Source: Multichannel News

Disney Channel Tuesday said it has ordered additional episodes for the third season of Hannah Montana and a second season of The Suite Life on Deck—the network’s hit live-action series.

In the fourth quarter, Hannah Montana was basic cable’s top-rated series among kids 6-11 and tweens 9-14 and the No. 1 scripted series in total viewers. The Suite Life on Deck is currently ranks second among kids 6-11 and tweens 9-14 and is the third most-watched scripted series on basic cable in total viewers.

“The talent behind Hannah Montana has made it a true global sensation and cultural icon not just on television, where it topped the ratings on Disney Channels around the globe, but as a chart-topping music act and beyond,” Gary Marsh, president of entertainment for Disney Channels Worldwide, said in a statement. “We’re thrilled with the extraordinary performance of our newest series, The Suite Life on Deck, in the U.S. and globally, and we look forward to telling more great stories with this talented cast and production team.”

Since its premiere in September, The Suite Life on Deck has reached 27 million unduplicated viewers worldwide. Set aboard a luxury cruise liner, the series tells the story of teenage twins Zack and Cody Martin and hotel heiress London Tipton as they spend a semester at sea aboard the SS Tipton.

Why would they extend the third season if they where planning on making a fourth? I therefore theorize that DC is planning on ending HM with season three. But it’s just a theory.

Source: NY Daily News

Dylan and Cole Sprouse sent Disney’s ratings soaring when their new spinoff, “The Suite Life on Deck,” debuted in September. This new life on the high seas sits with the brothers just fine.

“Life on Deck” is an offshoot of the twins’ former show, “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody,” in which the boys ran amok at the fictional Tipton Hotel. Now older and maybe wiser, Zack and Cody are attending school at sea on the S.S. Tipton and still getting into mischief, though perhaps not as much as on dry land.

“I think Disney wanted us to be more responsible on the show,” said Cole, “and they felt that putting us on a boat would be the best way to do that.”

“With growing older comes responsibility, [which] if you don’t acquire sooner or later, you’re gonna be in trouble,” said Dylan. “So the new show definitely teaches responsibility. We get jobs, and essentially every single show has a moral.”

The brothers, identical 16-year-old twins, got their start in acting at the age of 6 months, appearing in a toilet paper commercial, then on ABC’s “Grace Under Fire” as the same character, Patrick Kelly. They appeared in movies such as “Big Daddy” and eventually landed the Disney show.

The first season of “Life on Deck,” airing Fridays at 8 p.m., will explore all the follies of living at sea, including fighting off a Loch Ness-type monster and an eerie encounter in the Bermuda Triangle. There are also plans for a “Life on Deck,” “Wizards of Waverly Place” and “Hannah Montana” crossover episode.

Unlike most of their Disney counterparts, the Sprouse brothers swear they have no singing aspirations. They’d rather just concentrate on their acting before heading off to college when they’re old enough – Dylan to art school and Cole maybe to USC to study film.

In the meantime, the boys are grateful for their show and work hard at staying levelheaded in the Hollywood environment.

“Some people do shows because they want to be famous and I’m honestly telling you right now, if that’s the reason, they’re going to get swept up,” said Dylan. “Cole and I just came into acting because we like to act and we like to work.”

And just in case you’re curious, there are no plans for the boys to shave their famously coiffed heads anytime soon.

“I don’t think they would be too happy about that,” said Dylan. “On the Disney Channel, the skinhead look doesn’t do too well, let me tell you.”

Another three-way crossover? They did a decent job on the last one, so this should be interesting.

Halloween is by far the best recruiting day of the year. All year long we spend a lot of time encouraging everyone to get out there and find more people who don’t yet know about our movements. This might be by posting flyers around town, wearing SDS merchandise, and/or by posting about us online. But on Halloween, kids and their parents come right to your door. What could be easier?

But we need you all to help!

Download and print out the new flyer and post one one your front door, gate, where ever people can read it. If you’re trick-or-treating leave a few flyers with you parents and take a few with you. Give them to anyone who seems interested. If you’re too old for trick-or-treating, you can still give flyers to anyone interested who comes begging for candy.

Download the new flyer here

You can also find many more flyers and handouts here. Or feel free to make your own!

