Was DOCTOR WHO a Bust for Disney?
By Movieguide® Contributor
In 2022, Disney acquired the global distribution rights to BBC’s DOCTOR WHO, however, only two years later, the show’s future is unclear as it struggles to connect with a major audience.
“We’re excited by the opportunity to bring new seasons of this beloved franchise exclusively to Disney+ and introduce the show to the next generation of audiences in more than 150 markets around the world,” Alisa Bowen, the President of Disney+, said in 2022. “The series is a perfect addition to our ever-growing catalog of global content that continues to make Disney+ the home for exceptional storytelling.”
This vision for the show appears to have not panned out as it struggled to connect with a worldwide audience. The underperformance of the series, which peaked at seventh on Disney+’s series list behind the likes of THE SIMPSONS and STAR WARS shows, has caused some experts to reimagine the purpose of Disney’s involvement. One major source shrugged off the disappointment, telling Deadline that the series has always struggled to find an audience in the U.S.
Nonetheless, Disney’s involvement with the show, including a $100 million investment, was always for the purpose of global distribution. Even with next-day viewing on Disney+, the show’s numbers have been bleak, with the average audience numbers being 1.5 million viewers below those seen by the previous installment of the series in 2021.
While the second season of the series has wrapped filming, Disney has yet to announce its future plans for the show. However, the company’s current plans for DOCTOR WHO seem pessimistic as the show was largely ignored during its Upfront event in May.
As the largest shows on the streaming platform received incredible press, DOCTOR WHO was relegated to minor coverage away from the mainstage.
Additionally, the later seasons of DOCTOR WHO have promoted more progressive content. For example, they have added in multiple homosexual characters in recent seasons, and even gave one of the characters a spin-off with TORCHWOOD. This season’s doctor is a homosexual who has shown romantic interests in other men. Disney+ would do well to remember the lessons it learned with previous company failures with excessive content (like STRANGE NEW WORLD and LIGHTYEAR) and return to more family-based values.
Though an unlikely surge in popularity could save the show from ending with Season 2, all signs currently point towards another failure under Disney’s belt as its gamble on DOCTOR WHO appears to have been a bust.
Movieguide® previously reported on Disney:
After announcing a major shift in business strategy earlier this month, Disney CEO Bob Iger explained where the company went wrong and how the upcoming changes will undo its missteps.
“As we got into the streaming business in a very, very aggressive way, we tried to tell too many stories,” Iger told the MoffettNathanson Media, Internet & Communications Conference. “Basically, we invested too much, way ahead of possible returns. It’s what led to streaming ending up as a $4 billion loss.”
The excessive spending was the result of Disney trying to assert itself in the streaming space by releasing a greater volume of content than its competitors.
“There’s a very fine line that you can cross and get in trouble if your volume ends up diluting management’s attention to what is being made is right,” Iger explained. “And that’s what happened to us. So I have pulled that back.”
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