Sesame Street, the iconic children’s TV show and household name, is due for a relocation after a 55-season-long run, as Warner Bros. Discovery has opted not to renew its agreement to air new episodes of the show on HBO and its streaming service, Max.
This decision stems from a change in Max’s strategy, shifting focus away from children’s shows and pivoting to adult and family programming instead. Sesame Street’s current 55th season will be the last to arrive on Max in January 2025.

“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 spokesperson for Max told The Hollywood Reporter.
That being said, the streaming service will continue to license old episodes from the Sesame Street library until 2027, marking an end to the partnership between Sesame Workshop and HBO formed in 2015, and the subsequent five-year deal in 2019 that moved the show to Max.
While the show’s future currently remains uncertain, its legendary status, coupled with a history that spans over five decades, makes it a prime candidate to be picked up by other major players such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Apple TV+.

Sesame Workshop has also previously announced a creative overhaul for future seasons of the series, dropping its long-running “magazine”-style format in favour of longer narrative-driven segments. This change will also be paired with a new animated series, Tales From 123, which will be incorporated into the episodes amidst traditional live-action portions. This re-imagining serves well to increase Sesame Street’s potential of being picked up by competing streaming services.
“We will continue to invest in our best-in-class programming and look forward to announcing our new distribution plans in the coming months.” said a spokesperson for Sesame Workshop.