You’ve heard of Disney Channel‘s old 65-episode rule right?
It used to be that the shows on the network would end after only 65 episodes, but over the years, that has changed and there have been many shows that have surpassed that. There’s even several that have over 100 episodes.
However, there may still be a bit of a time limit on Disney shows and that time seems to come at season three.
Former Disney Channel star Joey Bragg, who was on Liv and Maddie, revealed why Disney Channel shows would change their title after three seasons. Although, many have simply just ended after their third season.
Keep reading to learn more…
While appearing on the Cash Cuties podcast recently, co-host Fumi Abe said, “You [told me] that they [Disney] have this rule where they don’t have to pay you 100% of the WGA rates for three seasons, so that’s why every three seasons they reboot it under different names or something?”
“Yeah, like Hannah Montana Forever and Suite Life On Deck,” Joey replied. “They have a deal with, I don’t know if it’s the unions or the AMPTP, but they had a deal where the first three seasons of a show, you get paid 88% of scale. So it’s 88% of like minimum wage, pretty much, for the crew, and then the idea is, you work on a show, it becomes popular, you go four, five, six seasons, and you get 100%, or whatever that is.”
“But then, they, by the third season, even if the show’s popular, they reboot it as a brand new show,” he explained. “So, we were Liv and Maddie for the first three seasons, and the last season was Liv and Maddie: Cali Style.”
“And it’s technically a ‘new show’ so they can go back to paying you sh–,” Fumi said, to which Joey agreed, saying, “Yeah, exactly. But, it’s in our contracts that we can’t renegotiate unless everybody decides to renegotiate.”
The actor also revealed that no one on the show is really seeing any money from Liv and Maddie streaming on Disney+!
“That’s one of the things we’re striking about,” Joey said. “Because my show was like Netflix’s No 1 watched show, when it was on Netflix, then those streaming rights got bought by Disney for like millions upon millions upon millions of dollars, and the creators, nobody saw any of that money.”
Recently, Robert Carradine, who played the dad on Lizzie McGuire, shared residual checks from Disney in 2019 that were for $0.
While it was after three seasons, another show that changed it’s name – BUNK’D, which is now BUNK’D: Learning the Ropes, which changed after season five.
Disney Channel shows over the last 10-15 years that only had three seasons include KC Undercover, The Owl House, Big Hero 6: The Series, Amphibia, ANT Farm, Shake It Up, Sydney to the Max, Andi Mack, Girl Meets World, Bizaardvark and Stuck in the Middle.
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