Sesame Workshop lays off 10% of employees

[Phillip]

It became public that Sesame Workshop is laying off about 10% of their staff today. It's a sad time for Sesame Street as many wonderful people are now out of work. Our thoughts are with each of them and their families. We hope that everyone finds employment soon.


'C' is for cutbacks: 'Sesame' lays off workers

It's a sad day on the "Street." Sesame Workshop, makers of the classic children's program "Sesame Street," laid off approximately 10 percent of its employees Tuesday.

"Sesame Workshop, the non-profit organization behind Sesame Street, is constantly assessing where we must invest for the future in response to today's rapidly changing digital environment," the company said in a statement obtained by Reuters. "After careful review, we have concluded that we must reduce our workforce by approximately 10% to strategically focus our resources."

According to Deadline.com, 30 employees lost their jobs, and the company's Sesame Learning program and Global Education departments will be absorbed into other parts of the company. Former Newsweek, Inc. CEO Tom Ascheim, who was an executive vice-president with Sesame Leaning, was one of those laid off, Deadline reports.

Sesame Learning was described by the company as "a vital Workshop initiative aimed (at bringing) the 'Sesame Street' advantage to classrooms and child-care settings."

There was no word on whether "Sesame Street," the workshop's Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning program, would be directly affected.

http://www.today.com/entertainment/c-cutbacks-sesame-lays-workers-6C10450530


And here's the full Deadline.com story...


Once again Sesame Workshop is handing out pink slips. Around 30 employees at the producers of Sesame Street were let go today. This comes just more than a year after a dozen employees were shown the door at the non-profit last May. “We at Sesame Workshop are not immune to the challenges of today’s economic environment. After careful review, we have concluded that we must operate, and achieve our strategic priorities with fewer resources. Therefore, we have reluctantly determined that we must reduce our workforce by approximately 10%,” said CEO H. Melvin Ming in a note sent to staff this afternoon. Among those who have been let go are former Newsweek Inc CEO and Nickelodeon executive Tom Ascheim, who joined the company in March 2012 as EVP of the Sesame Learning program. Sesame Learning will be absorbed into other divisions of the company, Ming said today. The CEO also announced that the Corporate Strategy and the Business Systems Programming groups will be dissolved as of July 1st. Sesame Workshop’s Global Education department will also be melded into other units.“We remain optimistic about our future and remain committed to our mission of helping children reach their highest potential here and around the globe,” a spokesperson for Sesame Workshop told me today while admitting to the layoffs. In 2009, Sesame Workshop, which produces programming for more than 150 countries worldwide, laid off more than 60 of its then 355 employees as the company was hit with declining donations and licensing revenue from the bad economy.

http://www.deadline.com/2013/06/sesame-workshop-layoffs-sesame-street-producer/#more-529390

 

[Oscarfan]

That's too bad. Things aren't looking up for them, budget-wise.

 

[Drtooth]

Excuse me, but when are they ever not having a budget crisis? I'm sure PBS is giving them less and less, and no matter how many sponsors they have, they still don't have enough money.

The crappy cable competition is killing the show, sure... but things shouldn't be this bad.

I just love this "better" economy when better means the wealthy have even more money since they destroyed the world, and everyone else is still struggling.

 

[D'Snowth]

Is the recession over or not? Somebody just give me a straight answer. Everybody says it ended back in 2010/2011 or so, but it sure hasn't felt like it.

 

[Drtooth]

Is the recession over or not? Somebody just give me a straight answer. Everybody says it ended back in 2010/2011 or so, but it sure hasn't felt like it.

It depends on what you look at. It's over in the sense that the wealthy pigs that screwed everyone over gained everything back and more. The Stock market is higher than it's ever been (though it dropped a crapload because the sweet sweet government money they deny to everyone else has a chance of drying up as the economy is actually improving), but for certain people around the poverty line, we've never not been in one. And I mean since the freaking 80's. But that's a huge rant for another time.

There's no telling who's to blame for SW's debt... if it's internal problems, the government not giving PBS money due to the Sequester the Tea Putzy politicians created, or what... but if Sesame has to streamline, they have to streamline. Problem is, they're doing it wrong.

