Da, da, goo, goo...
More expansion of the Disney brand...
Anne Sweeney, president of the Disney/ABC Television Group announced today that SOAPnet would be replaced with "Disney Junior, a 24 hour cable network designed to appeal to preschool kids in 2012.
The new Disney channel will feature 200 new episodes annually of new television series, the likes of which will be "Jake and the Never Land Pirates;" currently running shows like Mickey "Mouse Clubhouse," "Handy Manny," "Special Agent Oso," "Imagination Movers" and "Jungle Junction," as well as Disney live-action and animated features, including "101 Dalmatians," "Aladdin" and "The Little Mermaid. The "Disney Junior" brand will first be rolled out on Disney Channel's daily programming block for preschoolers, where it will take the place of the Playhouse Disney brand.
I'm not sorry to see SOAPnet go because I've never been a big soap watcher, then again, I've never been a big Playhouse Disney watcher either. This type of programming is meant to appeal to those little crumb crunchers that haven't yet made it to kindergarten. But hey, this line-up looks better to me than the current Disney Channel line-up, but not as good as Disney XD's current and upcoming collection of shows. In fact, that channel is the one I'd be watching. It's going to look quite a bit different by the time the Avengers film comes out.
Junior joining the family could certainly help Iger and Co. get those little tykes while they're young...
