History AdoredByTheNetwork / Disney

* Ever since January of 2019, it's common to see ''WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheLorax'' on Freeform's movie schedule.

* Ever since the ABC buyout of The Family Channel (known as Fox Family when it happened), you can't watch the channel each Christmas without seeing ''Eloise at Christmastime'', Film/{{Elf}} or the live-action version of ''Film/HowTheGrinchStoleChristmas''.
** The former is also adored by Disney Channel along with ''Film/TheSantaClause'' series and ''WesternAnimation/ThePolarExpress''.

** After losing the rights to several Warner Bros owned movies and specials to AMC in 2018, Freeform acquired the rights to air ''WesternAnimation/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer'' and ''WesternAnimation/FrostyTheSnowman'' alongside their annual Creator/{{CBS}} broadcasts. They now show it at least twice per season as part of their annual Christmas programming. ''WesternAnimation/TheGrinch2018'' also became this when the acquisition of Creator/FXNetworks gave them the rights to broadcast the recent releases in the Creator/{{Universal}} catalog.

* On the weekend before Christmas, Freeform will air an all-day ''Franchise/ToyStory'' marathon, including the first three movies and the two television specials. This has been going on ever since at least 2007, when they aired the first two movies three times in a row on said weekend. It helps that airings of the first three Toy Story movies are often the most-watched airings on the 25 Days of Christmas block that aren't Christmas-related.

** Before they became [[Creator/FamilyChannel Family Chrgd]], the Canadian version of Disney XD would play seven and a half hours of the show a day. Disney XD Canada came back eventually on a new directory, but their adoration of ''Phineas and Ferb'' is long gone.

** Up until they were acquired by HBO in 2014, ABC Family played the first two ''Film/HomeAlone'' movies quite often.

* The channel has a habit of airing certain Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon films every other weekend. In particular ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'', and ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}'' frequently get shown (often in a row).

** Ever since "A Tale of Two Stans", ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' has gotten marathons ''EVERY SINGLE DAY'' there is a new episode. Every time they kept getting longer, and the one for "Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future" showed every single episode starting ''the midnight before.'' These marathons even managed to push back episodes of ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'' because of the show airing in an [[ScrewedByTheNetwork early weekday slot.]]

* In Brazil, Disney XD loves ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents''. The local {{Creator/Nickelodeon}} shows it twice Monday-Friday; XD, however, shows it 4 times every day!

** Speaking of Creator/RoaldDahl, they love showing ''Film/{{Matilda}}'' every few weeks. It's gotten to the point where airings of the film will pre-empt other scheduled programming on the network.

* Around 2005, ABC Family had a stretch wherein they played ''[[Film/{{MrsDoubtfire}} Mrs. Doubtfire]]'' at least once per month. Their love for the film returned in 2020, where it played almost every few weeks. Beginning in 2021, the film would be used to pre-empt other scheduled programs on the network, and it even showed up during that year's ''31 Nights of Halloween'' event, [[NetworkDecay despite having nothing to do with the holiday in question.]]

** Speaking of Creator/RoaldDahl, they also liked showing ''Film/{{Matilda}}'' every few weeks.

* Around 2005, ABC Family had a stretch wherein they played ''[[Film/{{MrsDoubtfire}} Mrs. Doubtfire]]'' at least once per month.

* On the weekend before Christmas, Freeform will air an all-day ''Franchise/ToyStory'' marathon, including the first three movies and the two television specials. This has been going on ever since at least 2007, when they aired the first two movies three times in a row on said weekend. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools It helps that airings of the Toy Story trilogy are often the most-watched airings]] on the 25 Days of Christmas block that aren't Christmas-related.

* On the weekend before Christmas, Freeform will air an all-day ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'' marathon, including the first three movies and the two television specials. This has been going on ever since at least 2007, when they aired the first two movies three times in a row on said weekend. [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools It helps that airings of the Toy Story trilogy are often the most-watched airings]] on the 25 Days of Christmas block that aren't Christmas-related.

