This thread is all about the worst biggest mistakes of Buena Vista Television/Disney Domestic Television in history. As you know Disney has always been associated with Buena Vista Television for a long time then changing it's name from Disney/ABC Domestic Television then simply now known as Disney Domestic Television and now I present to you the worst biggest mistakes of Buena Vista Television/Disney Domestic Television,
1. Getting the syndicated version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire cancelled when the show was getting to be great in ratings,
This was and still is a shocking upset to me as well as other Millionaire fans when it was announced last Friday that Who Wants To Be A Millionaire's syndicated version was cancelled. Despite getting good ratings and a solid fanbase even with Chris Harrison as a host Millionaire was successful in ratings but what I really think caused the death of Millionaire was that Disney Domestic Television made this season of Millionaire the most expensive season to make and even naming it $100,000 Million Dollar Season didn't help when the show hadn't scored any million dollar champions besides Kevin Smith and Nancy Christy from Meredith Veira's season
2. Not cancelling Live With Regis And Kathie Lee or Live With Regis And Kelly when Regis Philbin quit,
How Live With Kelly And Ryan has survived is beyond me and when Kathie Lee Gifford left the show and Kelly Ripa replaced her this show should've been cancelled in the first place and since Regis Philbin retired the show barely hangs on in ratings
3. Cancelling Divorce Court,
Like Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Divorce Court is also cancelled and Mom and I first saw it with Judge Mabelean and we liked it but why Buena Vista Television cancelled it is strange to me
4. Focusing on cartoons rather than sitcoms,
When Buena Vista Television teamed up with Michael Jacobs Productions to create Dinosaurs and The Torkelsons it was a perfect match made in heaven but I think when NBC decided to rename The Torkelsons Almost Home because Michael Jacobs thought that it was too southern-like it really hurt them terribly and I think Buena Vista rather would focus on cartoons than sitcoms
Bestie

LaBestia, I agree about Disney-ABC about canceling WWTBaM too soon in favor of Tamron Hall's new talk show which it debuts in September. Disney-ABC's Another Big Mistake that I can think of is not acquiring the reruns of Supermarket Sweep & Shop Till You Drop but realistically Supermarket Sweep is being currently owned by Fremantle.

I did not know about Divorce Court being cancelled but would consider that a good move. Divorce is too easy to get in this country and we shouldn't have shows glorifying it.

Another worst mistake that Buena Vista Television/Disney Domestic Television did was give former Today Show star Katie Couric her own talk show called Katie and while she was the queen of Today this show seemed to suit her well but like all talk shows with a big celebrity Buena Vista Television cancelled it after one season. I think Buena Vista Television/Disney Domestic Television has a huge curse with celebrity talk shows and if they could improve this problem then celebrity talk shows would be successful on TV. Another thing Buena Vista Television did that I think was wrong was get rid of their iconic Disney castle logo with the wonderful sparkle effects in the 90's and use a spacey type of logo that featured rockets launching to a Doctor Who like music cue and this new at the time logo didn't seem to fit in with the TV shows and sitcoms that Buena Vista Entertainment produced at the time and it didn't help that the same music cue was used when Buena Vista Television renamed itself Disney Domestic Television
Bestie

Hi, Bestie! I think Buena vista has bad management. They used to be geniuses at TV shows, but lately act as if they never did tv before.
DTK

"Divorce Court" hasn't been cancelled.

Live with Kelly has been very successful for Buena Vista/Disney.

It's all about ratings in the end of the day - so I disagree that this should be on this mistakes list.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/bwwtv/article/RATINGS-LIVE-WITH-KELLY-AND-RYAN-Ties-Its-Season-High-Among-Women-25-54-20190319

https://pagesix.com/2018/11/17/kelly-ripas-live-ratings-crush-michael-strahans-gma-day/

Personally, I'm not a big Kelly Ripa fan, and think the format/time slot on strong ABC owned stations is what makes the show successful more than her or even Seacrest, although she does contribute to its success. I actually enjoy it better when there is a guest co-host filling in for her.

To me the bigger mistake is that CBS prefers that Rachael Ray, one of it's distributed shows, is better off in between Live With Kelly, and The View on it's competitor, WABC, than moving it to the CBS owned station in the market, WCBS. This applies not only to New York, but New York is the most important market.

I think the CBS owned stations need a stronger morning lineup. CBS This Morning could be reduced to one hour. Local news for one hour between 8-9am, followed by Rachael Ray directly competing against Live With Kelly and the 3rd hour of Today. Rachael's ratings might be lower with that move, but the CBS stations would do better at 9am.

If Rachael had moved to WCBS, Tamron Hall's show would probably be launched at 10am on WABC, rather than it running in the daytime. I think daytime will be harder for Tamron than if she had 10am. If I understand, she will be competing against Kelly Clarkson, which is going to compete against the same demographics. Kelly will also appeal to black and young audiences but I guess it remains to be seen.

To me the bigger mistake is that CBS prefers that Rachael Ray, one of it's distributed shows, is better off in between Live With Kelly, and The View on it's competitor, WABC, than moving it to the CBS owned station in the market, WCBS. This applies not only to New York, but New York is the most important market.

I think the CBS owned stations need a stronger morning lineup. CBS This Morning could be reduced to one hour. Local news for one hour between 8-9am, followed by Rachael Ray directly competing against Live With Kelly and the 3rd hour of Today. Rachael's ratings might be lower with that move, but the CBS stations would do better at 9am.
CBS owning syndicated shows does not mean they will all air on CBS stations. Your ABC affiliate must have won the rights and paid for them in your market, and national CBS gets the money from them. Rachael Ray aired for awhile at 9AM on my CBS affiliate, but they moved it to 3PM when Crime Watch Daily got cancelled last year. Entertainment Tonight is owned by CBS but has always aired on my ABC affiliate. It's not like daytime game shows Let's Make a Deal and The Price is Right that air exclusively on CBS across the country and aren't offered to other affiliates. Shows offered for broadcast syndication get shown on the local affiliate that makes the best deal for them and have those shows under contract for their market.

CBS owning syndicated shows does not mean they will all air on CBS stations. Your ABC affiliate must have won the rights and paid for them in your market, and national CBS gets the money from them. Rachael Ray aired for awhile at 9AM on my CBS affiliate, but they moved it to 3PM when Crime Watch Daily got cancelled last year. Entertainment Tonight is owned by CBS but has always aired on my ABC affiliate. It's not like daytime game shows Let's Make a Deal and The Price is Right that air exclusively on CBS across the country and aren't offered to other affiliates. Shows offered for broadcast syndication get shown on the local affiliate that makes the best deal for them and have those shows under contract for their market.

I'm referring clearances of shows on the O&Os not affiliates across the country.

Here is a link if you don't know what is an O&O station:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owned-and-operated_station

ABC gives it's O&Os the first right of refusal for Buena Vista syndicated shows, and NBC does the same for its shows for the O&Os.

WCBS airing Hot Bench at 9am and 9:30am isn't good follow up for the latest retooling of CBS This Morning. CBS offers Rachael Ray to WABC, and yes, they make money from WABC paying for it, but WCBS suffers without a strong 9am program.

Shows offered for broadcast syndication get shown on the local affiliate that makes the best deal for them and have those shows under contract for their market.

And, IIRC, WPVI 6ABC in Philly was where Wink Martindale's TTD and Jack Barry's TJW were shown in that market, for one.