Credit: DisneyThe Walt Disney Company has made some unfortunate decisions in the last few months.
Faced with some massive losses from several branches of its company– including Pixar, ESPN, Walt Disney Animation, Disney+ streaming, and others– The Walt Disney Company has been forced to make some sad cuts and much more. Disney has laid off more than 7,000 workers, with its latest round of layoffs coming to ESPN reportedly as a surprise, and this hasn’t just been limited to its workforce.
As the rounds of layoffs affected workers around the globe, Disney CEO Bob Iger shared that there would “no doubt be challenges ahead” as the company continues to move forward.
“We have made the difficult decision to reduce our overall workforce by approximately 7,000 jobs as part of a strategic realignment of the company, including important cost-saving measures necessary for creating a more effective, coordinated and streamlined approach to our business,” Iger wrote. “For our employees who aren’t impacted, I want to acknowledge that there will no doubt be challenges ahead as we continue building the structures and functions that will enable us to be successful moving forward.”
In the midst of losing streamers on Disney+ and Hulu, the company made the ultimate decision to part ways with a bulk amount of content. Disney cut two prominent Marvel shows from its streaming library, and the company has gone on to remove more than 50 shows, series, and movies from the platform, as well. Of course, many fans fear that more could be on the way out in the future. One of Disney+’s longest-running shows, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, also received unfortunate news this week that Season 4 would be its last.
All that being said, the content purge has not been isolated to just streaming. Just this week, Disney announced that two cable shows— which can also be streamed– would be coming to an end. Single Drunk Female, which had two seasons on Freeform, and The Watchful Eye, which lasted just one season on Freeform, have both been canceled.
In a post thanking fans, Sofia Black-D’Elia shared a heartfelt message following the news that the show had been canceled.
“I’m so sad the SDF journey has been cut short,” she said. “I’ve loved making this show. I’m grateful to everyone who was a part of it. To anyone who watched: thank you. To anyone who stopped me on the street to tell me how much time they had or how annoying their mom was: I love you.”
The company has not released an official statement detailing the reasoning behind the cancellation of the shows.
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