UPDATED January 6th with the January 1st video updates: 3 previously unannounced Nat Geo titles, 1 fewer Fox title.
Disney+ Library Adds Per Month
The vitriol online is intense. There are calls for cancellations! What is going on in New York at Disney Streaming?! Let us sum it up cleanly.
January provides:
The smallest amount of library titles (10) added in one month since launch. After the January 1st video, it’s now 13 library titles. 2nd worst ever!
The smallest amount of original titles (4) added in one month since launch.
It’s so bad we added a new tier especially for this month. We also slightly reformulated our scale which resulted in one green month becoming yellow (but only by 1 title) and we shifted our top level (which has only been achieved once 2 years ago) from a darker green color to blue so that each level has its own color. Keep in mind internationally the top level is achieved regularly thanks to STAR.
Monthly Library Averages
2021 ends with a monthly average of 27.66, dramatically inflated by the batch strategy. If they’d continued their initial strategy of adding full seasons only after they’ve aired the average would have been 23, a significant drop from the 2020 average of 29. Unfortunately 2022 is the worst imaginable start for the new year.
Past 3 Month’s Library Title Categories
Fox (usually top 3) holds the top spot with 50 percent of this month’s new library. The usual leader Nat Geo is allowing its massive missing library to remain exclusive to NatGeoTV.com this month instead of making headway, however the addition of 3 recent series helps. Disney Junior (the other top 3) is no longer shut out for the first month since launch 26 months earlier. TOTS Season 3 has been rescheduled from it’s ghosting in December. Disney’s team continues to confuse us with their idea of curation.
Ongoing Bad Streaks
For the 4th month in a row, no good streaks. You already know what’s coming in the next section if you’re a regular reader:
“Where’s Walt?”
As always the answer remains the same: Not on (Walt) Disney+. Think of it like this, if his 120th birthday in December wasn’t meaningful enough for them to add something he had part in then we’re never seeing anything of his again. Baby Boomers and hardcore Disney fans, this isn’t the service for you.
Disney Channel And Disney XD Missing Scripted Series Progress
As expected Disney has now added another month to their all-time record without missing Disney XD and Disney Channel live-action series joining the service. 9 months. During the time someone could have gotten pregnant and had a baby, Disney could not clear any of the many Disney Channel series missing for streaming.
Except they have not run out of content available to license, they just won’t. The recently launched Disney+ Hotstar services saw titles such as Jungle Junction and PrankStars added shortly after they launched.
The classic Disney Channel series Honey I Shrunk the Kids which streamed on Prime Video until January 1st, 2021 has been vaulted for over one year as of January. Content from the 90s is practically non-existent, but here is the only missing 90s Disney Channel series on VOD and the only 90s Disney Channel series we know CAN be licensed for streaming. So where is it?
Here is our graphic listing the 5 major missing Disney Channel and XD scripted series from the past 20 years. Disney XD is down to 4, at least. This graphic has been unchanged for 9 months now.
Missing Disney Channel, Disney XD, ABC, And Jetix Cartoon Progress
New record. It’s now been 4 months since Disney added a missing cartoon. Another reminder that they are missing 50 percent of their cartoon library while Paramount+ has been around less than a year and has added more than 85 percent. This is the “Disney Difference.”
Sad day!
Past 3 Month’s Library Titles Side-by-Side
This graphic screams “cancel me.” Remember when Disney+ Day was supposed to hype people up to join for the first time? Reminder, this is only 1.5 months later.
Final January Thoughts:
This month’s “main feature” is easy. They’re giving us nothing, so its Eternals.
This month’s “main feature” original is Boba Fett finale.
50% (!) A lot of the new library are Fox films that will leave shortly due to Fox’s pre-existing Epix and Starz and HBO library deals.
Getting Random Rings off DisneyNow is good but it makes no sense why over 100 titles remain exclusive to DisneyNow. Why not add all the Big City Greens shorts series at same time? Why they never do a DisneyNow shorts content drop is beyond us. January would be weird but an excellent month if they had only added 30 titles that were just from DisneyNow because at least it would be meaningful progress… something Disney doesn’t make with their missing library gaps.
How the usually dominant Nat Geo got left in the dust is anybody’s guess. They got some surprise additions including the full season of new series Pop Goes The Vet with Dr. Joya even though only the premiere had aired on TV. Weird! Good news? The one library special, Betty White Goes Wild, is from 2013. This is the first non 2019-2021 Nat Geo library in almost a year?! If we’re wrong on this let us know. It was supposed to be added for her 100th birthday, but now it will also serve as a way to mourn her.
