Decline of Disney Channel

“Hi, my name is Kim Possible and you’re watching Disney Channel.” Most late 90’s or early 2000’s kids remember hearing these words, followed by the iconic Kim Possible theme song, “I’m your basic average girl and I’m here to save the world, you can’t stop me cause I’m Kim Possible.” Followed by the most quoted line from the show, “What’s the sitch’?”

Watching Disney Channel used to teach about developing friendship, and honesty as characters learn from mistakes. We watched in happiness as Raven, Chelsea and Eddie learned about each other and accepted each other as friends. We envied Kim Possible’s life and her wonderful friend and later boyfriend, Ron Stoppable. We cried when Ronnie broke up with Lizzie McGuire all the while rooting for David to finally declare his love to Lizzie. Disney Channel used to employ good actors with funny and smart dialogue.

Shows made now fill us with dread as we watch actors and actresses play dumb as they try to act. One of the most memorable episodes of Kim Possible was the Halloween Special, “October 31st”. Despite the fact that the bracelet on Kim’s hand slowly transforms her into a robot, the episode created a real message of honesty. After lying about the bracelets actions, the suit grows further and further until she is entirely absorbed. This episode discouraged lying by telling the amazing feeling of honesty and scaring us into believing if we did lie, we’d turn into robots.

Disney Channel has descended so low, creating shows like Dog with a Blog, I Didn’t Do It, Best Friends Whenever, and Girl Meets World. These shows target lower audiences with simple and dull dialogue, making characters seem unintelligent and foolish. Dog with a Blog features a talking dog with a blog where he writes what he learns. The idea seems a little unbelievable and a far cry from reality. The remake of Boy Meets World replaced by Disney’s Girl Meets World shows how far Disney Channel has stretched to keep ratings up and viewers entertained. Disney Channel also produced a spin-off channel called Disney XD, where they remake Marvel stories and reuse Disney Channel characters. The viewer audience age has decreased by almost five years throughout the last decade. Where shows used to attract the attention of ten to fifteen year olds, the average age of viewing has decreased to 6 through 11. (myteevee.com) The excited feeling just isn’t there anymore, Disney has lost its inspiration and charm from before, and all we can do now is hope that one day we will see a show that will attract our attention once again.