WASHINGTON, May 20, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - If you were wondering how to get to 
"Sesame Street", the beloved children's television show will soon be 
available on streaming giant Netflix as well as its long-time home at US 
public broadcaster PBS.

Popular characters "Elmo, Cookie Monster, Abby Cadabby, and all their friends 
are coming to Netflix later this year, with Sesame Street's all-new, 
reimagined 56th season -- plus 90 hours of previous episodes -- available to 
audiences worldwide," Sesame Workshop, the non-profit group behind the 
children's program, said in a statement.

New episodes of the educational staple, which premiered in 1969 to high 
viewership and glowing reviews, will be "available same day-and-date in the 
US on PBS stations and PBS KIDS digital platforms" as they will be on 
Netflix, Sesame Workshop said on Monday.

Netflix has exclusive worldwide premiere rights and will also be able to 
develop video games for the "Sesame Street" brand, it said.

The streamer also confirmed the deal in a statement.

Sesame Workshop has been facing financial struggles, with grants disappearing 
and a lucrative distribution deal with HBO expiring.

Under that past agreement, PBS could release new "Sesame Street" episodes 
only months after they debuted on HBO.

The Netflix deal also follows repeated assaults on public media by US 
President Donald Trump, including an executive order this month to cut 
government funding for both NPR and PBS, which he accuses of being biased.

National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service are only partly 
funded by US taxpayers and rely heavily on private donations.

Trump has long had an antagonistic relationship with most mainstream media, 
including PBS, and once falsely claimed an Arabic version of "Sesame Street" 
airing in the Middle East cost $20 million.

He appears to have conflated the show with a broader educational program that 
received funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), an 
AFP Fact Check investigation found.

"Sesame Street" parodied the New York real estate developer years before he 
was elected president, with characters including Mr. Grump, performed by 
actor Joe Pesci, and a puppet with orange hair, called Donald Grump.