Returning Titles
20% of the new library are returning titles. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (2012) is (possibly no longer, as it wasn’t in the January 1st video) returning from HBO Pay Two where it spent the past 1 year+. Ridiculously, The Sandlot is returning 1 months after tying the record for removals (3). This 4th stay will definitely not last either. Disney+ everyone.
Missing Title
Life Below Zero: Next Generation (Season 3) will be missing the 2nd month in a row after no-showing in November.
Major Snubs
This entire month is a snub.
The Recurring Snubs
First, the same ones from every month – all content older than 1990 and anything from Walt’s life. The “lost” titles that left HBO early 2021: Jungle Book (1994), Dick Tracy (1990) and Bridge to Terabithia (2007). The entire 2017-2020 Fox library with the weird exception of the first 2019 film, The Kid Who Would Be King, and Dark Phoenix. Cult favorite Alita: Battle Angel remains missing alongside Breakthrough, Spies in Disguise, Art of Racing in the Rain, Ford V Ferrari, Ad Astra, Bohemian Rhapsody, and more. The Free Window licensing for Fox makes no sense because somehow Kid Who Would Be King and Dark Phoenix are streaming instead of doing the FXM / Hulu / Prime rotation the others seem to be forced into.
The New Snubs
Nat Geo
2 New Nat Geo series are unaccounted for with batches: Man, Woman, Dog and Called to the Wild. Never mind. They surprise dropped Man, Woman, Dog at the end of December in full and have now scheduled Called to the Wild for next week.
Nat Geo series CAR SOS (Season 9) remains missing despite the previous 8 streaming and the recent season ending over 7 months ago. Lost Treasures of Egypt (Season 3) remains missing since it ended in September. Season 2 also never arrived. Yay incomplete series! Obviously there are hundreds of missing titles and series but we’re focused on the ones that had previously been getting added.
The final batch of episodes of Dr. Oakley’s Yukon Vet and Wicked Tuna: Outer Banks current seasons are not arriving. Dr. Oakley’s final batch is now scheduled!
Disney Branded TV
Disney Channel’s 2021 smash that transcended their demographics, Secrets of Sulphur Springs is not releasing same-week, apparently. They still haven’t learned? This is BONKERS EVEN STILL.
Mira Royal Detective is the only Disney Branded TV series not to receive a batch of episodes in December or January and the only one not “caught up.”
Apparently Genius: Martin Luther King isn’t coming for Martin Luther King Day. Did it even film?
Half of the Disney XD library remains missing. It’s not even that old.
Final Words
Horrible, insulting month to everyone. Instead of getting ahead or catching up they chose to waste the month, fall further behind on Nat Geo series, and continue to avoid the library holes.
February 2022 Predictions:
We can exclusively confirm that Marvel Super Hero Adventures: Frost Fight leaves Netflix February 24th, 2022 and should arrive the next day on Disney+ since it’s a Friday. If not, it will definitely arrive in March.
We fully expect the rest of Dr. Oakley’s Yukon Vet season 10 and Wicked Tuna Outer Banks Season 8 as well as the now 2-months missing Life Below Zero: Next Generation (Season 3).
We expect the new series Man, Woman, Dog and Called to the Wild to have a batch or full season. Got it early.
Mira: Royal Detective (Season 2) and Ghostforce (Season 1) should get batches. We weren’t sure Ghostforce would stream by DubbedUK is a reliable source and he said early 2022! Secrets of Sulphur Springs batch is a definite. If ZOMBIES 3 DCOM releases in February we can expect that.
Mickey Mouse Hot Diggity Dog Tales (Shorts) (streaming in UK) expires from DisneyNow February 1st, so there is a chance it moves to Disney+. The same for PJ Masks Music Videos (added to UK), expiring from DisneyNow.
Fox films we could see arriving include: Blue Sky’s Robots, or Gulliver’s Travels which will have just left Hulu and thus may be able to return.
Snow Dogs should return from HBO in February or soon after as it leaves January 31st.
Make your own predictions using our Missing Nat Geo (by date aired) and Missing Disney Channel / Junior pages.
What’s Coming To Disney+ January 2022
Nothing. But you can still view the list.
View via our Disney FYI Calendar or our NEW Next on Disney+ hub. We recommend bookmarking that page.
Drew Ryan is a film, TV, and Disney geek. He has degrees in English, Student Personnel Administration, and Library & Information Science from Lawrence University, Concordia University-Wisconsin, and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Interested in the minutia and licensing of streaming service content, he is always publishing lists, suggestions, and advocating for Disney’s missing library to be added to Disney+. Drew subscribes to Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, HBO Max, and Paramount+. You can find him waxing nostalgic over classic Disney Channel or geeking out over Marvel, CW shows, & Disney on Twitter.
