Netflix Keeps Sesame Street on the Map

The newly passed Rescissions Act of 2025, approved by the House on June 12 and the Senate on July 17, pulls back $1.1 billion in support for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which supports PBS, NPR, and over 1,500 local affiliate stations. This funding has been vital for children's programming—including Sesame Street—which relies on a mix of allocations: approximately 15% of PBS’s total budget comes from federal sources.  For over 50 years, Sesame Street has been one of the most beloved TV shows for children. In the 20th century, only Mister Rogers' Neighborhood was equally influential and admired, and the two formed the cornerstone of kids’ media, thanks to their remarkable ability to keep young viewers entertained while nurturing a love of learning and mutual respect for others. Both shows found their homes on the free-to-air Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) channel, making them available to anyone with access to a TV. But on May 1, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order to block federal funding for both PBS and the National Public Radio (NPR) network. Trump said that PBS engages in “biased and partisan news coverage,” and used this claim to justify the termination of a federal initiative that funded shows for children, including Sesame Street. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the government body that backed both PBS and NPR, confirmed in May that the funding plug had been pulled by the Trump administration. Sesame Street already had been facing uncertainty since last year, when Warner Bros Discovery announced that the company would not renew the contract that gave Sesame Street a home on HBO/Max from 2019 to 2024. But now, Sesame Street has struck another streaming deal, this time with Netflix. An all-new 56th season of the show will begin streaming later this year, alongside 90 hours of existing episodes. The content will be available worldwide.

The significance of Sesame Street to early childhood education is hard to overstate. It was the first children’s TV show to use specific educational goals to guide its content, and the first to be the subject formal studies that examined its educational effects on kids. For example, some studies have shown that kids who watch the show score higher on IQ tests than kids who don’t. But Sesame Street is not only about learning and literacy. It plays an equally important role in providing multicultural education by depicting people of different backgrounds and ethnicities. When I was in elementary school in central North Carolina, I was lucky to attend a public magnet school with a diverse student body. But for some of my friends who lived in more rural areas, Sesame Street was their only exposure to people who did not look and speak like them. Had it been available only in major cities or on cable television, millions of kids across the country would have missed out on critical early learning. Crucially, this new deal with Netflix lets Sesame Street continue its legacy of using the power of public television to reach kids everywhere. All of the new episodes that will be streaming on Netflix will also be available on the same day-and-date on PBS stations throughout the United States, and on PBS KIDS digital platforms.

Sesame Street was brought to life in the late 1960s after television producer Joan Ganz Cooney and Carnegie Foundation vice president Lloyd Morrisett approached Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education with an idea to teach American kids via a TV program, harnessing what they saw as TV’s “addictive properties” for the greater good. This was a novel idea when talks began in 1966. Harvard University professor Gerald S. Lesser was hired to design the show’s educational objectives using evidence-based research. Muppets creator Jim Henson was hired to create memorable characters on a set made to look like an urban street. The first episode aired in 1969.

Now, the the global nonprofit behind Sesame Street is Sesame Workshop, led by executive producers Sal Perez and Kay Wilson Stallings. They have hired a new head writer for season 56, Halcyon Person, an Emmy, Humanitas, and NAACP Award-nominated creator who has worked as a writer, director, and producer. Person was the Head Writer and Co-Executive Producer of the animated musical comedy Karma’s World, and of the animated fantasy adventure musical television series Dee & Friends in Oz on Netflix. On the platform, parents can set parental controls for their kids’ profiles, lock adult profiles with a PIN, and keep tabs on what content their kids are consuming. Soon, Netflix will be adding more games created specifically for kids.

Netflix’s move to save Sesame Street won’t fix the systemic reasons public media is threatened in the U.S. Nor will it undo educational inequality baked into a system nobody in power seems intent on actually fixing. But, for the time being, it’s comforting to know it’s still there — and that kids like me, kids like mine and kids I’ll never meet can still get to Sesame Street simply by walking to their television.

— Erin Gloria Ryan, Writer and Podcaster, via MSNBC

The upcoming 56th season of Sesame Street will be released in three batches, and will feature new segments and format tweaks that reflect changes in viewing habits and the latest research in the fields of child psychology and education. Characters will have to-camera moments, breaking the fourth wall to address the viewer directly and encourage interaction. Animation overlays will “highlight music, action, humor, and important story moments while adding visual excitement,” according to Sesame Workshop. Visual effects, such as “wand sparkles, bubbles, and confetti” will be employed to add magic to the storytelling and keep kids engaged. One significant addition is that each episode will feature an 11-minute story. This is a relatively long format for Sesame Street, which is typically composed of shorter segments. The new longer segments will reportedly provide the opportunity to deliver stories with more “character-driven humor and heart.” In addition, research suggests that watching narratives with more involved plots and characters is beneficial to developing minds, whereas the constant flicker of unrelated TikTok-style clips can be damaging. Fan-favorite episodes of “Elmo’s World” and “Cookie Monster’s Foodie Truck” will return, alongside a new segment called “Tales from 123,” which takes viewers inside the apartment building where Elmo, Cookie Monster, and other Sesame Street characters live.

For over 50 years, we have worked at the intersection of education, media, and research, creating joyful experiences that enrich minds and expand hearts, all in service of empowering each generation to build a better world. Our beloved characters, iconic shows, outreach in communities, and more, bring playful early learning to families in more than 150 countries and advance our mission to help children everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder.

— Sesame Workshop, the Global Nonprofit Behind Sesame Street 

As of 2025, “Kids and Family” content accounts for 15% of Netflix’s total viewing, according to the streaming giant. The new Sesame Street episodes will arrive later this year, according to Netflix, though no specific date has been set for the premiere. The deal also allows Netflix to develop video games for both Sesame Street and Sesame Street Mecha Builders, an animated series that “reimagines Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Abby Cadabby as robot heroes-in-training who use their STEM superpowers to solve wacky, larger-than-life problems.”

More information: Sesame Workshop