And if you happen to dress up like a DC star or chracter this year, we’d love to see it! And we’d love to see how you make use of our flyers. Send us any photos you’d like to share at webmaster@savedisneyshows.org.

For the first time in ages, Disney Channel suffered a ratings decrease.

Hannah Montana’s ratings are down ever sense Miley’s Vanity Fair photos. The original Suite Life series is ending. KP and ADJL are over. And the only new show getting any decent promotion is Phineas and Ferb. And I doubt few would disagree with the statement that Camp Rock was no High School Musical.

My hope is that now Disney realizes that they cannot endlessly manufacture hits. At some point the fans really will begin to walk away in noticeable amounts.

Article Source: Animation Insider

Disney Channel lacked stability in Second Quarter of this year, with an uneven stream of weekly performances throughout much of the Quarter. Although select growth could be found following the launch of key episode premieres or following various television specials, Disney Channel saw a plethora of audience losses, with demographic losses in each month of analysis. April saw a decline with Kids 6-11 of roughly -08%, recorded through the Total Program Day, which although much, was the children’s channel’s smallest decline of the Quarter.

The Tweens 9-14 audience showed a consistent decline (Total Program Day), throughout April 2008 for the Disney Channel. Although the cartoon and live-action kid sitcom network has previously helped guide the tween audience, in a year-to-year comparison, the Tweens 9-14 demographic dropped -11% (down to 375,000) on average for this month.

Moving on to the month of May, Disney Channel, with Kids 6-11, similarly declined another -08% (Total Program Day). May 2008 was a difficult month on some level for almost all kids cable networks, but Disney Channel, for its loss, showed modest growth in Total Program Day with Kids 2-11 as the weeks continued; and likewise, in Primetime, Kids 6-11 viewers grew from week to week, if not every so slightly, while other kid networks showed a decline viewers at least one week in said month.

Disney Channel’s June saw double-digit declines in every notable kids demographic. The network saw a decline with the Kids 2-11 audience, when compared to the previous year, of -10% (TPD) and -14% (Primetime), and a similar drop in viewer delivery of -11% (TPD) and -15% (Primetime) with Kids 6-11. From a larger perspective, Disney Channel lost more viewers in Primetime than throughout the entire day of programming, in each demographic. The largest of such losses, in June 2008, were with Tweens. Tweens 9-14 viewership decreased -16% (TPD) and down another -21% (Primetime).

Regardless of Disney Channel’s multi-media dominance among all kid’s entertainment channels due to household reach — Disney Channel averaged a 1.55 Primetime rating in June as based on total U.S. household projection — Second Quarter 2008 saw a decrease of -09% (K6-11, TPD) overall. One key highlight though, specific to the network’s animated programming, was an episode of Phineas and Ferb in Q2 2008, which pulled in a commendable 1.29 million Kids 6-11.

Walt Disney Co.’s (DIS) fiscal third-quarter net income 9% as growth in its media networks and theme-park operations more than offset a decline in studio entertainment.

In the quarter ended June 28, the media and entertainment giant reported net income of $1.28 billion, or 66 cents a share, compared with $1.18 billion, or 57 cents a share, a year earlier. Unusual items added 4 cents a share to the latest quarter’s earnings.

Revenue climbed 2% to $9.24 billion.

The breakdown per division was:

Media Networks Oper Rev $4.12B Vs $3.83B
Media Networks Oper Net $1.47B Vs $1.36B
Parks And Resorts Oper Rev $3.04B Vs $2.90B
Parks And Resorts Oper Net $641M Vs $621M
Studio Entertainment Oper Rev $1.43B Vs $1.78B
Studio Entertainment Oper Net $97M Vs $190M
Consumer Pdts Oper Rev $642M Vs $537M
Consumer Pdts Oper Net $113M Vs $118M

This new WordPress powered blog replaces the old Save Disney Shows news section. Articles contained within the old data base are still available here. All new articles will be posted in this blog.

Webmaster Greg has decided to impliment this change after his experience building Disney Channel Fans. DC Fans uses a WordPress blog to manage news on the site, and to syndicate news to it’s affiliated websites. Using the same system we will now be able to syndicate news from the news section to our affiliated websites, like savekp.com, and savejakelong.com. Not only does this simply our updating system, but it allows persons following more than one campaign to see the news for all the campaigns in one place.

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