HBO Ends Sesame Street Deal, Show Selling to Other Streaming Services

A prime piece of TV real estate is hitting the open market: New episodes of Sesame Street.

The long-running children’s series is looking for a new home for its original episodes, after Warner Bros. Discovery opted not to renew the Sesame output deal with HBO and Max.

That being said, Max is staying in business with the show’s producer Sesame Workshop, with the streaming service continuing to license episodes from the Sesame library through 2027.

The decision not to continue the deal for new episodes stems from a change in strategy, with Max pivoting to focus more on adult and family programming, and placing less emphasis on kids fare like Sesame.

“It has been a wonderful, creative experience working with everyone at Sesame Street on the iconic children’s series and we are thrilled to be able to keep some of the library series on Max in the U.S.,” a spokesperson for Max tells The Hollywood Reporter. “As we’ve launched Max though and based on consumer usage and feedback, 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.”

“We are excited to extend our 10-year partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery, keeping Sesame Street’s iconic library available on Max through 2027,” a spokesperson for Sesame Workshop says. “We will continue to invest in our best-in-class programming and look forward to announcing our new distribution plans in the coming months, ensuring that Sesame Street reaches as many children as possible for generations to come.”

Sesame Street had been on HBO since 2016 (episodes also air on PBS a few months after they run on HBO, allowing for maximum reach and accessibility, as alluded to by the Sesame spokesperson), with the companies last striking a five-year deal in 2019 that moved the show to HBO Max and Max.

The show could draw substantial attention from a number of major players, not only because of the marquee name, but also because of its library of episodes, which span more than five decades. Max had pulled hundreds of older episodes two years ago as part of cost-saving measures at the company. It is not clear whether the library deal with Max would prohibit potential partners for new episodes from acquiring the library episodes.

Streaming services like Netflix, Apple TV+ or Prime Video could be eager to beef up their services with arguably the best-known children’s show of all time.

Executives at Sesame Workshop, cognizant of the end of the contract and seeking to keep the program fresh, are embarking on an effort to “reimagine” the show for season 56 next year, the first season that will run under whatever new deal the organization is able to secure.

Sesame Street will get a new look, dropping the “magazine”-style format it has had for years, and leaning into longer narrative-led segments, paired with a new animated series Tales From 123. The changes will be the most significant since 2016, when the show went from one hour to 30 minutes.

“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 told THR at the time, calling the changes a “reimagining” of the show, and adding that the longer segments will allow for more “dynamic” and “sophisticated” stories.

The program, with its iconic Muppet characters like Oscar the Grouch and Big Bird, first debuted in 1969, and have run on PBS since 1970.

Sesame Workshop also has a new CEO, with Sherrie Westin assuming leadership of the non-profit earlier this year. Westin, a longtime veteran of Sesame Workshop, is only the second female CEO in the organization’s history, following Sesame Street creator Joan Ganz Cooney.

Max, meanwhile, is pulling back on kids programming to focus on its core adult content as well as family fare like the upcoming Harry Potter series. A number of kids shows, including many from fellow WBD brand Cartoon Network, are also set to leave Max next year as part of the strategy shift.