We are hard at work on our famous monthly library breakdown post as well as a special look at the crazy amount of anger related to October’s list. You may have noticed it was “delayed” roughly 1 week from the usual time and people had theories as to why – most involved a huge drop of content or something big they didn’t want to surprise too early. Shang-Chi was one theory. That couldn’t have been further from the truth. All the extra time led to hype that the list couldn’t live up to. It doesn’t help that September was incredible for Disney library. The see-saw continues. October may be top 5 worst months overall since launch 23 months ago.
We can’t spoil the monthly analysis but suffice it to say quantity means little when it’s all skewed towards the usual two brands / demographics… You know the ones…
We plan to share a bunch of those reactions and bring continued light to Disney’s ongoing catalog issues in hopes that someday the Disney+ Content Team hears the continued frustrations and adapts. Otherwise, Disney+ subscribers are unlikely to grow at the pace they predicted.
The purpose of THIS quickly thrown together article is to point out some concerns regarding Disney’s October lineup as they’ve presented it to the press. We haven’t seen this covered elsewhere. It’s no secret that there has been at least one error every month including last month worrying people about Pepper Ann missing seasons, the listing of Life Below Zero Next Generation season 16 instead of Life Below Zero, the promotion of Bunk’d Season 5 a couple months ago despite Netflix’s never-ending license, and of course the Mr Popper’s Penguins promotion for January 1st when it was only halfway through its HBO contract. It’s STILL THERE TO THIS DAY. How much you wanna bet it gets added January 1st 2022 though?
Editor’s Note: Dear Disney, hire me. I will fix you.
In October here’s what we’ve seen that has us concerned about incorrect info being spread:
Error #1
Maleficent is not listed but Disney+ randomly added a page for it a couple weeks ago. Apparently it’s coming back October 1st and then (likely) leaving again on November 1st. The same 1-month window as last year. Not pleasant, but you can thank Starz Pay Two when it leaves once more. Disney should pay them to make it a shared access so it doesn’t need to leave anymore…
Error #2 and Error #3?
Despite articles celebrating the unique situation with The Ghost and Molly McGee premiering 3 episodes on Disney+ PRIOR to Disney Channel, we think it’s not happening. Here’s why, and it relates to what looks like Error #3.
The Chicken Squad is set to add one random episode on October 8th. At that point and time the series will be behind 5 episodes with the most recent being a Halloween episode.
We believe strongly that Disney’s publicity team crisscrossed their data and accidentally listed one individual episode of Chicken Squad the same day they accidentally listed “The Ghost And Molly McGee (5 episodes).” The math checks out. The Halloween episode of Chicken Squad makes sense to add. The other “batches” of episodes getting added in October are bringing those series up to their 2021 Halloween episodes so why would Chicken Squad add a random episode from August and skip the September ones and the Halloween episode that had just aired?
It’s also possible Chicken Squad and Ghost and Molly McGee will BOTH get 5 episodes added. We’re not sure. Why would Disney+ premiere Disney Channel episodes before they air? Why not just label it a Disney+ Original at that point?
One more tidbit – Disney has never added an “individual” episode before unless it was the pilot (like Mickey Mouse Funhouse In July) or a seasonal special so why would they randomly do that now? We think they are not!
It looks like misinformation is once again being spread due to people not fact checking or being familiar with Disney’s library the way we are as the premier site and experts on the Disney+ USA library.
Error #4
Speaking of Mickey Mouse Funhouse… the Halloween episode is coming to Disney+. But they promoted it as “Mickey’s Mixed Up Adventure.” We couldn’t find any mention of a missing Halloween episode from that series and now we know why! They listed the wrong series title! But even with this episode coming it raises questions – why is Disney skipping 5 episodes in between the pilot (which they added in July) and the Halloween episode? They’ve never skipped around before… are we actually getting 6 episodes of Mickey Mouse Funhouse?
Time To Fix The Disney Channel And Nat Geo Episode Additions
It’s amazing how all of this could pretty much go away if they operated like other services and did “next-day” episodes of their content. So much confusion for subscribers and the publicity staff. How can anyone keep track of when episodes are coming? Inconsistency is so unbecoming, Disney!
And the UI of Disney+ doesn’t help by not mentioning when new episodes are added. No parent would know that a random episode got added to the title page for a series because Disney still isn’t adding “NEW” indicators like almost ever other streaming service does.
It’s so depressing. Look at this example for Disney+ Japan which uses a different interface. You KNOW the episodes are new!
We have reached out to their publicity team to seek clarification. We’ll update this post if we hear back.
EDIT: Seconds after publishing we noticed the EiC at What’s On Disney Plus had written and published a similar take at the same time. That speaks volumes…
What do you think? Are we right about these mistakes? Do you have trouble with their episode releases? Have you noticed similiar errors in their monthly lists?
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.
