Disney Kids & Family is Breaking the Mold Again with "Coven Academy"
Disney’s latest series is taking an unusual route to its audience. Coven Academy will debut on Freeform before arriving on Disney+ and Hulu the following day, all while retaining the Disney branding. Having seen the show, I understand the choice. It aims for a slightly older audience than a typical Disney Channel series while still feeling at home under the Disney name. Its supernatural premise recalls So Weird and the more recent Goosebumps, while its continuing story brought to mind Andi Mack and JONAS LA. Its chapters are also shorter than conventional television episodes, bringing a different format to the Disney+ lineup. I’ll have more to say about the series in a full review, but one thing that already excites me is that Disney Kids and Family is willing to experiment with stories, formats, and ways of reaching viewers.
That willingness has deep roots at Disney Channel. When people look back on the channel in the 2000s, they often remember the run of sitcoms that began with Even Stevens and Lizzie McGuire. It is easy to forget how much experimentation preceded that success. Flash Forward, The Famous Jett Jackson, The Jersey, Totally Circus, and Bug Juice explored different genres and approaches to young audiences. Disney also experimented with how viewers found and experienced the channel, expanding its reach beyond its original premium cable model. Zoog Disney tried to connect television with the internet and gave familiar programming a new presentation that encouraged kids to tune in again.
Once Disney Channel found a reliable formula, it understandably returned to it. That’s So Raven, Hannah Montana, Phil of the Future, and Wizards of Waverly Place gave audiences relatable young characters whose lives came with a little something extraordinary. Many of those shows were successful, and many were a lot of fun. But Walt Disney’s warning against “following pigs with pigs” remains useful here. Repeating a hit can sustain a channel for a while, but finding the next hit requires making room for something different by evolving with your audience.
That became especially urgent as young audiences moved across streaming services, social platforms, and online video. Disney had to rethink not only what it made, but where people would find it. The result was Disney+. The early years of the service showed both the promise and the difficulty of that transition. Disney filled the service with everything from a major production like The Mandalorian to small projects such as Disney Family Sundays. Teams across the company produced a tremendous amount of programming, but that volume left some shows with little room to make an impact. Series such as The Crossover, Renegade Nell, and Just Beyond could come and go without becoming part of the wider conversation.
The challenge, then, is to keep trying new things while giving each project a clearer purpose and a better chance to connect. I’m glad Disney Kids and Family appears willing to do that. Coven Academy is one example, but the experimentation goes well beyond it. Locker Diaries brings familiar Disney stories to a vertical format. The Doomies and The Sunnyridge 3 show an interest in animation talent beyond the United States. Partnerships with online creators and established names such as Archie and The Pokémon Company open still more possibilities. Some of these efforts will work better than others, but each gives Disney another way to learn what today’s audience responds to.
Disney already knows how powerful that connection can be with preschoolers. Bluey has become a phenomenon, while Mickey Mouse Clubhouse+ and Spidey and His Amazing Friends introduce young viewers to characters they may love for years. The harder question comes as those viewers grow older and gain access to an almost limitless range of entertainment. A child who loves Disney Junior does not automatically become a Disney Channel viewer. Disney has to offer them something worth following into the next stage of their lives.
Doing so also means adapting to the way they watch. The shared Friday night viewing experience that helped define TGIF and Disney Channel Original Movies is harder to recreate when audiences watch on their own schedules. Even Disney’s biggest television premieres now often land on school nights so they can reach Disney+ the next day. Disney increasingly uses short videos, social media, and performers who can connect with fans beyond a single show. It has also developed young stars, including Malachi Barton, Freya Skye, and Hudson Stone, who give audiences a reason to follow what comes next. A series must now find its audience across many places, not simply persuade everyone to tune in at the same hour.
That is where Coven Academy fits into the larger picture. It brings familiar Disney Channel performers, including Barton, Swayam Bhatia, and Brandon Tremblay, into a series aimed at an audience a little older than their previous work. Tiffani Thiessen and Devon Sawa offer familiar faces for parents, too. The Freeform debut and Disney+ release give the show more than one way to reach its audience, while its cast and premise create an opportunity for parents and kids to enjoy it together. Shared experiences across generations define what Disney is about.
Walt Disney understood the possibilities of television early on. It could hold very different kinds of stories, as Disneyland, Zorro, and The Mickey Mouse Club demonstrated. It could also introduce an idea to an enormous audience, as his television programs did for Disneyland. Disney Kids and Family now faces a more fragmented audience, but the opportunity is much the same. The Mickey Mouse Club, The Disney Afternoon, and Hannah Montana each gave a generation its own way into Disney. Building that kind of connection again will take more than repeating a past success. It will take finding the stories young people want, in formats and places that make sense to them. Coven Academy makes me hopeful that Disney is taking that work seriously. The team at Disney Kids & Family is faced with a challenging task, but based on what I have seen, they are the team that is up for the challenge.