Sesame Street Avoids Cancellation, Is Headed to Netflix

By Elijah Gonzalez  |  May 19, 2025 | 11:20am
Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Discovery
TV News Sesame Street
Sesame Street Avoids Cancellation, Is Headed to Netflix
Introducing Endless Mode: A New Games & Anime Site from Paste
Listen to this article

A few months after Warner Bros. Discovery cut Sesame Street loose, Netflix has partnered with Sesame Workshop to help produce a 56th season. In an attempt to make the show as accessible as it was previously, the deal will bring new episodes of this children’s educational program to Netflix, PBS stations, and the PBS KIDS digital platform simultaneously: during the Warner Bros. deal, episodes came to the public access channel PBS months after they were aired on HBO. In addition to the new season coming to Netflix, 90 hours of previous episodes will also be available on the streamer.

Sesame Workshop released the following statement in response to the announcement:

This unique public-private partnership will enable us to bring our research-based curriculum to young children around the world with Netflix’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.

Additionally, Netflix also announced several format changes to the upcoming season in a press release, most significantly that “episodes will now center on one 11-minute story, allowing for even more character-driven humor and heart.” Considering the show was originally 60 minutes long, before switching to a 30-minute format back in 2009, it seems that these runtimes have been pared down further.

On top of coming to a different platform, the series also has a new head writer, Halcyon Person, who has won awards from the Emmys, Humanitas, and the NAACP. She was previously the head writer and co-executive producer of Netflix’s children’s programs Karma’s World and Dee & Friends in Oz.

Created in 1969, Sesame Street is one of the longest-running TV shows in the world, with 4,731 episodes and counting. It was created by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett, along with Muppets designed by Jim Henson. Since its debut, it has won over 200 Emmy Awards and has reached tens of millions of American children. Considering its popularity, it will be interesting to see how Netflix handles the influential program going forward.

 
Join the discussion...