Sesame Street is definitely one of the most influential kids shows of all time. Running for over 55 years and thousands of episodes is proof of this. However, Sesame Workshop has had trouble in keeping the show on the air for various reasons. Today, December 13, 2024, it was announced that Sesame Workshop and Max (formerly known as HBO Max) would no longer host episodes on the streaming service. Here’s what you need to know.
Before we get into this, we need to go back to 2015. When PBS opted to no longer premiere Sesame Street first on PBS Kids, it was decided that, from season 46 onwards, new episodes and specials would come out first on HBO, and then later come out on PBS Kids. A few years later, with the launch of HBO Max, the deal was slightly altered to have episodes, specials, and other projects premiere there first, though it would still air on PBS Kids later down the line. This deal would last for 5 years.
In 2022, when Warner Brothers and Discovery merged into Warner Brothers Discovery, many projects were taken off HBO Max, which included hundreds of episodes of Sesame Street, as well as fellow Sesame Workshop shows The Not Too Late Show With Elmo and Esme And Roy. Things have been pretty up and down for Sesame Street over the years. Notably, the show will forgo its tradition magazine style storytelling and focus more on episodes with 2 11 minute segments and an in-between segment. While season 55 will still premiere on Max pretty soon, and the show will be kept on there until 2027, its fate on future seasons is still undetermined. While there is still new material coming for the next couple years, the accessibility of previous seasons is still in doubt.
However, streaming services like Netflix and Apple TV Plus have expressed interest in picking up the show. As for why this is happening, here’s a quote from the Hollywood Reporter by a Max spokesperson: “It has been a wonderful, creative experience working with everyone at Sesame Street on the iconic children’s series and we are thrilled to be able to keep some of the library series on Max in the U.S.,” a spokesperson for Max tells The Hollywood Reporter. “As we’ve launched Max though and based on consumer usage and feedback, we’ve had to prioritize our focus on stories for adults and families, and so new episodes from Sesame Street, at this time, are not as core to our strategy.”
And that’s what we know about all this. What do you think about the news? Comment below.
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