What's happening on 'Sesame Street'? Elmo, Big Bird and friends face uphill battle amid budget cuts and congressional spotlight
The beloved children's TV series is currently looking for a new home after its contract with Max expires.
Sesame Street is headed for a detour, but the path forward isn’t exactly clear.
The long-running children’s show, which first introduced young audiences to Big Bird, Bert and Ernie in 1969, is in the midst of its final season on Max after the HBO streamer from Warner Bros. Discovery opted out of renewing its contract in December 2024 to produce new episodes of the show.
That’s in addition to recent budget cuts and a spotlight on the series during a contentious congressional hearing on March 26.
Citing strategy concerns, Max said that children’s programming was no longer its focus. However, the streamer will continue to license the show from Sesame Workshop, (formerly Children’s Television Workshop), the nonprofit company behind the beloved educational series, through 2027.
“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 from Max said in a statement to Yahoo Entertainment. “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.”
The loss of the lucrative contract, reportedly worth $30 million to $35 million per year since 2015 — which allowed Sesame Workshop to increase its output to 35 episodes per year from 18 — was a devastating blow. It now leaves characters like Elmo and Cookie Monster looking for a new distribution home.
Public television broadcaster PBS, which has aired Sesame Street since its inception and featured new episodes from the Max partnership months after they first aired on the streamer, has been floated as a future distributor, according to the New York Times, alongside other heavyweights like Netflix, YouTube and Amazon Prime Video.
“We will continue to invest in our best-in-class programming and look forward to announcing our new distribution plans in the coming months,” a spokesman for Sesame Workshop told the Times in a statement in December.
PBS and Sesame Workshop did not immediately respond to Yahoo Entertainment’s request for comment.
Distribution isn’t the only obstacle the Sesame Street gang is facing.
Earlier this month, as a result of the Trump administration’s cuts to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Sesame Workshop lost access to crucial grants used for the production of the series, now in its 55th season. That was something the organization did not “anticipate abruptly losing,” according to the Times.
Sesame Workshop has made the decision to cut about 20% of its staff, roughly 100 people amid discussions among employees about forming a union, the Times reported. (Sesame Workshop told the Times that cuts were planned before the nonprofit was aware of organizing efforts.) Even with those cuts, the nonprofit had to draw $6 million from an investment fund for the first time to cover budgetary gaps.
On Wednesday, a hearing titled “Anti-American Airwaves: Holding the heads of NPR and PBS accountable,” from the House of Representatives’ Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE) subcommittee, singled out Sesame Street when discussing defunding PBS and public radio network NPR.
After remarks from Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, chair of the DOGE subcommittee who referred to PBS and NPR as “radical, left-wing echo chambers” that have negatively influenced viewers and children, Democratic subcommittee member Rep. Robert Garcia from California referenced the children’s show during a tongue-in-cheek inquiry of PBS president and CEO Paula A. Kerger.
“The American people want to know: Is Elmo now, or has he ever been, a member of the Communist Party of the United States? A yes or no,” Garcia asked Kerger, referring to the red Sesame Street muppet.
Kerger answered, with a chuckle, “No.”
The children’s series, which has helped kid viewers learn everything from letters to numbers to “executive function” skills like waiting your turn and controlling “big emotions,” is also competing with massively popular shows like CoComelon and Paw Patrol for attention.
While many parents are turning to “low-stimulation” shows like Sesame Street, which feature slower pacing and calming music, the children’s television landscape — including YouTube more broadly — is much more vast than when the series kicked off pre-internet.
With ratings for kids television taking a strong dip, as YouTube has seen gains, according to the Wrap, Sesame Street is facing an even steeper uphill climb.
For now, Sesame Street is reportedly examining its options while also preparing to launch production on its revamped 56th season in April, complete with formatting changes like more comedy and animation that seem to acknowledge that competitive landscape.
While plans for Sesame Street are apparently still under construction, Sesame Workshop president and CEO Sherrie Westin told the Times that she’s “confident that we will get through this.”
She added, “It’s critical because the world needs Sesame Street more than ever before.”