Say what you might about the Disney Channel, but it’s excellent at renewing its popular properties. As its stars grow up and want to move on to other material, it often manages to spin new shows out of the ones coming to an end. It also usually gets a movie or two, sometimes even for the big screen, out of its shows.
Many times the Disney Channel creates spin-offs of its already existing shows. Even if it doesn’t manage that, it will take a popular secondary character and base a new program around that actor or actress.
Popular program “The Suite Life of Zach and Cody” is a perfect example of both of the Disney Channel’s tactics. After the show exhausted its creative potential, the Disney Channel found fresh stories in its spin-off, “The Suite Life on Deck.” Many of the same characters, including the leads Zach and Cody, migrated to the new show.
Now, before we know whether or not the “The Suite Life on Deck” will continue for a fourth season, Disney’s already prepping another series for a member of the show’s supporting cast. The LA Times reports that Debby Ryan, who plays the on-again off-again love interest of lead Cole Sprouse’s character Cody Martin, is set to helm an unrelated series called “Jessie.”
“Jessie” will chronicle the adventures of its titular character, a rural Texan who moves to New York City to work as an au pair for four wealthy children. The series is meant to fill a gap in female-led sitcoms on the network, after the departure of Miley Cyrus’ Hannah Montana and Demi Lovato’s Sonny (though the third season of the latter’s show, “Sonny with a Chance,” will resume filming without its lead for the moment). Disney Channel execs mean to pair “Jessie” with the already popular “Good Luck Charlie.”
It’s not clear whether or not Ryan will continue her role as Bailey Pickett on “The Suite Life on Deck.” Perhaps she could; if she’s just given reduced recurring part on the older series, then she might be able to maintain the character at least for a short time while carrying her new show. However, that’s the sort of overwork that may have led fellow Disney Channel star Lovato to need to check into rehab for exhaustion, so fans of Pickett shouldn’t get their hopes up.
But they shouldn’t entirely despair either. Even if Ryan isn’t set to return to her first Disney Channel series gig, her “Suite Life on Deck” character is still set to appear in the upcoming Disney Channel original movie “The Suite Life Movie” airing tonight at 8 pm EST.
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