‘We Always Want To Be Relevant’: SESAME STREET Reveals Upcoming Changes
By Movieguide® Contributor
SESAME STREET is planning some big changes for its upcoming 56th season.
“With any change you have evolutions, and then you have things that are slightly bigger steps, while still staying core to who we are,” Steve Youngwood, the CEO of Sesame Workshop, told The Hollywood Reporter. “We felt like this was a moment to step back and think bigger about how we evolve it.”
The biggest change is to the episodes’ format. Instead of the familiar “magazine”-style structure, the episodes will be split into two larger sections, with a new, animated section in between.
“It’s going to give us an opportunity to dive further into the narrative,” Kay Wilson Stallings, the executive VP and chief creative development and production officer for Sesame Workshop, explained.
Stallings added that the “reimagining” of SESAME STREET’s format will mean the show can offer more “dynamic” and “sophisticated” stories.
Other changes include the addition of a song in every episode as well as moments when the Muppet characters directly address the camera and the children watching at home.
This planned revamp of the classic children’s show coincides with the end of SESAME STREET’s deal with Warner Bros. Discovery and Max.
“The fact that it aligns with where we go after the current Warner deal is over, it just happens to be where the timing is,” Youngwood said. “We always want to be relevant to the audience. We always want to give the audience some reasons to watch the new [episodes], while they can still watch the library.”
NBC LA reported that SESAME STREET’s current deal with Max “ends after season 55, which is set to begin about a year from now. Sesame Workshop has not indicated whether it will renew the deal or go elsewhere.”
Movieguide® previously reported on SESAME STREET and Max’s content:
Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming service HBO Max recently announced that it would remove 36 titles from the platform.
According to an HBO spokesperson, the change in the HBO Max catalog is in preparation for the platform’s eventual merge with Warner Bros. Discovery’s other streaming service, Discovery+.
“As we work toward bringing our content catalogs together under one platform, we will be making changes to the content offering available on both HBO Max and discovery+,” HBO Max wrote in a statement. “That will include the removal of some content from both platforms.”
The recent announcement saw the most considerable number of titles removed, including 20 original HBO Max shows like the Sesame Street spinoff, THE NOT-TOO-LATE SHOW WITH ELMO, and “a select group of ‘Sesame Street’ specials.”
