What in the World Is Going On With ‘Sesame Street’?

No matter what your favorite shows are now, there’s a good chance, no matter if you’re a child or in your sixties, that your first favorite show was Sesame Street. As a child of the ’80s who grew up on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Reading Rainbow, and Captain Kangaroo, Sesame Street was always what I loved the most. There was something so magical about what Jim Henson originally helped to create. I was in awe of the puppet characters, and I got to learn so much, from how to count to how to treat others, in every episode.

After airing exclusively on PBS for decades, HBO bought the rights to Sesame Street in 2015. Now you can find new and older episodes on Max, but just last month came the shocking news that HBO was letting the iconic show go. For the first time in its near 56-year history, Sesame Street doesn’t know where its home will be. So what happens now?

HBO Purchased ‘Sesame Street’ a Decade Ago

Sesame Street was created in 1969 by Joan Ganz Cooney, Lloyd Morrisett, and the one and only Jim Henson, who had also created the Muppets earlier in the decade. Soon enough, the likes of puppet characters such as Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, Oscar the Grouch, Cookie Monster, Grover, and later Elmo, became household names. Through short films, musical numbers, comedy, and celebrity appearances, Sesame Street was the show millions of children grew up with and first learned from.

Sesame Street aired on PBS for decades, but as the TV landscape changed, with cable and later the internet becoming more prevalent, Sesame Street wasn’t quite as influential as it had been. This led to the massive news in August 2015 that it had been purchased by HBO. Without knowing anything about it, this sounded like a strange and horrible idea, but there were things to like in the details. The deal meant HBO would have Sesame Street‘s license for five years, and while it would now air new episodes behind a paywall on HBO, they would be available for free on PBS nine months later. The best news was that HBO wanted twice as many episodes, meaning that a season of Sesame Street would have 35 episodes. However, that came with some bad news too, as Sesame Street would now be a half-hour-long series instead of an hour. HBO’s relationship with Sesame Street lasted past those five years, with a new five-year deal in 2019 moving the show to the HBO Max streaming service, but then it went south.

Warner Bros. Discovery Is Saying Goodbye to ‘Sesame Street’

On December 13, 2024, The Hollywood Reporter had the exclusive news that HBO and Max had decided not to renew their deal to air new Sesame Street episodes. This is heartbreaking news for the series, and for TV in general, but Sesame Street isn’t dead. Max’s license for episodes continues through 2027, and this month you can still see new episodes from Season 55 on Max. So just why would WBD make such a decision? According to a spokesperson for Max:

“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. 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.”

It’s frustrating that HBO thinks you can’t prioritize both adult and children’s content (kids’ shows are big business), and the fact that they don’t think Sesame Street is for families is concerning, but the news shouldn’t have come as a surprise, because just two years ago they removed hundreds of episodes from Max to save money. As disappointing as this news is, it doesn’t mean that it’s the end for Sesame Street. Although The Hollywood Reporter didn’t know if a new partner for the series would be able to get Max’s library, it is expected that major streamers like Netflix, Prime Video, and Apple TV+ will all want it.

A New COO Has Been Named To Lead the Sesame Workshop

No matter what happens next, Sesame Street is in a time of great change. This is seen in the on-screen product as well. The Hollywood Reporter wrote, “Sesame Street will get a new look, dropping the “magazine”-style format it has had for years, and leaning into longer narrative-led segments, paired with a new animated series Tales From 123.” Kay Wilson Stalling, who is the Sesame Workshop‘s executive vice president and chief creative development and production officer, told The Hollywood Reporter that this would allow them to reimagine Sesame Street and create stories that were “dynamic” and “sophisticated.”

Just this week there was more big news from the world of Sesame Street with the announcement of a new Sesame Workshop COO. Sesame Workshop is a non-profit which produces the series, and now Joseph Giraldi will be its chief operating officer. He has a history in digital media and was a co-founder of the consulting firm CJBK Media Group. It will be up to him and new CEO Sherrie Westin to secure a new deal for Sesame Street. Hopefully, Giraldi is the man for the job due to his years of experience in growing digital media business with the likes of Imax, Time Inc., and IBM. He also has TV experience with a dozen years working in marketing and digital media, along with being an executive VP for Paramount, the Smithsonian Channel, and even HBO. On top of that, he also works for NYU’s Stern School of Business as an adjunct professor in their Entertainment, Media, and Technology Program.

In a statement, Giraldi spoke about the need for the Sesame Workshop to keep up with today’s media, writing:

“Five decades ago, it used the cutting-edge medium of the time, television, to transform the way children learned and prepared for success in school and life. Today, the Workshop continues its legacy of innovation at a critical time when its mission has never been more needed. I look forward to working with the team to help carry on this incredible legacy.”

With his vast experience, Joseph Giraldi is certainly qualified to lead Sesame Street into the future. There needs to be that future, no matter what streaming service it ends up on, because Sesame Street is for all kids, from now-adults who got to experience it in 1969 to toddlers staring at their TV in awe in 2025.

Sesame Street is currently available to watch on Max.

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