''Encore! '' is an American

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

series hosted and executive produced by

Kristen Bell Kristen Anne Bell (born July 18, 1980) is an American actress, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. List of Kristen Bell performances, Her work includes both film and television, and List of awards and nominations received by Kristen Bell, h ...

and

Will Gluck Will Gluck (born November 7, 1978) is an American filmmaker, songwriter, and composer. He is known for writing and directing films such as ''Easy A'' (2010), ''Friends with Benefits (film), Friends with Benefits'' (2011), the ''Peter Rabbit'' f ...

. Based on a pilot special aired on

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on December 10, 2017, the series premiered on

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

on November 12, 2019. The series was removed from Disney+ on May 26, 2023, rendering it

lost media Lost media is any piece of media thought to no longer exist in any format, or for which no copies can be located. The term primarily encompasses visual, audio, or audiovisual media such as films, television, radio broadcasts, music, and video ...

by legal means.

Premise

''Encore!'' reunites the cast members of high school musicals to recreate their performance years after they originally performed.

Production

Development

A television special, also titled ''Encore!'' and hosted by Bell, aired on ABC on December 10, 2017. It reunited the cast of a 1997 South Hills High School production of ''

Into the Woods ''Into the Woods'' is a 1986 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine. The musical intertwines the plots of several Brothers Grimm fairy tales, exploring the consequences of the characters' wishes and quests. T ...

'' to recreate their original performance. In April 2019, Disney+ ordered a series based on the special, to be hosted and executive produced by Kristen Bell. When asked during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

about the future of the series, creator Jason Cohen said, "Obviously, things right now are a little bit funky, with the coronavirus, and things have been thrown into flux a bit. But we are hoping we can do more."

Episodes

Special (2017)

Season 1 (2019–20)

Release

''Encore!'' debuted on November 12, 2019, on the

streaming service Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...

in 4K HDR. Episodes were released weekly rather than all at once. The series was removed from Disney+ on May 26, 2023, rendering it

by legal means.

Marketing

A first trailer of the show was released on August 23, 2019, at the

Panel at

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2019.

Reception

Critical reception

The

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website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

reported a 70% approval rating for the first season with an average rating of 6.50/10, based on 20 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "While it often feels more like a dress rehearsal, ''Encore!'' has just enough charm to keep theater lovers in their seats–though everyone else may duck out at intermission".

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 63 out of 100 based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Lorraine Ali of ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' praised the concept of ''Encore!'' and called it original, found the series humorous across the goofs and the dialogues of the performers, and claimed that the stories and emotions provided by the cast members manage to add depth to the show. Joyce Slaton of ''

Common Sense Media Common Sense Media (CSM) is an American nonprofit organization that reviews and provides ratings for media and technology with the goal of providing information on their suitability for children.

'' rated the series 4 out of 5 stars, praised the depiction of positives messages, such as perseverance and teamwork, while complimenting the presence of role models, citing their honesty and emotional take with their stories. Gretchen Smail of ''

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

'' gave a 6 out of 10 rating, stated that the series provides a feeling of nostalgia through the performers reconnecting with their past, but found that the format of the show does not allow the cast members to come with a story sufficiently developed about themselves.

Accolades

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Encore! 2010s American documentary television series 2019 American television series debuts American English-language television shows National Geographic (American TV channel) original programming Disney+ original programming Television series by Disney