‘Sesame Street’ Left With No Home After HBO Cancels Deal
The newest adventures of the famous Sesame Street friends are in need of a new home, as Warner Brothers Discovery opted out of renewing its deal to premiere new episodes of the long-running TV show’s on HBO or Max.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the license deal for previously aired episodes from the show’s library remains intact until 2027, so that content will remain available on the platforms despite the change.
A Max spokesperson told THR, that though it’s been “a wonderful, creative experience working with everyone at Sesame Street,” the launch of Max showed the company needed to change strategy: “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.”
HBO raised eyebrows when it took over new episodes of Sesame Street from PBS in 2015, in a deal in which new episodes would premiere on HBO before they hit the Public Broadcasting Network. The deal also included terms that required the series to nix content from Amazon and Netflix. At the time, the company was on a mission to become a top destination for children’s content—a strange move considering HBO’s historically more adult-centric brand.
Even dropping the “HBO” from its streamer name “HBO Max” was an effort for the company to distance itself from its reputation for racy content so it could win over families to its streaming library. The tide has changed, however, as ending the Sesame Street deal is part of HBO’s new focus on adult content and “family” programming (i.e., content everyone in the family would watch together—think Harry Potter rather than Sesame Street).
The news comes in the wake of reported money troubles on Sesame Street. As a non-profit, the organization behind the series, Sesame Workshop, pays no taxes, receives grants but also makes millions in merchandising.
However, with the new operating costs to produce twice as many episodes for HBO as it did for PBS, as well as moving its operations to New York, the organization was reportedly, at least as of 2018, spending way more than it was making. THR reported that Sesame Workshop had brought in $1.6 million, against an estimated $100 million in operating costs since 2015’s HBO deal.
The series is still going full speed ahead, however, even though where premiere episodes will land is uncertain for now. An executive told the outlet in 2023 that Sesame Street’s next season will feature longer segments to allow for more “dynamic” and “sophisticated” stories.
