Sesame Street Is Moving To Netflix, With Backlog In Tow
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Summary
- Sesame Street is partnering with Netflix to stream new and old episodes, while still being available on PBS.
- The new format may include longer 11-minute character-driven stories and possibly animated segments.
- Netflix aims to enhance Sesame Street’s growth and its children’s content library, after HBO Max dropped the show.
Sesame Street is a staple of childhood at this point, where anyone under fifty likely grew up watching the educational children’s show. Jim Henson, of course, cut his teeth creating puppets for Sesame Street starting in the 70s, and the rest is history, with a long line of familiar characters, from Big Bird to Grover to Elmo, and let’s not forget the Swedish Chef. The show offers a beloved cast of characters who teach all manner of development skills, and the show will soon be airing on Netflix, with new and old episodes streaming on the service “later this year.” That’s right, Sesame Street is partnering with one of our favorite streaming services this year.
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HBO Max’s loss is Netflix’s gain
And PBS is still in the picture
Netflix has partnered with Sesame Street to air new episodes of the show alongside PBS and PBS Kids (via The Verge), ensuring that free PBS access to the show is still available across terrestrial TV and the internet, with Netflix getting in on the fun, expanding its content for children by showcasing new and old episodes alike. Details are still light, so there is no telling which older episodes will make their way to Netflix, though the official Sesame Street account on X (Twitter) refers to them as “library episodes.”
It would appear this deal will offer some format changes to the show, with a longer 11-minute short for character-driven stories per episode, some of which may be animated. While the longer stories could be a nice addition, the animated segments sound like a way to cut costs on the show’s puppets and puppeteers, so hopefully Netflix finds a way to include the older puppet-focused formats into the “reimagined” show without watering it down.
After all, HBO Max ditched the show at the tail end of last year, which makes you wonder how lucrative the Sesame Street brand is when HBO isn’t interested (let’s not forget HBO was the home of Fraggle Rock). Ideally, Netflix will prove to be a better home for Sesame Street than HBO Max did, so here’s hoping Netflix’s new vision for Sesame Street is one that helps the show grow while bolstering Netflix’s library of children’s content. A win-win, possibly.
