By Herb Scribner, Laura Meckler — Sesame Street,” facing a financial crisis, has solved one of its biggest problems: It now has new home.
Netflix announced Monday that the program will premiere its 56th season on the global streaming giant, along with 90 hours of previous episodes. The new season will be released in three batches, though Netflix did not reveal a premiere date. “Sesame Street” will also continue to air on PBS stations, its original home, and for the first time in a decade, new episodes will air free on public television without a months-long delay.
The announcement comes after a year-plus search for a new streaming partner after Max informed Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization that produces the show, that it was ending a 10-year partnership that had been critical to Sesame’s finances. That set off a period of financial turmoil as Sesame worked to replace that revenue. In March, Sesame announced staff layoffs as it struggled to complete a streaming deal and faced cuts in federal funding under the Trump administration.
It was not clear how much Netflix is paying for the rights, but experts expect the new deal to bring in far less revenue – but potentially more viewers – than Sesame received under the partnership with HBO and then Max, the streaming service now known as HBO Max. Netflix has more than 300 million subscribers and other children’s programming, which may draw more families with young viewers to the service.
In recent years, the audience for the iconic children’s show has shrunk as competition grew, The Washington Post reported last year. Still, while today’s children’s entertainment landscape is far more fragmented than it was when “Sesame” premiered in 1969, the show has maintained a special place in American culture, beloved by adults going back generations.
A decade ago, Sesame Workshop faced a financial crisis that it solved with the HBO deal. Under that agreement, episodes debuted on the streaming service and were aired on public television nine months later. With the Netflix terms, new episodes will be available on both platforms at the same time, a spokeswoman said. During the HBO years, PBS did not pay to air the show; now PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting will be contributing, a Sesame official said, but she declined to say how much.
Supporters are hoping that the new agreement will expand the show’s reach while putting Sesame Workshop on a financially sustainable path.
The new deal comes with some adjustments to plans for the show. “Sesame Street” had planned to move to a new format driven by two 11-minute narrative stories, along with a new five-minute animated feature called “Tales from 123” – a shift aimed at capturing the attention of older preschoolers who creators believed wanted deeper storytelling. That plan has shifted; now the episodes will be anchored by one 11-minute story, followed by “Tales from 123,” and then will feature some past favorite segments, including “Elmo’s World,” which is aimed at younger children.
“The support of Netflix, PBS, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting serve as a unique public-private partnership to enable Sesame Street to continue to help children everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder,” according to a statement posted on the show’s X account.
Sherrie Rollins Westin, the president and CEO of Sesame Workshop, said in a statement on social media that the partnership will expand the show’s global reach “while ensuring children in communities across the U.S. continue to have free access on public television to the Sesame Street they love.”
“I strongly believe that our educational programming for children is one of the most important aspects of our service to the American people, and ‘Sesame Street’ has been an integral part of that critical work for more than half a century,” Paula Kerger, president and CEO of PBS, said in a statement. “We’re proud to continue our partnership in the pursuit of having a profound impact on the lives of children for years to come.”
