{"id":261043,"date":"2025-11-04T02:51:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T02:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/261043\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T02:51:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T02:51:11","slug":"what-went-wrong-with-doctor-who-on-disney-why-its-ended-after-just-2-seasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/261043\/","title":{"rendered":"What Went Wrong With Doctor Who on Disney+ & Why It\u2019s Ended After Just 2 Seasons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Disney+ cancelled Doctor Who<\/a> after just two seasons of their partnership, and there are several reasons that this deal went wrong. It seemed like a massive deal for Disney, as Doctor Who is one of the most beloved, longest-running sci-fi television shows in history. However, things went south when the budget remained high, Disney began to lose interest in original streaming shows, and the ratings began to drop. People are pointing to different reasons that the ratings dropped, causing Disney to lose interest in the show. However, the actual reason Doctor Who was canceled is multifaceted, and it is time for the BBC to figure out its next course of action. <\/p>\n

From Disney\u2019s lack of promotion to the Doctor Who \u201cwoke\u201d storylines that have been there for its entire existence to Ncuti Gatwa\u2019s inability to promote the show, here are the reasons Doctor Who ended after just two seasons on Disney+.<\/p>\n

Disney Wasn\u2019t Getting a Return Investment on Doctor Who<\/p>\n

\"NcutiImage Courtesy of BBC Studios<\/p>\n

The most significant problems with Doctor Who and its run on Disney+<\/a> were the cost per episode and plummeting ratings. Disney+ was investing heavily in its streaming series, with shows from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Star Wars costing a lot but bringing in many new subscribers. On the other hand, Doctor Who was still a BBC show streaming on Disney+, which made its cost prohibitive. According to reports, Disney was paying around $8.5 million an episode. At the same time, the viewership average dropped from 5.2 million in Jodie Whittaker\u2019s season to 3.8 million in Ncuti Gatwa\u2019s season.<\/p>\n

There is another two-fold problem. One Doctor Who industry insider said that people began to tune out<\/a> because of \u201cwoke\u201d storylines. This is compounded by the fact that star Ncuti Gatwa reportedly refused to go out and work hard as an ambassador for the franchise, which caused many fans to tune out of his stint as the Doctor. According to the insider, \u201cThere is more to that role than performing. You have got to be an ambassador for the brand and embrace being that generation\u2019s Doctor.\u201d The insider said that Matt Smith and David Tennant embraced that responsibility. For his part, Gatwa explained that he was \u201cgetting old and my body was tired\u201d as to why he wasn\u2019t doing more to promote the show.<\/p>\n

As for the \u201cwoke\u201d storylines, that is a controversial claim shared by some fans of another sci-fi franchise, Star Trek<\/a>. Doctor Who has always, since its inception, prided itself on showcasing people of all races, genders, and sexual orientations finding a place to fit in. Just like Star Trek, this is nothing new. It\u2019s part of both shows\u2019 DNA from the start. The most recent season had a historic gay kiss between Gatwa and Jonathan Groff, cast transgender actress Yasmin Finney, and had\u00a0drag queen Jinkx Monsoon as a villain.\u00a0The only thing that has changed is the fans, which might show why bringing Doctor Who to the United States and Disney+ might have been the perfect show at the wrong time in history. <\/p>\n

The BBC Needs to Figure Out What Is Next for Doctor Who<\/p>\n

\"DavidImage Courtesy of BBC<\/p>\n

With Doctor Who leaving Disney+, the BBC will have to figure out what is next for the beloved British sci-fi franchise. On top of the controversial moments that American viewers hyperfocused on, such as the Doctor\u2019s same sex kiss, the writing quality also diminished in the latest season. There was supposed to be a lot of buzz surrounding the 60th anniversary, but Doctor Who couldn\u2019t sustain that momentum. The most recent season was a mixed bag, which hasn\u2019t helped the series attract any new fans or even retain some older ones who have been dropping off.<\/p>\n

Now that Ncuti Gatwa is gone from the series as the Doctor<\/a>, it is time for the BBC to figure out the correct path forward. The sci-fi series has always seen gaps in production, and the good news is that there isn\u2019t another episode coming until Christmas Day 2026, which will tie up several loose ends, including Billie Piper\u2019s regeneration as the 15th Doctor.\u00a0However, the biggest thing Doctor Who has to figure out is whether Russell T. Davies will remain as showrunner in the future. The show might be better served by bringing in more writers to help Davies tell his stories, but something has to change if Doctor Who wants to live on for its seventh decade on television.<\/p>\n

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Disney+ cancelled Doctor Who after just two seasons of their partnership, and there are several reasons that this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,437,153467,134,115239,427],"class_list":["post-261043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-disney","tag-doctor-who-tv-show","tag-entertainment","tag-regular-feature","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}