Is this a hoax?
That was the reaction of many Disney employees on the evening of November 20, as the startling news spread that Bob Iger would be returning to Disney as CEO, ending the stormy tenure of his successor, Bob Chapek. The news was so unexpected that many Mouse House employees at first were immediately skeptical that the press release in their inbox was really the company’s brass.
The sure sign that no one — probably ever a spinster — had any idea the Disney board was ready to take such a dramatic step was the fact that the senior brass mouse was set to step out on and about that night at two very public events in Los Angeles. : Elton John’s farewell party at Dodger Stadium, which was broadcast as a live Disney+ broadcast, and the American Music Awards, which were broadcast live on ABC from the Microsoft Theater downtown.
As the company’s true scale of change settled in, the response was shock…then awe. The first shoe dropped Monday was the exit of Karim Daniel, the president of Disney Media and Entertainment, who has been elevated to senior status under Chapek.
Brian Grazer, president of Imagine Entertainment and a longtime friend of Iger’s, expressed the feeling around town of surprise and delight that Iger was once again preparing for Team Disney.
“He’s pretty good at this job,” Grazer said. diverse. “I’m excited about him. He’s got a lot of experience with the company, and he always has a central vision in his mind for Disney.”
For Disney+, the simulcast of “Elton John Live: Farewell From Dodger Stadium” was a defining moment for the streamer as it prepares to branch out into more live programming. Chapek and Daniel were scheduled to attend a VIP event before the show with John.
For the AMA, the plan was to have top executives, including Disney’s General Entertainment Content President Dana Walden, Hulu/ABC Entertainment President Craig Erich, and Marketing Director Shannon Ryan, hit the AMAs before heading to Dodger Stadium.
In hindsight, the first indication that something was amiss came during midday at Dodger Stadium, as the Disney Branded Television team took the lead in supporting “Elton John Live” for Disney+. At the time, Disney executives learned that Chapek, who was planning to attend the show, had suddenly dropped out. Not much of a surprise at the moment.
At 6 p.m., the doors opened to a separate Disney TV-branded reception for press, talent, and some executives at the Stolly Club at Dodger Stadium.
But the real Disney hitters were headed to John’s hospitality tent, where a slew of CEOs were expected to take part in the historic finale of John’s “Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road” tour.
Inside the Disney Branded TV event, phones started buzzing with the news around 6:45 p.m. At first, the executives present asked loudly, “Could this be it? Or is this a computer hack?”
That was also the mood inside the most exclusive hospitality tent, as CEO after exec arrived at Dodger Stadium. This included Daniel, who attended the event but was seen leaving soon after. A few miles south in downtown Los Angeles, Walden was seen heading to Dodger Stadium minutes before the AMAs kicked off. The fact that Disney TV and streaming executives were there together, on a Sunday night, while this corporate shakeup was being revealed made it seem surreal. And yes, Walden and many of the execs who were there (except Daniel) stayed and watched John put on a great show.
The next day, the Monday morning quarterback was intense. Iger’s return was met with unbridled celebration within the company, and reports emerged that Disney’s board seized the opportunity to bring him back because they realized Iger was about to make some long-term business move that included talks with RedBird Capital Partners to run his own sports and media investment fund.
Instead, he returned to Burbank’s Rotunda, where he took over as CEO from 2005 to February 2020.
“All the [Disney] “The executives are happy,” says an industry insider. “I’m not an anti-Chapek man, but he seems to be deaf.”
Chapek came to the job without deep connections within the creative community, and he hasn’t won many people in his tenure at the top. One of his key early moves was to dramatically separate content from distribution, which alienated creative and talented executives who realized they were losing control of their projects to executives on the distribution side.
As the shock factor wears off, Disney insiders point to several issues Iger will have to grapple with amid the slowing macro environment. For example, the company’s content spending to build direct-to-consumer platforms spooked Wall Street. Disney sources said Chapek’s goose was likely cooked on Nov. 9, when shares dipped below the $90 threshold in the wake of a less confident performance during Disney’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call. (On November 21, when East Coast markets woke up to the Iger news, Disney shares were up 6%.)
In fairness, Tangle inherited the Disney+/ESPN+/Hulu empire-building strategy from Iger. Disney’s new boss will definitely need some Magic Kingdom dust to simultaneously deliver subscriber growth and contain costs in the coming quarters.
Iger also faces a big diplomatic task in Florida, where Disney’s mishandling of the “Don’t Say Jay” controversy has alienated the state’s Republican leadership and cost his credibility entanglement with his liberal staff in the blue state. “Many felt Chapek was not keeping in mind employee values,” despite his 30-year tenure as a Disney employee, according to an LGBTQ person who was deeply involved in employee strikes earlier this year.
In April, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill to eliminate Disney’s special tax district in June 2023, leaving the area in limbo. A Tallahassee insider notes: Bringing Iger back into the picture “may help.”
Matt Donnelly and Elizabeth Wagmeister contributed to this report.
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