* From 2012 to 2014, the channel would take any chance it could to show ''Series/{{JESSIE}}'' when their other shows or Disney Junior programming wasn't airing, showing up to eight times a day. The spin-off ''Series/{{Bunkd}}'' also got similar treatment. This treatment have been taken UpToEleven in recent years where it has become the most played show of the channel, despite ending in 2015 (Cartoon Network have a similar problem with ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball''). During spring 2019, it was on almost every hour from 3pm-10pm. By the end of year, its sudden overplaying was justified as one of its stars Cameron Boyce passed away from epilepsy on July 6. As of this writing, it is still the most played show on the channel, despite the fact that the Ross kids are long gone from ''Bunk’d'' (although Emma returned to one episode in the season 5 premiere). Speaking of which, ''Bunk’d'' became the first Disney Channel sitcom to get 5 seasons.
* Disney has also been pulling into its sister network, Creator/DisneyXD, for content that usually airs in the deader slots of each day. For newer episodes of these shows, Disney has taken to airing them in prime time, usually either as preludes to Friday or Sunday night, Disney's usual nights of the week to air new episodes, or on Saturday nights, which is reserved to reruns.

* ''Film/PitchPerfect'' is becoming a favorite of Freeform's... except they've yet to air the other two sequels.

** It didn't last. When it was revealed that the show only got 300,000-500,000 viewers ''per episode'' (500k is roughly less than ''half'' of what an average episode gets in its native Japan), struggling against Disney's own first-party originals on the network as a whole, and ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'' and ''Anime/BeybladeBurst'' on their Anime Block in particular, they decided to focus on those shows; and in 2019, the network dropped ''Yo-kai Watch'' entirely for about a year. It doesn't help that the first two games combined weren't able to beat the combined sales of ''{{VideoGame/Call Of Duty Black Ops III}}'', ''{{VideoGame/Final Fantasy XV}}'', and ''{{VideoGame/Pokemon Sun and Moon}}''. In 2020, the show returned Disney XD, but only on their weekend anime block and with [[InvisibleAdvertising little to no promotion]]. In August 2020, ''Yo-kai Watch'' was dropped from the network's schedule once again.

** From June 10 to June 14, 2019, the show had a [[https://twitter.com/DisneySchedules/status/1137830274337845250 huge marathon]], with '''243''' airings, only stopping for ''Anime/BeybladeBurst'' and ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}''.
* Disney XD loved their anime during the mid-to-late 2010s. Look at ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'' and ''{{Franchise/Beyblade}}'' on their app and website around that time and you'll find more episodes of one of these shows than all their original shows combined. There were also quite a few reruns through the week on the main channel. However, as of 2021, Disney XD's linear network has removed all anime from its schedule; but still streams it through its DisneyNOW service.

* Australian acquired series ''WesternAnimation/{{Bluey}}'' wasn't expected to do much for the network, but ended up dethroning ''WesternAnimation/PJMasks'' as the network's most successful acquired show. It has a few slots everyday, is the first Non-Canadian acquisituon to air on both the block and the channel in years, has been treated better than [[WesternAnimation/TheRocketeer an in-house program that premiered around the same time]], and is included in the network's promotions alongside [[WesternAnimation/{{TOTS}} the newest]] [[WesternAnimation/MiraRoyalDetective originals]]. The show's popularity in the states has also lead to it getting slots on the main channel outside the (shrinking) Disney Junior block.

* [[Creator/OneSaturdayMorningAndABCKids ABC's Saturday morning block]] in its later years also suffered from the Adored Episodes problem mentioned in the Disney Channel section. By the time it was replaced by E/I programming in September 2011, the block was running on autopilot (not unlike Nick GAS), running only the same 10-12 episodes of ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewSchool'', ''WesternAnimation/TheReplacements'', ''Series/ThatsSoRaven'' (about 22 episodes in this case - two episodes back to back, and always in the same order), ''Series/HannahMontana'' and ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody''.

