Sesame Street shrinks to 30 minutes, new shows will premiere on HBO and PBS nine months later

[D'Snowth]

And the way everybody is bellyaching over HBO being the new home of SST . . . did it ever occur to anyone that perhaps the actual channel it may end up being aired on is HBO Family?

 

[wiley207]

I'm pretty sure you can get HBO in your cheap/basic cable packages.

But you bring up the same point I've been making about outlets like Netflix and such: not everybody has Netflix, and not everybody can get Netflix because not everybody is able to obtain regular internet access, so what's the point of dumping a bunch of new shows straight to Netflix (something that even JHC is guilty of) when only a small percentage of people are going to see it anyway? I know a lot of it has to do with more creative freedom and less corporate influence, but you have to have an audience and ratings to survive.

Another good case is Warner Bros.'s "Wabbit: a Looney Tunes Production" and "Be Cool Scooby-Doo" going to air on Boomerang, instead of regular Cartoon Network. Only a small percentage of people in America get Boomerang, so this means the shows may wind up getting low ratings.

 

[Oscarfan]

Another good case is Warner Bros.'s "Wabbit: a Looney Tunes Production" and "Be Cool Scooby-Doo" going to air on Boomerang, instead of regular Cartoon Network. Only a small percentage of people in America get Boomerang, so this means the shows may wind up getting low ratings.

The shows are going to air on PBS anyway.

 

[DTF]

And the way everybody is bellyaching over HBO being the new home of SST . . . did it ever occur to anyone that perhaps the actual channel it may end up being aired on is HBO Family?

Admittedly, no, I don't know all 7,283 channels so didn't know one existed, but that just means even fewer will be able to see it right away, and not going to the original underprivileged kids via public access is the main focus of my parody. Which is now up under fan fiction. If this is my last visit here, at least for a long while, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy it and other fanfiction stuff I mention here, with my books and blogs as well.

 

[D'Snowth]

Another good case is Warner Bros.'s "Wabbit: a Looney Tunes Production" and "Be Cool Scooby-Doo" going to air on Boomerang, instead of regular Cartoon Network. Only a small percentage of people in America get Boomerang, so this means the shows may wind up getting low ratings.

Comcast has always refused to carry Boomerang because they said it was a commercial-free channel (hmm, that didn't stop them from carrying Noggin) . . . but from what I understand has happened to Boomerang recently, I guess it doesn't even matter anymore at this point.

 

[minor muppetz]

Moving to HBO sounds odd, because I don't associate it as a children's/family channel. The channel did broadcast Fraggle Rock during its original run, but has HBO had any other hit children's series? Does the channel currently have any shows for children (the press release mentions there will be limited reruns of Pinky Dinky Doo and The Electric Company)?

Hopefully PBS will continue airing reruns during this time. I wonder if PBS will only air the 30-minute versions of last years episodes (or if they'll edit more hour-long episodes into 30 minutes). I can't imagine PBS rerunning the hour-long version for the nine months before they can get the next season (since I'm under the impression that it's PBS who wanted to shorten the show).

It was said that HBO will be allowed to broadcast 150 existing episodes. I wonder if these will be from recent seasons (if it's just this, will PBS be allowed to air them?), the "classic era", in-between eras, or a big mix of the various eras. I feel like the classic-era would be best for HBO. Maybe air them late at night and brand it "Late-Night Sesame Street Classics". Or maybe rerun the classics in prime time (would HBO rerun a children's show in a prime-time slot?) if not during the 5-8 hours (I sort of feel this would be better to rerun episodes from the "around the corner" era and beyond).

It was also mentioned that reruns of The Electric Company will air on HBO. I wonder if it meant the original or the new series. The newer one seems more likely, even if the original would be better for HBO, but the press release doesn't mention any other "old school" shows from Sesame Workshop. I also wonder if Sesame Workshop or HBO would object to airing the original, considering the recent Bill Cosby controversy.

In the last few years, Sesame Workshop has been known to post almost every new clip shortly before they premiered (with some exceptions, like street stories). I wonder if Sesame Workshop will continue doing this before each season, or if less new clips will debut online.

 

[Oscarfan]

In the last few years, Sesame Workshop has been known to post almost every new clip shortly before they premiered (with some exceptions, like street stories). I wonder if Sesame Workshop will continue doing this before each season, or if less new clips will debut online.

The YouTube videos are too crucial to Sesame's current appeal and advertising to give up.

 

[minor muppetz]

The YouTube videos are too crucial to Sesame's current appeal and advertising to give up.

I didn't think they would give them up completely, just post less clips before they are broadcast.

At least if Sesame Street is going to have first-run episodes on a channel other than PBS, it's a commercial-free channel (are the various preschool channels commercial-free?).

 

[Phillip]

Question: Nothing is really said in the articles about HBO that they'll be carrying the show as a 30-minute program. Is it too much to assume that HBO will air the show as 60-minutes, while PBS will shorten it to 30?

We were told by Sesame Workshop today that the HBO version will be 30 minutes as well. They worked really hard to get funding and keep the show on PBS. The silver lining is the five year deal ensures we get a 50th season which might not have happened otherwise.

 

[D'Snowth]

At the risk of turning this into a political discussion, anybidy else notice the coincidence in the timing of all this? This is happening while the Republican candidates are going around the debate circuits, campaigning to be Republican nominee for the 2016 presidential election.

And for the past hundreds of years, what has always been on the Republicans' agenda of their administration? Cut funding for PBS, if not nuke PBS altogether. Lest we forget the media firestorm of controversy Meathead Romney caused last time when he said, ":I like Big Bird, but..."

At this point, I almost want to think that tis time around, SW took all of this into consideration, and figured it's only going to be a matter of ftimebefore one of these politicos carries out the dastardly deed of axing PBS and its funding, and decided that this was a last-ditch effort to ensure that the show will carry on, even if PBS doesn't.

Again, I have a feeling that we'll be seeing the show on HBO Family, rather than just standard HBO; I too find it odd that SST would share a home with Lena Dunham's homemade porn.