Sesame Street is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation, and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) and was created by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett. It features Jim Henson's Muppets, and includes short films, with humor and cultural references. It premiered on November 10, 1969, to positive reviews, some controversy, and high viewership. It has aired on the United States national public television provider PBS since its debut, with its first run moving to premium channel HBO on January 16, 2016, then its sister streaming service HBO Max on November 12, 2020, which continued through the service's rebrand as Max in 2023 and as HBO Max in 2025, and most recently Netflix on November 10, 2025.
The show's format consists of a combination of commercial television production elements and techniques that have evolved to reflect changes in American culture and audiences' viewing habits. It was the first children's TV show to use educational goals and a curriculum to shape its content, and the first show whose educational effects were formally studied. Its format and content have undergone significant changes over the years to reflect changes to its curriculum.
Shortly after its creation, its producers developed what came to be called the CTW model (after the production company's previous name), a system of planning, production, and evaluation based on collaboration between producers, writers, educators, and researchers. The show was initially funded by government and private foundations but has become somewhat self-supporting due to revenues from licensing arrangements, international sales, and other media. By 2006, independently produced versions (co-productions) of Sesame Street were broadcast in 20 countries. In 2001, there were over 120 million viewers of various international versions of Sesame Street; and by its 40th anniversary in 2009, it was broadcast in more than 140 countries.
Since its debut, Sesame Street has garnered widespread acclaim, and it is considered one of the greatest television series of all time. By the show's 40th anniversary in 2009 it was the 15th-highest-rated children's television show in the United States. A 1996 survey found that 95% of all American preschoolers had watched it by the time they were three. In 2018, it was estimated that 86 million Americans had watched it as children. As of 2022, it has won 222 Emmy Awards and 11 Grammy Awards, more than any other children's show. Sesame Street remains one of the longest-running shows in the world. In 2019, the series was chosen for preservation in the American Archive of Public Broadcasting by the Library of Congress.
History
Sesame Street was conceived in 1966 during discussions between television producer Joan Ganz Cooney and Carnegie Foundation vice president Lloyd Morrisett. Their goal was to create a children's television show that would "master the addictive qualities of television and do something good with them,"Davis, p. 8 such as helping young children prepare for school. After two years of research, the newly formed Children's Television Workshop (CTW) received a combined grant of US$8million ($ million in dollars) from the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the U.S. federal government to create and produce a new children's television show.Finch, p. 53
Sesame Street was officially announced at a press conference on May 6, 1969. Joan Ganz Cooney, Children's Television Workshop's executive director, said that Sesame Street would use the techniques of commercial television programs to teach young children. Live shorts and animated cartoons would teach young children the alphabet, numbers, vocabulary, shapes, and basic reasoning skills. By repeating concepts throughout an episode, young children's interest would be held while they learn the concepts. Guest cameos would help attract older children and adults. Cooney said that the name Sesame Street came from the saying "open sesame", which gives the idea of a place where exciting things occur. The show was given an initial six-month run to determine whether it was effective and would continue to air.Subber, Barbara (May 7, 1969). "New ETV Show for Preschooler To Use 'Commercial' Techniques". The Morning Call (Allentown, Pennsylvania). p. 51.
The program premiered on public television stations on November 10, 1969. It was the first preschool educational television program to base its contents and production values on laboratory and formative research.Palmer & Fisch in Fisch & Truglio, p. 9 Initial responses to the show included adulatory reviews, some controversy, and high ratings.
According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s, the show had become "an American institution."Davis, p. 220 The cast and crew expanded during this time, with emphasis on the hiring of women crew members and the addition of minorities to the cast. The show's success continued into the 1980s. In 1981, when the federal government withdrew its funding, CTW turned to and expanded other revenue sources, including its magazine division, book royalties, product licensing, and foreign broadcast income.O'Dell, pp. 73–74 Its curriculum has expanded to include more affective topics such as relationships, ethics, and emotions. Many of its storylines have been inspired by the experiences of its writing staff, cast, and crew—most notably, the 1982 death of Will Lee, who played Mr. Hooper; and the marriage of Luis and Maria in 1988.Borgenicht, p. 80
By the end of the 1990s, the show faced societal and economic challenges, including changes in young children's viewing habits, competition from other shows, the development of cable television, and a drop in ratings.Davis, p. 320 As the 21st century began, the show made major changes. Starting in 2002, its format became more narrative-focused and included ongoing storylines. After its 30th anniversary in 1999, due to the popularity of the Muppet Elmo, the show also incorporated a popular segment known as Elmo's World. In 2009, the show won the Outstanding Achievement Emmy for its then 40 years on the air.