** Other favorites under the Fox Family name included ''Music/SClub7'', ''WesternAnimation/AngelaAnaconda'', ''WesternAnimation/DonkeyKongCountry'' (as mentioned above), and any Britt Allcroft creation - namely, ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'' and ''WesternAnimation/MagicAdventuresOfMumfie''. The latter program was so adored that at one point in time, its run on Fox's short-lived [=GirlzChannel=] competed with Fox Family's ''Storytime with Thomas'', which played one Mumfie story per episode.

* ''Series/ThatsSoRaven'' is notable for not only being one of the [[Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody few]] pre-2006 Disney shows to appear on [[Creator/OneSaturdayMorningAndABCKids ABC Kids]] all the way to its shutdown, but especially for being the first Disney Channel series to break the network's 65-episode limit, ultimately topping out at 100 episodes.

* Australian acquired series ''WesternAnimation/{{Bluey}}'' wasn't expected to do much for the network, but ended up dethroning ''WesternAnimation/PJMasks'' as the network's most successful acquired show. It has a few slots everyday, is the first Non-Canadian acquisituon to air on both the block and the channel in years, has been treated better than [[WesternAnimation/TheRocketeer an in-house program that premiered around the same time]], and is included in the network's promotions alongside [[WesternAnimation/{{TOTS}} the newest]] [[WesternAnimation/MiraRoyalDetective originals]]. The show's popularity in the states has also lead to it getting slots on the main channel outside Junior hours

* Australian acquired series ''WesternAnimation/{{Bluey}}'' wasn't expected to do much for the network, but ended up dethroning ''WesternAnimation/PJMahours. as the network's most successful acquired show. It has a few slots everyday, is the first Non-Canadian acquisituon to air on both the block and the channel in years, has been treated better than [[WesternAnimation/TheRocketeer an in-house program that premiered around the same time]], and is included in the network's promotions alongside [[WesternAnimation/{{TOTS}} the newest]] [[WesternAnimation/MiraRoyalDetective originals]]. The show's popularity in the states has also lead to it getting slots on the main channel outside Junior hours

* The reboot of ''[[WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017 [=DuckTales=]]]'' seems to be headed in this direction. It got multiple promos on every show aired on the channel (and sometimes, promos would air on Disney Channel), was heavily promoted online and at Disney Stores, and had a 24-hour marathon of the PilotMovie the day it premiered.

* Disney XD loved their anime during the mid-to-late 2010s. Look at ''{{Anime/Pokemon}}'' and ''{{Franchise/Beyblade}}'' on their app and website around that time and you'll find more episodes of one of these shows than all their original shows combined. There are also quite a few reruns through the week on the main channel.
** ''Beyblade''is given every episode of Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4, and 8! And as of 2021, ''Beyblade'' is now the only anime left on Disney XD's linear schedule.

* An odd case specifically is ''Suite Life on Deck.'' It's been banished to the most dead of hours on Disney Channel proper (though on all fairness airs daily, arguably a case of "Adored in the Dead Hours") but for a time, it made up a ''huge'' chunk of overall Disney [=XD=] programming. As for its parent show, ''The Suite Life of Zack and Cody'', it can pretty much only be seen through direct purchase nowadays.

* Australian acquired series ''WesternAnimation/{{Bluey}}'' wasn't expected to do much for the network, but ended up being the highest-rated acquired show since ''WesternAnimation/PJMasks''. It has a few slots everyday, is the first Non-Canadian acquired show to air on both the block and the channel in years, has been treated better than [[WesternAnimation/TheRocketeer an in-house program that premiered around the same time]], and is included in the network's promotions alongside [[WesternAnimation/{{TOTS}} the newest]] [[WesternAnimation/MiraRoyalDetective originals]].

* Australian acquired series ''WesternAnimation/{{Bluey}}'' wasn't expected to do much for the network, but ended up being the highest-rated acquired show since ''WesternAnimation/PJMasks''. It has a few slots everyday, has been treated better than [[WesternAnimation/TheRocketeer an in-house program that premiered around the same time]], and is included in the network's promotions alongside [[WesternAnimation/{{TOTS}} the newest]] [[WesternAnimation/MiraRoyalDetective originals]].

