Sesame Street Season 56: Major changes and yet another format change

[eurbane]

We won't have any new segments after Season 55.

 

[ssetta]

I just thought about something else. I wouldn't be surprised if they once again decreased the number of episodes per season.

 

[WazzupMyBoyz]

Read about the change, not going to watch.

Anyways, if the opening theme were to change again in S56, what would it sound like?

 

[CrashMon24]

Read about the change, not going to watch.

Anyways, if the opening theme were to change again in S56, what would it sound like?

Basically I don’t think there will be a topic basically it will be the theme then part A of street story then the animated segment between it then part b finishing part A

 

[wiley207]

I'm partly not surprised this is happening. A lot of "Sesame Street" TV specials and several of the picture books work in a similar way. (There were some "Sesame Street" books that took on such a "magazine" format, like "Big Bird's Busy Book" from 1975, or "The Sesame Street Library/The Sesame Street Treasury" and "On My Way With Sesame Street" series.) The classic "magazine" format was starting to get a little dated as the 21st century continued. The classic format with the street story broken into several parts and sandwiched by various segments was also apparently supposed to emulate channel surfing or a regular network television block, with the segments being like "edutainment" commercials. Said format remained in use until after Season 32 (as even with the introduction of "Elmo's World" in Season 30, the rest of the format stayed the same). That was when they began to take on the "block" format with a single long street story kicking off the episode followed by the segments, including numerous frequent recurring elements like letter and number of the day sketches, "Journey to Ernie," "Global Grover," "Murray Has a Little Lamb", "Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures", "Abby's Flying Fairy School", "Elmo the Musical" (replacing "Elmo's World" until the Season 46 reformat), "Cookie's Crumbly Pictures/Smart Cookies/Cookie Monster's Foodie Truck", and "Sesame Street Nature Explorers". This was because little kids of the 2000s were found to respond better to such repetition. Plus, with the half-hour reformat introduced in Season 46, we already have a full 11-minute street story followed by some segments and then the five-minute "Elmo's World". But with this, we're now getting two such street stories per episode with a recurring animated segment in-between (or sometimes a two-part story).

 

[Muppets02]

I am honestly not surprised at all that yet another format change is going to happen during Season 56. I honestly do not think it will make that much of a difference, especially if there's hardly any time for segments in the show anymore, and I suspect they will only continue to double down on some of the aspects that have been criticized about the direction of the show in recent years.

In general, I have easily been able to accept format changes that happened in Sesame Street over the years, including the addition of "Elmo's World" in Season 30, and the format changes that happened in Season 33 and Season 40. However, I stopped watching the show when Season 46 happened because I was not pleased with the new direction the show was going in. From Season 46 onwards, I have not been pleased with the lack of humor, the lack of coherent storytelling, the departure of so many cast members and performers, and the fact that so many of the main characters have been sidelined in recent years. As a result, I have absolutely no interest in watching the show with these new format changes in Season 56.

I will also say that I honestly do not think that the show is as relevant as it used to be, especially as there is so much competition in terms of content that this current generation of kids pay attention to. I have made peace with the fact that Sesame Street is not the same show that it was during my many years of watching it. But I will not deny it is disappointing to see that so much of what I enjoyed about watching the show had to be pushed away, in order for the show to continue running in the current television climate, and be able to compete with other content.