In late 2015, in response to "sweeping changes in the media business" and as part of a five-year programming and development deal, premium television service HBO began airing first-run episodes of Sesame Street. The episodes became available on PBS stations and websites nine months after they aired on HBO. The deal allowed Sesame Workshop to produce more episodes—increasing from 18 to 35 per season—and to create a spinoff series with the Sesame Street Muppets, and a new educational series.
At its 50th anniversary in 2019, Sesame Street had produced over 4,500 episodes, two feature-length movies (Follow That Bird in 1985 and The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland in 1999), 35 TV specials, 200 home videos, and 180 albums. Beginning that year, digitized versions of the show's full archive of episodes were donated to the American Archive of Public Broadcasting, viewable on site at the library's locations, with five episodes available for viewing online. Its YouTube channel has over 24 million subscribers. It was announced in October 2019 that first-run episodes will move to HBO Max beginning with the show's 51st season in 2020. In August 2022, HBO Max removed 200 older episodes of the series from its library after initially offering around 650 episodes. On December 13, 2024, it was announced that Max would not be renewing their contract to make episodes of Sesame Street, meaning 2025 would be the last year for episodes made with Max. Episodes will be in the HBO Max streaming library until 2027. A spokesperson for Sesame Workshop stated: "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."
On May 19, 2025, it was announced that Sesame Street would begin to air new episodes on Netflix worldwide and would once again premiere episodes on PBS, with new episodes being released on both platforms on the same day, as well as past seasons. This move would also include the acquisition of 90 hours of older episodes by Netflix. Season 56 of Sesame Street premiered on Netflix and PBS on November 10, 2025. Beginning in January 2026, under a new agreement, the official YouTube channel began to host the largest collection of older library episodes. The first 100 episodes of the series were uploaded to YouTube on January 15, 2026.
Format
From its first episode, Sesame Streets format has utilized "a strong visual style, fast-moving action, humor, and music," as well as animation and live-action short films.O'Dell, p. 70 When it premiered, most researchers believed that young children did not have long attention spans, and the show's producers were concerned that an hour-long show would not hold their attention. At first, its "street scenes"—the action recorded on its set—consisted of character-driven interactions. Rather than ongoing stories, they were written as individual, curriculum-based segments interrupted by "inserts" of puppet sketches, short films and animations. This structure allowed producers to use a mixture of styles and characters, and to vary its pace, presumably keeping it interesting to young viewers. However, by season 20, research showed that children were able to follow a story—and the street scenes, while still interspersed with other segments, became evolving storylines.Morrow, p. 87Gikow, p. 179
On recommendations by child psychologists, the producers initially decided that the show's human actors and Muppets would not interact because they were concerned it would confuse young children.Fisch & Bernstein, p. 39 When CTW tested the new show, they found that children paid attention during the Muppet segments and that their interest was lost during the "Street" segments.Gladwell, p. 105 They requested that Henson and his team create Muppets such as Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch to interact with the human actors, and the Street segments were re-shot.Gladwell, p. 106Fisch & Bernstein, pp. 39–40
Sesame Streets format remained intact until the 2000s when the changing audience required that producers move to a more narrative format. In 1998, Elmo's World, a 15-minute-long segment hosted by the Muppet Elmo, was created.Clash, p. 75 Starting in 2014, during the show's 45th season, the producers introduced a half-hour version of the program. The new version, which originally complemented the full-hour series, was broadcast weekday afternoons and streamed on the Internet. In 2017, in response to the changing viewing habits of toddlers, the show's producers retired the full-hour version across all its broadcast platforms. The new half-hour version featured fewer characters, reduced pop culture references "once included as winks for their parents", and focused "on a single backbone topic."
In October 2023, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Sesame Street would be reimagined by completely dropping the half-hour magazine-style format of the show in favor of a longer narrative-driven style and more live action Muppet characters. The new format took effect in Season 56, which premiered on November 10, 2025, alongside a new animated series, Tales from 123.
Educational goals