After hearing rumors that the beloved cartoon show featuring America's favorite toy doctor may not come back, parents now have reason to rejoice. It’s official, Disney Junior’s Doc McStuffins will be back to help her patients for another season.
Disney Junior announced on Wednesday that the show has been renewed for season five, which will start airing in 2018. This summer, it was unclear whether the show, whose main character is an African American girl who aspires to be a real doctor, would be renewed. It's important to note that Doc McStuffins' mother on the show is also a doctor. A family of Black doctors? Awesome!
The renewal of the show is likely to due to fans who took to social media pushing for a fifth season, even though the series at the time was in the middle of its fourth cycle. Comedian and CNN’s “United Shades of America” host, Kamau Bell, helped intensify speculation about the fate of the program when he took to Twitter and asked similar questions, sparking a grateful reaction from Chris Nee, the program’s creator.
The character’s clinic, in which she helps fix broken toys like barbie dolls and stuffed animals to toy trucks and bubble makers will remain open. “‘Doc McStuffins’ is an unmistakable example of our commitment to powerful storytelling that enriches and enlightens kids. I can think of no other children’s television show in recent history that has touched as many lives and made the kind of impact around the world that Doc has,” said Nancy Kanter, executive vice president and general manager, Disney Junior Worldwide, in a prepared statement. “Our viewers have forged a deep connection with this series and are very vocal about how strongly they believe in these characters.”
Doc McStuffins won a Peabody Award in 2015 and NAACP Image Awards in 2015 and 2016 in the “Outstanding Children’s Program” category. The series averages 16 million views on the Disney Junior app, VOD and Hulu, and reaches 150 million viewers worldwide each quarter, and in the past year was ordered over 20 million times via set-top-box VOD.
Upon hearing the news, fans took to social media to show their appreciation.
Mary B. on Instagram comments, "I love this show and the fact that it encourages working together with health. My daughter says she wants to be a doctor now based upon watching the show and I'm here for it all!"