Nostalgia is in full force at Disney. Following the successful launch of the Scrubs revival on ABC and Hulu, the revival of another popular single-camera comedy of the 2000s, Malcolm In the Middle, got off to a strong start, logging 8.1M views globally in the first three days to become the #1 season premiere across Disney’s streaming platforms Disney+ and Hulu so far this year.
Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair, which is available on Hulu in the U.S. and Disney+ internationally, also recorded the second biggest season premiere on Disney+ in LATAM ever (behind Loki S1) with 3.6M views after 3 days in the region.
The April 10 debut of the four-episode revival also drove interest in the original series, which saw viewing rise by 18M hours in the last week, a 107% increase vs. the previous week. Disney reports 1M+ engagements, 17M views, and nearly 19M impressions generated by social and YouTube content for the past two weeks.
Watch on Deadline
The show’s marketing tie-ins included star Frankie Muniz, a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series racer, driving a Malcolm in the Middle custom-wrapped Ford F-150 during a race on the Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday. He didn’t finish after his track was damaged in a crash.
In the revival, titled after the original series’ theme song, after shielding himself and his daughter from his family for over a decade, Malcolm (Muniz) is dragged back into their orbit when Hal (Bryan Cranston) and Lois (Jane Kaczmarek) demand his presence at their 40th anniversary party.
The cast of Life Is Still Unfair also includes Christopher Kennedy Masterson and Justin Berfield, returning as Malcolm’s brothers Francis and Reese, respectively, and Emy Coligado as Francis’ wife Piama. It also introduces Caleb Ellsworth-Clark, succeeding Erik Per Sullivan as Malcolm’s brother Dewey, as well as Anthony Timpano and Vaughan Murrae as the youngest siblings Jamie and Kelly — seen as a baby/toddler (Jamie) or not at all (Kelly) on the original series — as well as Keeley Karsten as Malcolm’s daughter Leah and Kiana Madeira as his girlfriend Tristan.
From Disney Branded Television, the limited series is produced by 20th Television, a part of Disney Television Studios, and New Regency. The original series’ creator Linwood Boomer wrote the revival, which he executive produced with Cranston, Tracy Katsky of KatCo, Gail Berman and New Regency’s Arnon Milchan, Yariv Milchan and Natalie Lehmann. Ken Kwapis directed all four episodes and also executive produced. Jimmy Simons and Laura Delahaye co-executive produced.

Leave a Reply