Do you think Disney Channel should've made "edgier" 9-14 shows?

TheMisterManGuy

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Disney Channel in the late 90s and early 2000s, helped to popularize the demographic of upper elementary and middle school kids, aged 9 to 14. Hitting its stride with its expansion of original programming in the late 90s, and its popular Zoog Disney Franchise, which helped make the network a little more relevant than just Mickey and the Gang, and more importantly, fended off the stigma that the network and the company who owns it were only for younger children. Something about the early Zoog era programming however was that Disney Channel was willing to get a bit edgier than it was used to for some of its programming, catering more to the older end of its core audience than the young end. Believe it or not, they used to air shows like Ready or Not, a Canadian show about two 6th graders learning about sex. In a Heartbeat, a teen drama about kids working in the medical field, based on real-life Teen volunteer EMTs. So Weird, a sci-fi series that was sort of a pre-cursor to Gravity Falls. Even network staples at the time like Lizzie McGuire and Even Stevens had more than a few episodes that pushed the boundaries of the TV-G rating.

This edgier content would mostly be phased out by 2002, as the channel shifted its demo to a slightly broader, 6-14 audience. While I don't think they should've been getting into raunchy territory, I feel like Disney Channel could've done a bit more with edgy TV-PG programming aimed mostly at its 12-14 year old viewers. With a target audience as broad and complex as 6-14, the older end of that audience is going to be craving some shows that 6 year olds really shouldn't be watching. Andi Mack is similar to some of the shows that Disney Channel used to air back in the early Zoog era, and something I wished they did more of over the years, rather than endless laugh-track filled Hanna Montana Clones. I understand Disney didn't want to damage its reputation of Family-Oriented content, but I think family-oriented channels also need to have some edge as well.
 
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Spacething7474

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In my opinion, they could’ve used Disney XD for more TV-PG content. They did have stuff like Naruto Shippuden, Dr. Who, and the D|XP programs, but they could’ve pushed it a bit more.
 

TheMisterManGuy

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In my opinion, they could’ve used Disney XD for more TV-PG content. They did have stuff like Naruto Shippuden, Dr. Who, and the D|XP programs, but they could’ve pushed it a bit more.

Disney Channel also aired My Babysitter's A Vampire, which carried a TV-PG rating for the entirety of its run on the network.
 

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