Demi Tweets, Disney Pulls Episodes
After a series of tweets from Demi Lovato (@ddlovato) on Twitter earlier today, Disney Channel has now pulled two episodes off their schedule. One is the Shake It Up episode “Party It Up” and the other is supposedly an episode of So Random!. Both episodes are being pulled due to claims they contain jokes about eating disorders.
On Friday at 8:03PM EST, Demi tweeted “”I could just eat you up, well if I ate” – Disney Chanel’s Shake It Up…. What are we promoting here? #notfunnyATALL”. She then followed up two minutes later with “I find it really funny how a company can lose one of their actress’ from the pressures of an EATING DISORDER and yet still make joke about..” and “…that very disease….. #nice.”.
Following those three tweets, she retweeted user @GabbyTremblayNT’s tweet “@ddlovato & they said something about that on So Random. it pisses me off when they joke about it”.
Lovato continued at 8:11PM saying “And is it just me or are the actress’ getting THINNER AND THINNER…. I miss the days of RAVEN, and LIZZIE MCGUIRE.”
Another retweet followed from @ashblack16 saying “@ddlovato and society wonders why there are 7 yr old with eating disorders…yet disney is making jokes about it”.
Lastly at 8:13PM she tweeted “Dear Disney Channel, EATING DISORDERS ARE NOT SOMETHING TO JOKE ABOUT.”
From there fans continued to tweet about the issue, causing terms like “Disney Channel,” “Shake It Up,” “SIU” and others to trend on Twitter’s Trending Topics list.
Disney Channel quickly picked up on the issue, using their official (verified) account @DisneyChannelPR tweeting Lovato at 10:32PM saying “@ddlovato – we hear you & are pulling both episodes as quickly as possible & reevaluating them (1 of 2 messages)” and “@ddlovato – It’s NEVER our intention to make light of eating disorders! (2 of 2 messages)”.
Lovato last tweeted at 12:40AM EST on Saturday morning saying “@DisneyChannelPR thank you.”.
With this, it looks like those two episodes will now be pulled from Disney Channel’s schedule. The Shake It Up episode “Party It Up” did air Friday at 2pm ET/PT. Maybe that’s when some fans noticed it and tweeted her, or possibly she saw it for herself?
The So Random! episode in question is “Episode 109” with musical guest Colbie Caillat.
So Random! is the third season of Sonny With A Chance, where Demi Lovato starred before entering a treatment facility for bulimia and self-injury in late 2010.