Legendary children’s program faces a future full of uncertainty. If some think that the end is already too late, there are those who see Poupas and company as “more essential than ever” and appeal with all your strength for salvation.
A Sesame Streetwhere millions of people “played” in their childhood for more than half a century, is “facing obstacles on a commercial and creative level” and about to lose its broadcast home.
Now in its 55th season, the famous program, which features Poupas, Egas, Becas and hundreds of other characters, has been less and less seen due to increased competition — despite still being ranked 14th among the most-streamed children’s shows in 2023, according to Nielsen ratings cited by a Sesame Street production manager who spoke with .
Since 2016, new episodes have debuted in a 30-minute format on HBO and on your streaming platform, Maxbut the partnership is now ending and will not be renewed. The end of Sesame Street is part of a broader corporate shift at Max away from children’s programming, a Max spokesperson told .
“Based on usage and feedback of consumers, we had to prioritize stories for adults and families”, he explained: “the new episodes of Sesame Street, at this point, aren’t that important to our strategy.”
New format with “what children are looking for”
Despite the difficulties, Sesame Workshop, behind the series, is planning a reinvention to keep the program relevant. The producers confessed that they are considering a new format for the potential 56th season.
If it happens, the new season will be “reimagined”, moving from the current structure of short segments to longer, narrative episodes in two segments, accompanied by the animated series, ‘Tales From 123’, said in October last year the CEO of the production company ao .
It’s all part of the “experience”: children have changed, so Sesame Street has to change too.
“As kids love a little dangerthey love to have emotional interests, and in nine minutes, it’s difficult to delve into those areas really effectively. By opening up these segments and making them longer, we’re going to have the opportunity to present what we know through research, what we know through industry, what we know through our curriculum and education experts, what we know kids are looking for ,” said Kay Wilson Stallings, executive vice president and director of creative development and production at Sesame Workshop.
“Late” or “more essential than ever”?
The conversation about the end of “Sesame Street” comes “15 or 20 years late”, says Candice Frederick in , who believes that the program may have lost a lot of its charm years ago, by focusing too much on puppets and cartoons to the detriment of its original educational mission.
Today, they are just “puppets, puppets, puppets, cartoons, cartoons, cartoons”, reinforces Childhood Studies professor Marilisa Jiménez García, who notes that the program has moved away from the approach to critical literacy and social issues.
For others, Sesame Street, where people so different “can be best friends despite disagreeing on almost everything”, is, today, “more essential than ever”at a time when “we have become increasingly tribal and isolated from each other,” wrote Alan Sepinwall on December 30 in .
Tomás Guimarães, ZAP //
