Jeff Goldblum‘s Disney+ show is essentially no more. As part of Disney’s mass purge of Disney+ and Hulu platform content, The World According to Jeff Goldblum will officially leave the streamer on May 26. The National Geographic documentary series was one of the original Disney+ launch titles, with a total of two seasons and 22 episodes.
The Disney+ synopsis of The World According to Jeff Goldblum, described the show as: “Through the prism of Jeff Goldblum’s always inquisitive and highly entertaining mind, nothing is as it seems in this new series. Each episode is centered around something we all love — like sneakers or ice cream — as Jeff pulls the thread on these deceptively familiar objects and unravels a wonderful world of astonishing connections, fascinating science and history, amazing people, and a whole lot of surprising big ideas and insights.” There was no word on a potential third season since last year’s episodes arrived on Disney+.
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During a Deadline Contenders Television panel in 2022, Goldblum discussed a potential third season of the show. Its second season received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Hosted Non-Fiction Series or Special. “I hope there’s a Season 3 or some kind of continuation of what we’re already doing,” he told the outlet. “Music is of robust interest to me. As a matter of fact, it occurs to me now, but before I left to do this [new project], I was in the studio again with my band, The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, and we recorded some things that gave me a big thrill. Maybe if we’re basing more material in this series on stuff that thrills me and makes me curious and about which I can learn, and I’m eager to learn more, that could be something some aspect of it.”
The initial list of 30 shows that will soon disappear from Hulu and Disney+ emerged on May 18, including the Willow TV show, Y: The Last Man, The Mysterious Benedict Society, and many more. During its quarterly earnings call earlier this month, Disney hinted that this would happen soon.
“We will be removing certain content from our streaming platforms and currently expect to take an impairment charge of approximately $1.5 to $1.8 billion,” Disney chief financial officer Christine McCarthy told investors, reports Vulture. Also, the studio plans to “produce lower volumes of content” for streaming services. Disney CEO Bob Iger said a “one-app experience” will be created by the end of 2023 with more Hulu content on Disney+.
The Disney Company is not the first media company to pull content from streaming services in an effort to save money. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav brought significant changes to HBO Max last year by beginning to pull less successful shows for tax purposes. Despite fears that the shows would be permanently lost, Zaslav found a way to profit from them. They were licensed to platforms such as The Roku Channel and Tubi, so viewers could watch them for free with commercials. Does that mean The World According to Jeff Goldblum could land somewhere else? Possibly, though, Iger has reservations about licensing programs to third parties. Disney all but stopped licensing programs to third parties when Disney+ launched, keeping only existing deals in place. However, the CEO appeared to change his mind. In February, Bloomberg reported that Disney was again considering licensing out shows and movies to rivals in order to boost revenue.