* Speaking of Disney Channel India, ''Doraemon'' is not the only show they've hyped up. One of their original series, ''Animation/SimpleSamosa'', got contests on Facebook and Instagram around the time it was to premiere. The show dominated the channel's schedule for a lot of the week it originally started airing, and it's been slapped on numerous timeslots on Disney Channel (and later Disney Junior) since then.

* Speaking of Disney Channel India, ''Doraemon'' is not the only show they've hyped up. One of their original series, ''Animation/SimpleSamosa'', got contests on Facebook and Instagram around the time it was to premiere. A whopping ''20 episodes'' were aired back-to-back when the show did premiere on May 14th, 2018, and the show dominated the channel's schedule for a lot of that week.

* From 2012 to 2014, the channel would take any chance it could to show ''Series/{{JESSIE}}'' when their other shows or Disney Junior programming wasn't airing, showing up to eight times a day. The spin-off ''Series/{{Bunkd}}'' also got similar treatment. This treatment have been Taken Up to Eleven in recent years where it has become the most played show of the channel, despite ending in 2015 (Cartoon Network have a similar problem with The Amazing World of Gumball). During spring 2019, it was on almost every hour from 3pm-10pm. By the end of year, its sudden overplaying was justified as one of its stars Cameron Boyce passed away from epilepsy on July 6. As of this writing, it is still the most played show on the channel, despite the fact that the Ross kids are long gone from BUNK’d (although Emma returned to one episode in the season 5 premiere). Speaking of which, BUNK’d became the first Disney Channel sitcom to get 5 seasons.

* Disney Channel started playing ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' on April 2019. At first, it never played that much and was occasionally off the lineup. But by summer 2020, it started being played more than the other non-preschool cartoons that wasn’t Big City Greens, despite being a story driven show (as well as an acquisition from France). Nowadays, it’s usually the first show to air after preschool programming. Also, due to its success, the special New York United Heroez has played every other week. This treatment is definitely the opposite of Nickelodeon, which only played the show 27 times from 2015-2016 and was screwed over due to erratic scheduling.

* The U.S. version of ''Series/WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire'' is perhaps the TropeCodifier and poster boy of this. The show was a massive hit for Creator/{{ABC}} in a time when the network was struggling. They quickly capitalized on the popularity of the show, giving it multiple airings per week against the wishes of producers (the original British version was always treated as a special event, airing sporadically throughout the year; at one point ABC went as far as airing it ''four'' days a week) in order to keep the ratings up. They were so confident, they decided to counterprogram a new show premiere by Creator/{{CBS}} to crush it on arrival. It seemed like a sure victory, because ABC passed on this show ''twice''. That show? ''Series/{{Survivor}}''. Due to combination of insane overexposure Millionaire had already experienced and success of the new show, Millionaire was completely demolished in the [[UsefulNotes/{{Ratings}} 18-34 demo]], and had to be scaled back. Worse than that, ABC had barely developed any new shows for that season (2001-02, the one that was delayed by 9/11, to boot), relying on Millionaire to carry the torch, and now it couldn't even stand its ground against ''Series/{{CSI}}'' (believe it or not, ABC passed on that too), and was eventually cancelled, sending the network that adored it to freefall. On the bright side, Millionaire still enjoyed success in the syndication format until it ended for good in 2019.

* ''WesternAnimation/MiraRoyalDetective'', ''WesternAnimation/{{TOTS}}'', anything related to ''WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse'', ''WesternAnimation/PuppyDogPals'', and to a lesser extent ''WesternAnimation/{{Bluey}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/PJMasks''. They constantly air on Disney Channel, get insane amounts of promotion, and are the only shows Disney Junior seems to care about these days. By 2021, only 4 shows are playing on the Disney Junior block on the main channel (including one show that already ended back in 2018), while the rest now air exclusively on the Junior channel. It should be worth noting that Disney Junior channel now gets higher ratings than Disney Channel itself.