We May Be Witnessing the End of TV's Teen Star Pipeline

There was once a time when television shows about tween adolescence and coming-of-age experiences starring similarly aged actors were ruled by a handful of networks. At its creative peak in the early 2000s, Disney Channel was perhaps the most prominent network to cater to that coveted demographic, along with other teen destinations like The WB and later, The CW. But the era of cultivating teen shows — and the young stars who became household names through them — appears to be well in the past.

During the early aughts, Disney Channel boasted relatable, generation-defining programs about and for an overlooked audience that often mirrored the hopes, worries, and dreams teens agonized over in their childhood bedrooms. So, it was no surprise that at the height of its popularity, the youth-friendly cable network was dominated by cultural touchstones such as Hannah Montana, That’s So Raven, Lizzie McGuire, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, Even Stevens, Wizards of Waverly Place, and Sonny With a Chance, as well as iconic original movies High School Musical and Camp Rock, to name but a few.

By extension, Disney Channel became a vital incubator for countless bright-eyed young talents — many of whom also pulled double duty as recording artists — and introduced impressionable viewers to then-fresh faces Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, Hilary Duff, Zac Efron, Zendaya, the Jonas Brothers, and Demi Lovato, all of whom have had wildly successful careers since their respective Disney eras. Those franchises — and the stars that led them — shaped childhoods, inspired loyal followings, and, in many ways, redefined teen stardom.

And maybe nostalgia is what Disney is banking on by revisiting its golden days, greenlighting a Wizards of Waverly sequel pilot, Wizards. Announced in January, the potential series reunites Gomez and her co-star, David Henrie, as supernatural siblings Alex and Justin Russo, respectively, with a new cast of supporting characters to bring the Wizards of Waverly Place franchise to the present.

That’s not to say it was solely the Disney Channel factory churning out a “who’s who” of teen talent. Other networks — some defunct and others still operating — invested significant resources in young adult stories and were, for the most part, handsomely rewarded for their efforts. After all, teenagers were “bellwethers,” the New York Times wrote in 1996 on the eve of the teen TV explosion.

There was The WB, which operated from 1995 to 2006, and cornered the teen market with its culturally resonant and zeitgeisty programming that made household names out of its leading actors. It’s near impossible now to imagine recreating a lineup as appealing to the teenage set as Dawson’s Creek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Gilmore Girls once were. It also helped that many of the characters the actors portrayed often reflected — on an episodic basis — real-life hardships, angst-filled romantic entanglements, and family dilemmas facing modern teens. It wasn’t much of a reach for teenage audiences to find common ground with the actors who brought beloved characters like Joey Potter (Katie Holmes) or Pacey Witter (Joshua Jackson) to life.

There was ABC Family, which later rebranded to Freeform in 2016, where teen-specific problems were embraced on screen through flagship shows like found family drama The Fosters; the college-set series Greek; The Secret Life of the American Teenager, which established Shailene Woodley as a TV name; and Pretty Little Liars, which transformed its main foursome — Lucy Hale, Ashley Benson, Shay Mitchell, and Troian Bellisario — into bonafide superstars among their peers.

The CW, which replaced The WB and UPN in 2006, filled the void left by the former with teen phenomena of a different ilk — the shinier, flashier, and broodier kind: The Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl, 90210, One Tree Hill, and more recently, Riverdale. And, as a result, it catapulted hot, young stars like Nina Dobrev, Blake Lively, and Leighton Meester to a new level of fame.

But a lot has changed since the heyday of Disney Channel — and, on a broader level, the teen TV boom that created so many young icons. Back then, it would have been the norm to witness Disney-bred stars command the small screen in a three-part sitcom crossover, for example. (Disney’s first crossover event, 2006’s That’s So Suite Life of Hannah Montana, set the bar with Cyrus, Raven-Symone, Dylan Sprouse, and Cole Sprouse weaving in and out of the same fictional universe.) Or, regularly see those classic WB promos touting its breakout stars Sarah Michelle Gellar, Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams, Joshua Jackson, and James Van Der Beek sprinkled throughout in primetime — a representation of “a very specific moment in time.”

As teens began favoring Instagram, TikTok, and digital media, there was a gradual shift away from traditional teen programming as a reflection of their changing viewing habits and consumption habits. A 2022 study found nine out of 10 young adults preferred streaming services and social media over linear TV, fracturing the teen television landscape even more and loosening the grip it once had. Another study observed that teens were watching 49% less traditional TV than they did five years ago.

It’s no wonder the teen TV havens that once ruled the roost have largely been dismantled, the formulas that once influenced their brand identities abandoned in acknowledgement of the current fragmented era of YA offerings. If there is a silver lining in all this, it’s that Netflix seems to be the closest to bridging that gap from past to present — perhaps it’s the new breeding ground for viral teen titles and kick-starting the careers of buzz-worthy young stars that Disney Channel and The CW once were. There’s evidence that the streamer could hold the key: Global hit Stranger Things, by and large still a teen show, propelled Millie Bobby Brown into a different stratosphere; similarly, Never Have I Ever’s Maitreyi Ramakrishnan was plucked out of obscurity via a general casting call; and Outer Banks made names out of Chase Stokes and Madelyn Cline for the Gen Z set.

Other streamers such as Hulu, Max, Peacock, and Prime Video have also been tapping into the teen game, but to a much smaller degree. Hulu once had the Michael Cimino-led Love, Victor, a spin-off of the 2018 movie Love, Simon, and the toxic relationship drama Tell Me Lies with Jackson White and Grace VanPatten its current teen currency. Prime Video’s latest teen franchise, The Summer I Turned Pretty, has a fervent following — helped by the established world of Jenny Han’s novels — and in turn, transferring attention to stars Lola Tung, Christopher Briney, and Gavin Casalegno. Peacock axed its notable YA titles, Vampire Academy and One of Us Is Lying, while Max relaunched beloved properties — Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, PLL: Summer School, and Gossip Girl 2.0 — to mixed results, the latter of which failed to move the pop culture needle as much as the original series did.

With conventional TV networks deprioritizing teen fare, there’s a growing void with regards to a clear pipeline for YA TV and talent. Is the new purveyor of teen shows now resting solely on streaming? One thing’s certain: Gone are the days when teen destinations of yore, such as Disney Channel and The WB, were the gatekeepers of adolescent glory.

Philiana Ng is a Los Angeles-based writer covering TV, celebrity, culture and more. Her work has appeared in The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Entertainment Tonight, TV Guide, Yahoo Entertainment, and The Daily Beast, among others.