‘Sesame Street’ Is Moving to the HBO Max Streaming Service
For the last four years, HBO has been the home of new episodes of Sesame Street, the most beloved children’s television show of all time. While the series, which is now in its 50th year on TV, continued at its long-running home on PBS, new seasons premiered first on HBO. Starting next season, Elmo, Big Bird, Oscar, and the rest of their fuzzy pals are moving again — to streaming.
Via press release, the show announced that it had reached a deal with WarnerMedia for five more years of Sesame Street — on Warner’s upcoming streaming service HBO Max. “Beginning with season 51,” the press release states, “Sesame Street will premiere on HBO Max and then continue to air for free on PBS KIDS. Newly commissioned HBO Max content will also be made available to PBS KIDS after premiering on HBO Max. HBO will continue to air Sesame Street through season 50.” (In other words, HBO won’t be airing the new season, just HBO Max.)
The announcement included info on additional shows, including an Elmo talk show and an animated series that sounds kind of like Transformers with Muppets. The full lineup of HBO Max Sesame Street content:
- Five new 35-episode seasons of Sesame Street
- New annual Sesame Street specials, kicking off with The Monster at the End of This Show, an animated version of the acclaimed The Monster at the End of this Book
- A family-centric live-action take on a late-night talk show, The Not Too Late Show with Elmo—featuring Sesame Street’s celebrity friends
- A new season of the award-winning animated Esme & Roy, as well as the previous season
Two new animated series, the first a spin-off of Sesame Street called Mecha Builders (working title), featuring favorite Sesame Street characters as heroes in a robot-animation style; and the second series to be announced at a later date - A new docuseries that will explore key issues for kids and families, building off Sesame Workshop’s expertise in tackling difficult issues from a child’s perspective
HBO Max will also feature “a broad collection of Sesame Street episodes selected from the past 50 years,” including episodes that have never been available on demand before.
It’s a smart deal for Warners, because if they’re going to compete with the new Disney+ service — not to mention Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu — they are going to need a large library of content for kids. 50 years of Sesame Street, plus new episodes and new spinoffs, does go a very long way to giving them that. The new Sesame Street episodes will begin premiering on HBO Max in 2020.
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