Your Childhood Is Always for Sale (Have You Heard Sesame Street Is Looking for a New Home?)

Streaming Wars is a weekly opinion column by IGN’s Streaming Editor, Amelia Emberwing. Check out the last entry: Star Wars: Skeleton Crew — Yet Another Show Skipped Its Pilot Episode, and It's Worse for It.

“____ ruined my childhood” has always been a really confusing phrase. A new piece of media viewed in adulthood has no weight over the memories or magic experienced as a child. But what does hit home is the idea that nostalgia is always up for sale for the highest bidder. Strangely, it’s often the same people insisting that a remake or reimagining can ruin the joy of their youth who will defend a studio’s right to rob the future generation of the same childhood glee to make a buck, but I’m not here to fight with the wall. I’m here to tell you Sesame Street is for sale.

It was announced on Friday that the David Zaslav-headed Warner Bros. Discovery has planted a big fat “For Sale” sign on Sesame Street to shift its programming focus to adult and family fare. Family fare, in this case, means something for all ages rather than titles for the kiddos. This decision only impacts future episodes of the long-running kids program, as everything up to Season 55 of Sesame Street will remain on Max through 2027.

It’s a real “have your cake and eat it too” moment for Zaslav and Max. I’ve never minced words when it’s come to exploring the unbearably crass way Warner Bros. Discovery’s corporate overlord views art. The legendary and essential TCM channel was at risk before directors Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Paul Thomas Anderson swooped in to strike a deal to save the network. After that deal, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group issued a statement acknowledging that “TCM is a cultural treasure,” but where was that devotion prior to three of the biggest names in Hollywood stepping in? More importantly, where is that understanding when it comes to essential programming like Sesame Street?

I’m not so naive that I don’t understand that Hollywood is a business, but I’m also never going to accuse a studio that killed its own wildly popular branding to go with the name “Max” of making savvy business decisions. This Sesame Street deal lets Max keep the back catalogue of hundreds of episodes, meaning they understand the value of having something that parents can put on in the background to distract little Timmy, but don’t see value in investing in future episodes from the children’s program.
“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,” a Max spokesperson explained to The Hollywood Reporter.

My contempt for a sentence like “new episodes from Sesame Street [...] are not as core to our strategy” aside, I also simply don’t understand how you can see value in holding 55 seasons worth of episodes while also not being willing to invest in a series’ future. But, at the end of the day, this could also be good news for the monolith of children’s programming.

A move to Apple TV+ to join the streamer’s robust children’s catalogue would likely be a boon for Sesame Street, especially given the fact that Apple TV+ seems to know what they have when it comes to prestigious and classic programming given that they’ve held the rights for the Charlie Brown films for years.

Ultimately, the move to put a “for sale” sign on one of the most beloved children’s programs of all time is yet another reminder that nothing is safe or sacred under Zaslav’s control at Warner Bros. Discovery, but it may, at least, benefit Sesame Street if the show manages to find the right home. It also means that Max paid a premium to keep Sesame Street’s back catalogue, so there’s less of a chance that the episodes end up in purgatory like the rest of the shows and movies that Max and company have yeeted from existence.

I hope Oscar the Grouch gives Zaslav what for on his last day.