‘Ms. Marvel’ Season 1 Headed to ABC in August; Is This a Sign of Things to Come with Actors, Writers on Strike?
The ABC programming lineup is about to get more Marvel-ous. The hit Disney+ original series “Ms. Marvel” will air its first season in full on ABC starting in August. The first three episodes of the series will be shown on Saturday, Aug. 5 from 8 to 11 p.m. ET, while the final three will air a week later on Aug. 12 in the same time window.
Disney has used its broadcast channels to promote its streaming shows in the past, but it has never made a full season available on linear TV before. Debut episodes of “Andor,” “The Santa Clauses” and most recently “American Born Chinese” have been shown on Disney-owned cable channels like FX, Freeform, and Disney Channel so the company could bring more attention to them.
A great student, avid gamer, and voracious fan-fic scribe, Kamala Khan has a special affinity for superheroes, particularly Captain Marvel. However, she struggles to fit in at home and at school — that is until she gets superpowers like the heroes she’s always looked up to. Life is easier with superpowers, right?
There are several reasons Disney might choose to show “Ms. Marvel” on ABC in its entirety. It’s one of the best-reviewed Marvel series out there, grabbing a 98% score from critics and an 80% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s also a great promotional tool to raise awareness about other Marvel streaming series, and the new film “The Marvels,” which is currently due to hit theaters Nov. 10.
Under normal circumstances, that might be all the explanation needed to justify “Ms. Marvel” being shown on ABC. But these are not normal circumstances; the Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists are both on strike, the first time since 1960 that both unions have agreed to a work stoppage simultaneously. Members of both guilds are concerned about the encroachment of artificial intelligence into Hollywood and are demanding strong protections from producers and studios, in addition to higher residuals in the age of streaming.
Disney may continue to put series that were streaming exclusives onto its linear channels as the strike continues. Other media outlets that own TV channels as well as streaming platforms like Comcast, Paramount Global, and Warner Bros. Discovery could do likewise. Paramount has already done a trial run of just such a maneuver; earlier this summer, the company aired its Paramount+ original “Yellowstone” prequel series “1883” on the Paramount Network for the first time.
Many episodes of streaming-exclusive shows will have to be edited for time and content if they make their way to standard broadcast channels. “Ms. Marvel” won’t have that problem, as the show is already pretty family-friendly, and other Marvel series will only need a bit of cleanup to be ready for ABC if Disney sees good ratings for this first experiment. Viewers can expect more streaming platforms to start shifting series to linear channels if the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes are as prolonged as expected.
Disney+
Disney+ is a video streaming service with over 13,000 series and films from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, The Muppets, and more. It is available in 61 countries and 21 languages. It is notable for its popular original series like “The Mandalorian,” “Ms. Marvel,” “Loki,” “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” and “Andor.”