Disney Channel - Programming

Programming

Disney Channel broadcasts original series such as Phineas and Ferb, Fish Hooks, Good Luck Charlie, Shake It Up, A.N.T. Farm, Jessie, Austin & Ally, Gravity Falls, and Code 9. Repeats of former Disney Channel original series include The Suite Life on Deck and Wizards of Waverly Place. Reruns of Disney XD original series includes Pair of Kings, Kickin' It, Lab Rats and Kick Buttowski. Future programming on Disney Channel includes Dog With a Blog. Acquired programing from other networks includes My Babysitter's a Vampire. Unlike the most basic cable channels in the U.S., Disney Channel's original scripted programs (including those featured on the Disney Junior block) feature tag scenes during the closing credits. The channel also airs short-form programs known as "short shows", which air more commonly on the Disney Junior block. Music videos, mainly featuring Walt Disney Records and Hollywood Records artists as well as songs featured in newer Disney feature films are frequently aired, though the full versions of these music videos typically air only during the video's premiere and as filler between programs, while shorter versions usually air during promo breaks during the current program).

The original sitcoms produced for Disney Channel that are geared toward teenage girls (with shows like Hannah Montana and Lizzie McGuire) and also airs a moderate amount of animated series geared more towards upper-elementary and middle school-age children. Disney Channel has aired some programming more appealing to teenage boys with Aaron Stone and other such Disney XD shows in 2009. Acquired series produced by Walt Disney Television, Touchstone Television and other production companies outside of the Walt Disney Company portfolio previously made up most of the schedule; however since Disney Channel began increasing its reliance on original series, television series acquired for broadcast on the channel have become very limited and primarily confined to the Disney Junior block.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Disney Channel aired classic Disney animated shorts that were made when Walt Disney headed his namesake company; they were removed from the lineup in 2000, however their presence has returned as of 2009 with the addition of the short series have a laugh!. On December 14, 2008, it was announced that Disney Channel in the U.S. would bring back the animation block, which aired from 12–6 a.m. ET. The animated block was added to Disney Channel during the late night hours after Christmas Day 2008.

Since 2003, Disney Channel has typically imposed an unwritten "6-to-a-cast" rule as its original series generally have a maximum of six contract cast members, with So Weird being the last series before 2003 to have more than six actors appearing as series regulars (since then however, Shake It Up had become the first series to feature seven contract cast members in season two). The channel's series also have a smaller writing staff compared to other broadcast and cable network scripted television series (usually around 6 and 8 credited staff writers, instead of the 8 to 11 writers standard with most scripted series). Most of its series also employ are produced in the videotaped multi-camera setup that involves filming before a studio audience or utilizing a laugh track; its multi-camera series also utilize a simulated film look (the FilmLook image processing for series that debuted between 2003 and 2008; the HD-compatible 'filmizing' technique for all newly-commissioned and returning original series produced in high definition after 2009, which reduce the videotape frame rate to 24 frames per second).