What Sesame Workshop needs to do, is look at the cost of the American TV show. I'm sure there's money spent overseas on international versions of the show, but I'm sure that the international stations share some of that cost. They need to think about, I dunno, maybe no huge celebrity focus? Maybe have the original actual characters give the definition of the day? I mean, the celebrity word on the street bits are really hit or miss. Some of them do really well some of them are very aloof and don't know what to do. Maybe also stop looking into parody segments, and just doing original character skits more. That's less puppet building. Sure, they reuse animals and AM's, but the cost of dressing them up in period pieces and stuff, that's gotta cut some of the price down. And above all, no long 10 minute CGI segments with Pixar production values. Abby's Fairy School is expensive as heck. The rant about CGI being cheaper is often a myth. Especially if you go for high quality. I mean, Green Lantern didn't fail to make back its budget because of Ryan Reynold's paycheck.

The show can function with less money and keep it's high quality if they take it out of certain places. I'd rather celebrity segments, parodies, and longer, more expensive show segments take a small hit than to force cost cutting measures on more important things. Like NOT having 6 or more episodes in the already too short 26 episode seasons be cobbled out of older repeats. That was desirable when it was 52-100+ episodes a season. Now it's made out of rerun footage, in a season where it takes almost 6 months to show all 26 episodes, with reruns in between. If anything's losing them ratings, it's that.

 

[D'Snowth]

They need to think about, I dunno, maybe no huge celebrity focus? Maybe have the original actual characters give the definition of the day? I mean, the celebrity word on the street bits are really hit or miss. Some of them do really well some of them are very aloof and don't know what to do.

The problem there is with so many other preschool shows out there giving them (and sometimes creaming them too) competition, they have to lure in an audience somehow, and they seemed to have relied too heavily on celebrity involvement to the point that it's more or less a gimmick now to get an audience. Yes, I know the show's had celebrity guests from the beginning, but there was a time where every single freakin' episode didn't include both a regular segment pairing an A-lister with a Muppet to lecture about certains words, AND a street story where A, B, even C and D-listers were the Celebrity Star (as TV Tropes says) of the plot.

 

[mr3urious]

More PBS budget problems at the expense of the Street yet again. When will it ever end?

The rant about CGI being cheaper is often a myth. Especially if you go for high quality. I mean, Green Lantern didn't fail to make back its budget because of Ryan Reynold's paycheck.

The opposite can be true with hand-drawn animation, too. The new Winnie the Pooh movie was like $30 mil. to make compared to Tangled's whopping $260 mil.

 

[Drtooth]

That is part of the problem. Sesame Street is having a bad case of the "We're still relevants," and the competition is only popular because it's shiny and new. But the celebrity bits aren't for the kids. I'm sure the kids barely know who half these people are. It's to get mommy and daddy to watch the show with them, when the show turned into that thing upper class soccer moms shove their kids in front of so they don't get disturbed drinking their Skinny Girl Vodka cocktails and dishing on whatever mommy didn't make it to the play date that week.

Sesame Street always had celebrity bits, sure... but it really seems that they're even more important than that certain red fellow who was the hottest Christmas toy for several years. Not saying they shouldn't have celebrities in the show, just that they need to use them a little less often, and rely on repeats of those appearances. How about making new street stories that reuse prior words of the day?

 

[MelissaY1]

Very sad to hear about the cuts at Sesame, but honestly it doesn't surprise me. Public television's funding has been drastically cut in recent years, Sesame itself films less episodes a season, and I wonder if the whole Kevin Clash debacle has made their funding drop as far as maybe parents not wanting to buy Elmo toys and products which as everyone knows who buys Sesame merch that the monies from the purchase go back into the funding of the show.

And not to turn this into a political debate because if Linus Van Pelt has taught us anything, it's that you never discuss 3 things with people "religion, politics and the Great Pumpkin" but everyone freaked with Romey because of his headline making "Big Bird" comments, when the truth is, I don't think neither candidate could've really helped in the end, because we need money in so many other areas, but I agree public television and education is important. I will feel very sad if Sesame Street goes away one day as funding continues to get cut. Heck, I even enjoy the documentaries and music specials on public television. My parents just pledged to WLIW Ch. 21 here in NY because they love the weekend oldies concerts, etc. that they air.

 

[MelissaY1]

Is the recession over or not? Somebody just give me a straight answer. Everybody says it ended back in 2010/2011 or so, but it sure hasn't felt like it.

No, I know too many people who are still sadly out of work, etc.