Sesame Street Avoids Cancellation, Finds New Home On Netflix

By Ryan Schwartz
Sesame Street Ending HBO New Episodes Max Courtesy of HBO

Everything's A-OK now that Sesame Street has been saved.

Six months after Warner Bros. Discovery opted not to renew its deal for new episodes, threatening Big Bird's very existence, the iconic children's series has landed at Netflix.

"We are excited to announce that new Sesame Street episodes are coming to Netflix worldwide and PBS Kids in the U.S.," Sesame Place said in a statement Monday. "The support of Netflix, PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting serve as a unique public-private partnership to enable Sesame Street to continue to help children everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder."

After airing exclusively on PBS for nearly 50 years, new episodes of Sesame Street relocated to HBO in 2016 as part of a five-season deal. The deal was renewed in 2019, with new episodes continuing to stream on Max — that was, until WBD opted not to do any further business with Elmo.

"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 Max spokesperson said at the time. "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."

As part of the Netflix deal, new episodes of Sesame Street will stream worldwide and air on PBS stations in the U.S. the same day. A new season, along with library episodes, will arrive on the service in late 2025 (release date TBA).

Watch a promo for Sesame Street's Netflix arrival below, then hit the comments with your reactions to the news.

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