Sonny With A Chance Is "So Random"

Disney has changed the name of its show, Sonny With A Chance to "So Random." It doesn't look like Demi Lovato will be returning to the show, at least as a main character.
Disney has not had a good rep lately with former employees, including Billy Ray Cyrus, who told GQ Magazine that he wished Hannah Montana never happened. Why are these events significant? It's making Disney look really bad. Not that the corporation is at risk of going under. Disney is certainly "winning" more than the freshly unemployed Charlie Sheen, but Lovato's future with Disney is uncertain. Even if leaving Sonny With A Chance was by Lovato's own choosing, one has to wonder if Disney is pushing its stars too far.
 
The "Mouse Trap"

With Hannah Montana gone, Wizards in its last season and a change with Sonny, the Disney Channel is in need of a serious face life. The channel has quickly lost the shows that reinvented it. The power trio of Cyrus, Gomez, and Lovato had the channel at its best, however, as those stars move on, and the viewers grow with them, Disney needs to appeal to a whole other demographic. Replacing their current stars with the same caliber of talent will be difficult.

Image Credit: DisneyChannel.com    

Kiss The Ratings Goodbye

In my opinion, one of the best moments in television was the line "I got off the plane," said by Jennifer Aniston in the 2004 series finale of Friends. In a similar fashion, Miley Cyrus and the Disney Channel closed the doors on the channel's most successful series, Hannah Montana. The finale brought no surprises and few tears, but a sweetness that only the perfectly orchestrated cast could bring. 

Strangely akin to Friends, Hannah Montana ended in an airport, with a pending long term trip to Paris. Of course, half of the people watching Hannah Montana have never even heard of Friends, but the comparison is worth noting. The ending lacked the emotion that many other HM episodes brought. It felt like the writers got tired and needed to come up with a quick fix to round out the show. Nonetheless, Hannah Montana Forever, marks the end of an era- for not only Miley Cyrus, Emily Osment, and the rest of the cast, but for the fans, and the network that made having a double identity using some bling and a blonde wig famous. 

The future of Demi Lovato and Sonny With a Chance is uncertain, and Wizards of Waverly Place is in it's last season, which means Disney is running out of comedic singing superstars. Good Luck Charlie and Shake It Up are fairly new shows to the Disney Channel, but the shows and their stars have not caused anywhere near the revolution Cyrus did in the entertainment world. Hannah Montana was unique, and many of its the themes are repeated in newer shows. The kid with a dream is a tired theme (yet one that seems to work) in children's television, but for some reason, adding a blonde wig to it equated with success. I don't doubt that Disney will have countless other hits, but Miley Cyrus, Mitchel Musso, Jason Earles, and Emily Osment have become icons in pop culture and changed the way we view children's television.    .                 

Outstanding Children's Program: A Disney Dream

I could talk about Glee and Lea Michelle, but in the interest of this Blog I'm going to focus on the "Outstanding Children's Program" category in which Disney just about swept, claiming nominations for "Hannah Montana," "Jonas," "Wizards of Waverly Place," and "Wizards of Waverly Place the Movie," next to Nickelodeon's "iCarly." I predict a win for iCarly, since Miranda Cosgrove seems to be a favorite among critics. A surprise win would be for Jonas, which only finished it's first season and began a second spin-off with Jonas L.A. Hannah Montana is a viable contender since it's airing its final season, but something tells me the Television Academy is teasing Michael Poryes something fierce. Wizards of Waverly Place won last year in this category and with the series and a feature film nominated in the same category, Todd J. Greenwald just might be on to something...