Launching a season on the world’s most premium cable network requires a bit more than a little dusting, so longtime children’s show Sesame Street is making its HBO debut with a totally renovated set.
Kicking off its 46th season on Saturday, January 16, Sesame Street has made some significant upgrades, including moving Big Bird’s nest to a tree, and moving Elmo from his former apartment to an elegant brownstone. Elmo’s good buddy Abby Cadabby has been supplied a community garden, and Hooper’s Store now resembles one of the trendy storefronts populating a gentrified Williamsburg. Even Oscar the Grouch is in on the fun, with a new, subterranean tunnel of connected recycling and compost bins now attached to the trash can he calls home.
Seeking to brings its unique blend of education and entertainment to a generation of children firmly accustomed to consuming television on mobile devices, Sesame Street has also trimmed its running time from an hour to a half-hour, and plans to scale back on celebrities and parody segments because preschoolers often don’t understand the references.
Sesame Street lost $7.4 million in 2015, with total operating revenues down almost 10 percent from 2014. A longtime staple of PBS, the show’s new management team sought out HBO for distribution, raising eyebrows from critics who feel its legacy as an education bastion for underserved families is jeopardized on a premium cable network for which many cannot afford to pay. The show has countered that production company Sesame Workshop retains full creative control under the deal, and that HBO’s exclusive rights last nine months before Sesame Street is available for free again on PBS.
HBO has said it will collaborate with Sesame Workshop to create spin-off children’s series, as well as new, original series that aren’t connected to the show.
Read more at the New York Times.
Brief Take: Sesame Street’s new look and feel are exciting, but will HBO viewers weaned on Game of Thrones think to turn to the premium cable channel for high-profile children’s programming as well?
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