cool brand for a 12-year-old in the 90s,” said Spencer. It was associated with kids’ animated movies and theme parks. “So when you’re 10, 11, 12, and you’re wanting to start to be cool, and you love pop music and you want to watch MTV, but also it’s scary and your parents don’t want you watching TV – Disney Channel smartly tapped into that.”

Despite internal opposition, Sweeney and her team pursued programming that tweens and parents could watch together, with snippets of the pop music zeitgeist at a level deemed safe enough for kids. The channel started playing Britney Spears, ‘NSync and other boy bands’ music videos. It developed light comedic shows with diverse tween protagonists handling mundane coming-of-age struggles – So Weird, The Famous Jett Jackson and Even Stevens. Instead of ad breaks, the channel aired “interstitials” promoting the company’s theme parks, theatrical releases and, eventually, its cheaply produced, highly rewatchable DCOMs such as Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century, Johnny Tsunami and Cadet Kelly.

Disney High delineates its chapters by show and/or movie, as the channel became increasingly defined by its homegrown “triple threat” stars. Hilary Duff, from the seminal series Lizzie McGuire, became a charting pop icon to a certain slice of millennial girls. Raven-Symoné, the Cosby Show child star turned That’s So Raven anchor, broke ground as a curvy, Black sitcom lead, and scored a pre-HSM hit with The Cheetah Girls. By the time the network hired Miley Cyrus, in 2006, to play a regular girl by day, singer by night in Hannah Montana, the wheels had been greased for talent to expand beyond their show, even eclipsing the company’s power as a touchstone for a new generation of pop stars.

Such exposure was a massive burden on young talent, and Disney High recounts the network’s increasing difficulty with (micro) managing its stars. The adults in the room were, in broad terms, ill-equipped to help with increased tabloid scrutiny, near-constant surveillance and internet chatter, from Cyrus’s controversial Vanity Fair cover, to the relentless press Gomez faced for dating Justin Bieber. The final chapter covers Lovato’s well-documented mental health struggles in 2010, which the network seemed loth to address lest she stop working, and which culminated in them severing ties with her after she entered rehab.

Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato. Photograph: Jonathan Hordle/Rex Features

Along with Lovato’s documentary Child Star, out this month, Disney High further illustrates the conundrum of child star – big dreams, bigger pressure, great risk and potential when a child becomes a business. “This is such a strange situation for a kid to be in,” said Spencer. “I don’t know how that doesn’t extremely affect your psyche.” Still, “a lot of these kids really want it … They were born to do this. This is what they wanted desperately.”

Across the board, those who worked on Disney’s shows still express pride in what was created during the network’s heyday. “I can’t think of anyone I talked to who had regret or wished they hadn’t done their show,” said Spencer. “Many of them felt like their job working on a kids show was not just to make this content good, but it was also to provide a good experience for these kids who were growing up on set around them.”

And eventually outgrew the network, as did its core viewers. Disney High does not extend past 2010, when channel viewership began swiftly declining as kids’ attention shifted from cable to social media and short-form content online. The fickle magic of generational stardom at a foundational age moved elsewhere, even as the channel eventually relaxed some of its standards and practices and embraced openly queer characters. Even the current Disney-bred stars – Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo, Jenna Ortega, Dove Cameron – didn’t achieve their popularity on the channel; Disney served as training ground rather than a springboard.

“I don’t know that it will ever be replicated again,” said Spencer of Disney Channel’s once inescapable ubiquity. Even Disney’s attention has moved on from its own landmark channel; the book ends with a postscript in which Spencer visits an employee gift shop at corporate headquarters in Burbank, California, where not a trace of the channel could be found. Whether officially acknowledged or not, the legacy of the Disney Channel boom lives in the vast nostalgia for its programming – the idea of a Lizzie McGuire-esque animated character on your shoulder, the longstanding affection for newly minted Disney Legend Miley Cyrus, or the enduring appeal of High School Musical at karaoke.

When you watched Disney Channel, “you were still being molded as a person”, said Spencer. At that age, “you are figuring out who you are. So what you’re exposed to and what you connect with, that sticks with you for life.”

