Queen Special Removed From Disney+ and Hulu

A fan-favorite TV special about Queen just left Disney+ and Hulu. The Queen Family Singalong premiered in 2021 and has been available to rewatch on both of Disney's streaming services recently, enlivening many family gatherings with karaoke-style fun. Sadly, the special was a part of Disney's massive content purge at the end of last month.

The Queen Family Singalong premiered on Nov. 4, 2021 on ABC. it was hosted by Darren Criss and was a spinoff of The Disney Family Singalong, a series of specials that aired in 2020. This one was comprised entirely of songs by the iconic British rock band Queen, performed mostly by celebrity guests including Adam Lambert, who now performs alongside the members of Queen in real life. Other performers include JoJo Siwa, Jimmie Allen, Pentatonix, the members of Fall Out Boy, the members of One Republic and Miss Piggy of the Muppets, among others.

The special was a relative success for ABC in 2021, though it was the lowest-rated of all the Family Singalong specials and the last one to air. Still, as often happens in the age of streaming, this special found its audience belatedly as people turned it on for singalongs at home. Many will be sad to see this house party staple disappear.

Disney has taken a lot of flak for its massive content purge in May. The company took what is essentially a $1.5 billion tax writeoff to remove over 50 movies and TV shows from Disney+ and Hulu for the purpose of inflating their licensing value. There's no guarantee that Disney will choose to make these titles available to stream again in the future, and in the meantime, many are not available in other formats at all.

Disney's SEC filing hinted that more content purging may be coming later this year, and they're not the only company using this method. Many commenters online are comparing it to similar purges by Warner Bros. and HBO Max last year, when they infamously dropped a nearly completed Batgirl film rather than release it at all. Many people – including creators and critics – seem to be concerned about what this could all mean for the future of the entertainment industry.

Right now, The Queen Family Singalong does not appear to be available in any other formats after leaving Disney+ and Hulu, but many clips are available on the ABC YouTube channel. The company has not hinted at which titles are likely to leave later this year.