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জনপদে সময় | রাত ৮টা | ২৩ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০২৪ | Somoy TV Bulletin 8pm | Latest Bangladeshi News

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24 mins ago

September 28, 2024

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জনপদে সময় | রাত ৮টা | ২৩ সেপ্টেম্বর ২০২৪ | Somoy TV Bulletin 8pm | Latest Bangladeshi News

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‘Bye bye London,’ says Ruth Langsford as she heads to the countryside after Eamonn Holmes split

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45 mins ago

September 28, 2024

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'Bye bye London,' says Ruth Langsford as she heads to the countryside after Eamonn Holmes split

RUTH Langsford took some time out of the city for a trip to the countryside.

The TV presenter split from Eamonn Holmes after 14 years of marriage in May this year.

Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes split after 14 years of marriageCredit: Getty

She filmed her journey outside of London to the countrysideCredit: instagram/@ruthlangsford/

Ruth recently hired a divorce lawyer after Eamonn went public with his girlfriendCredit: instagram/@ruthlangsford/

Ruth, 64, shared a video from a train carriage as she travelled from Euston, London.

“Bye bye London” she wrote on her story.

Switching to a leafy green landscape, she wrote: “Hello countryside!”

Ruth, 64, has recently hired a “fierce” divorce lawyer after Eamonn also 64 went on holiday with his new girlfriend Katie Alexander.

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1 hour ago

September 28, 2024

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Kristen Bell makes surprising revelation about Gossip Girl

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2 hours ago

September 28, 2024

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Kristen Bell makes surprising revelation about Gossip Girl

Gossip Girl’s setting of New York was a huge focus for the show, so much so that the city was often cited as a “character” in its own right. But one star apparently had no idea that’s where it was filmed.

Kristen Bell is the actor who provided the voiceover narration to the show as the mysterious title character “Gossip Girl”, whose identity was controversially revealed in the series finale in 2012.

She is currently promoting her new Netflix series, Nobody Wants This, alongside co-star Adam Brody, who happens to be married to another Gossip Girl star, Leighton Meester.

In an interview with Bustle, Bell revealed that she had no idea where the show was filmed until recently: “The funny thing is, as Gossip Girl, I was only on a microphone in Los Angeles; I was never shooting with them,” she recalled.

“I didn’t even know where they shot. Where’d they shoot that show?” she asked Brody.

“Um, Montreal,” he replied jokingly.

“OK, first time hearing of it,” Bell responded, prompting Brody to clarify: “Well, New York.”

Kristen Bell (left) was the narrator of the hit teen drama series Gossip Girl, starring Leighton Meester (right) (Getty)

“Oh, New York. You were joking?” Bell said, as she realised that Brody had been messing with her. “New York because the city was a character.”

“You can see how involved she was,” Brody told the interviewer, laughing.

“I just got on that mic and I gave the sass,” she responded, before explaining how she had actually met Meester when she guest-starred on one of Bell’s earlier series, Veronica Mars.

Gossip Girl ran for six seasons between 2007 to 2012 and followed a group of privileged students living in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, as their private and social lives are exposed by the unidentified blogger, “Gossip Girl”.

In Nobody Wants This, Bell stars as a sex blogger and serial dater who falls in love with a progressive rabbi (Brody). The couple must then navigate the doubts of their respective friends and family.

Kristen Bell and Adam Brody in ‘Nobody Wants This’ (© 2024 Netflix, Inc.)

The show has received positive reviews from critics, including a four-star write-up in The Independent.

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Katie Rosseinsky said that “a few obvious tropes are present and correct” but “there is also plenty of room for less predictable comic moments that are sharply observed, and sometimes hilariously, devastatingly relatable”.

“The whole thing is an enjoyable mix of romcom escapism and sometimes acerbic realism. Joanne and Noah are a couple you want to root for. I get the feeling the show’s title won’t be a self-fulfilling prophecy,” she added.

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সেদিনের বৈঠকে তরুণ সেনা কর্মকর্তাদের ক্ষোভের মুখে পড়েছিলেন সেনাপ্রধান | Army Chief |Independent TV

Published

3 hours ago

September 28, 2024

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সেদিনের বৈঠকে তরুণ সেনা কর্মকর্তাদের ক্ষোভের মুখে পড়েছিলেন সেনাপ্রধান | Army Chief |Independent TV

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‘Coming out caused me more anguish than joy’, says Phillip Schofield as he opens up on ‘hardest day of his life’

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3 hours ago

September 28, 2024

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'Coming out caused me more anguish than joy', says Phillip Schofield as he opens up on 'hardest day of his life'

PHILLIP Schofield has revealed that coming out as gay caused him more “anguish than joy”.

The telly veteran, 62, opens up on his bombshell exit from ITV ahead of being sent to a desert island for Channel 5 documentary Cast Away.

Phillip Schofield said coming out as gay filled him with 'anguish than joy' — Phillip Schofield said coming out as gay filled him with ‘anguish than joy’Credit: Louis Wood

The host opened up about his sexuality during an incredibly moving interview on This Morning in 2020Credit: Rex

He opens up on his exit from ITV ahead of being sent to a desert island for Channel 5 documentary Cast AwayCredit: PA

Phillip, 62, was joined by his family at his London home, with wife Stephanie Lowe and their daughters Molly, 31, and Ruby, 28.

His family were seen talking for the first time about the moment he came out as gay in February 2020, as well as the scandal surrounding his exit from This Morning last May.

Talking about coming out, Phillip said: “For me, doing it later in life, at the moment, it’s just given me more anguish than joy.

“Because I’m fully aware of the damage that it leaves.

READ MORE ON PHILLIP SCHOFIELD

“I still have the love of my family. Never wavered.”

His wife defended her husband and talks about the abuse he has received over the past 18 months — but admitted he could be in for more flak with the new show.

Stephanie said: “What people don’t realise is that they batter you, but there are other people affected.

“There’s no question, by doing this, you’re popping your head back up above the parapet for the very few horrid people that there are out there.”

When my dad came out, it was very hard for me. It was very hard for the entire family, mainly my mum of course
Phillip’s Daughter Molly

Meanwhile, daughter Molly told of how “proud” she is of her “amazing” father.

She says: “Weirdly, everything that’s happened recently has made us closer. We’ve seen him in his lowest times. But I’ve been so proud of him. So proud of him.

Phillip Schofield breaks down in tears and admits This Morning scandal ‘destroyed’ him in first look at TV comeback

“As a daughter, to see the love that people have for him. But when it’s taken away, it’s heartbreaking.

“On a desert island, you can’t fake it. This is the real you.

“So you can’t hide anything. And I really hope that people see him how we see him. Because he is just amazing.”

However she fears that his lack of practical skills may be a problem.

She says: “The DIY I’m really nervous about, because he can’t. He can’t do it. He can do a lot of things, but he can’t do DIY.”

Molly also recalls the moment her dad came out live on This Morning, with Holly by his side.

She says: “When my dad came out, it was very hard for me. It was very hard for the entire family, mainly my mum of course.

“Everything was turned upside-down, but we talked through it and over time it’s got easier. My mum and my sister, we’re all the same.

“We’ll always continue to support him, no matter what. I never thought it would have gone the way it has. But to have my parents still best friends is just . . . I’m the luckiest person ever.”

Phillip also discussed how he was forced to leave This Morning after 22 years following a fling with a much younger runner — and hinted at a lack of support from his long-time friend and co-host Holly, 43.

In 2020, Phillip said he “owed it to the viewers” to come out on the programme in a special interview with Holly as they are “family”.

Phillip broke the news on his personal Instagram account with an emotional statement back in February.

He then opened up about his sexuality during an incredibly moving interview on This Morning just moments later.

In the aftermath, Phillip said many people reached out to support him – but the lockdown in March meant he had to deal with it solo.

However, he said the mornings with Holly before presenting the show helped him through.

At the time, Phillip said: “You know, I was happy to receive the hugs, people saying “Oh my God, you’re so brave, oh, are you okay, let’s have dinner” and then nothing – I was stuck inside.

“And thank God I had the mornings with Holly. And so every day we’d sit in the make-up room, just the two of us doing our own make-up and talking throughout the whole of lockdown, which is the most extraordinary, beautiful experience to look back on.

“I think the one thing I’ll take away from all of this is the mornings that we had, with Holly and I looking a bit dazed trying to make a TV programme with hardly any people and wondering what the hell was happening next.”