Sesame Street Premiere Date/Status
Sesame Street SEASON 53 Renewed On HBO Max
About Sesame Street TV Series
Sesame Street's 52nd Season Launches On Thursday, November 11 On Cartoonito On HBO Max
Elmo's adopted puppy Tango makes her Sesame Street debut - including a brand-new animated segment Elmo & Tango's Mysterious Mysteries
Star-studded season includes appearances from Jon Batiste, Billie Eilish, Amanda Gorman, Astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison, Kacey Musgraves, Naomi Osaka, Anderson .Paak, and Keke Palmer
NEW YORK, Nov. 1, 2021 -- Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind decades of award-winning educational programming, today announced that Sesame Street's 52nd season will debut on Thursday, November 11 on Cartoonito on HBO Max. New episodes of the iconic children's series, 35 in all, will drop every Thursday. The season streams on PBS KIDS in Fall 2022.
"Creating this season of Sesame Street during the pandemic has been an enormous undertaking," said Ben Lehmann, Sesame Workshop's Senior Vice President & Head of Live Action and Sesame Street Executive Producer. "Just as our characters use playful problem-solving in the face of challenges, we, too, took a creative approach, finding innovative solutions while keeping our cast and crew safe. We're proud of what we've been able to produce and are grateful to our partners at WarnerMedia and PBS for their continued support of Sesame Street."
This season welcomes Tango, Elmo's new adopted puppy, to the Street, where she will debut as a live-action Sesame Street Muppet in the first Season 52 episode on Thursday, November 11. Tango was introduced in the animated special Furry Friends Forever: Elmo Gets a Puppy in August 2021 and will appear regularly in Sesame Street episodes.
Tango will also join Elmo in the new animated segment Elmo & Tango's Mysterious Mysteries, comprised of 13 five-minute episodes interspersed throughout Season 52. The series follows Elmo and Tango as they search for clues on Sesame Street and help their friends solve mysteries, including the disappearance of Abby's magic wand, a search for buried treasure, and more.
Season 52 continues a playful problem-solving curriculum, designed to build critical thinking skills in young children and equip them to handle challenges in school and beyond. As characters and kids approach challenges creatively, they repeat the phrase "I Wonder... What if... Let's Try!" This framework for finding solutions is used in Street Stories, interstitials, and Elmo & Tango's Mysterious Mysteries segments.
"The pandemic has presented immense challenges for us all, but particularly for children as they experience this drastically different way of life in their formative years," said Dr. Rosemarie Truglio, Sesame Workshop's Senior Vice President of Curriculum & Content. "In spite of those difficulties, we know that children are incredibly resilient. This season's curriculum is designed to encourage and inspire them to be persistent, continuing to try until they succeed. It's a message kids and parents can take to heart."
As a part of Coming Together, Sesame Workshop's ongoing commitment to racial justice, this season features two racial justice-themed episodes: Martin Luther King Day (Thursday, January 13), in which Elmo, Tamir, and friends make a Peace Tree to celebrate Dr. King's legacy and the holiday; and Let's Grow Together (Thursday, February 17), where Alan shares his Japanese American heritage with the Sesame Street gang as they learn to make pickled daikon for the community garden food stand.
Celebrity and special guests Jon Batiste (Thursday, November 18), Kacey Musgraves (Thursday, December 2), Naomi Osaka (Thursday, January 6), Anderson .Paak (Thursday, January 13), astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison (Thursday, January 27), Amanda Gorman (Thursday, March 24), Keke Palmer (Thursday, April 21), and Billie Eilish (Thursday, June 16) join for Street Stories, songs, and other segments.
This season, Sesame Workshop took seven of its 35 new Sesame Street episodes to the great outdoors. In Elmo Mails a Letter (Thursday, November 18), Elmo meets a real U.S. Postal Service mail carrier in Queens, N.Y., to learn how mail is sorted and sent to the right place. Abby, Rudy, and Freddy follow a map to find hidden treasure at Croton Gorge Park in Westchester, N.Y., in Hike Pirates (Thursday, January 6). Five episodes were filmed on-location at Harvest Moon Farm & Orchard in North Salem, N.Y., starting with Sesame Street Goes to the Farm (Thursday, April 21).
Sesame Street continues to be available on PBS stations and streams on PBS KIDS.
Sesame Street is the flagship series in Sesame Workshop's burgeoning slate of shows, which includes Sesame Street spinoffs The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo and forthcoming CGI-animated Mecha Builders; Esme & Roy; Ghostwriter; Helpsters; Bea's Block; and first docuseries Through Our Eyes, as well as year-round Sesame Street and Sesame Studios digital shorts, stories, and songs. The nonprofit additionally creates Sesame Street in Communities content addressing the complex challenges faced by children and families today.
Sesame Street is underwritten in part by Beaches Resorts(R), Progressive, and SC Johnson.
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Sesame Street's 51st Season Launches On Thursday, November 12 On HBO Max
BELOVED CHILDREN'S SERIES BEGINS TWO-YEAR CURRICULAR FOCUS ON PLAYFUL PROBLEM-SOLVING, BROUGHT TO LIFE THROUGH NEW ANTHEM 'I WONDER, WHAT IF, LET'S TRY' PERFORMED BY HAILEE STEINFELD
ADDITIONAL CELEBRITY GUESTS IN SEASON 51 INCLUDE KELSEA BALLERINI, STEPHEN AND AYESHA CURRY, BILLY PORTER, ISSA RAE, AND MAGGIE ROGERS
NEW YORK, Nov. 10, 2020 -- Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind a half century of award-winning children's television, will launch Sesame Street's 51st season on Thursday, November 12 on HBO Max, marking the first season to debut on the streaming platform. New episodes - 35 in all - will be available every Thursday on HBO Max, with the season coming to PBS KIDS in Fall 2021.
"We are proud to announce our newest episodes of Sesame Street, designed to entertain and educate kids as we help them build curiosity, creativity, and persistence - an especially crucial focus as families continue to face unprecedented challenges," said Steve Youngwood, Sesame Workshop's President of Media & Education and COO, who becomes the nonprofit's CEO in January 2021. "This season debut on HBO Max marks another key moment in our partnership with WarnerMedia. We are grateful to them and our longstanding partners at PBS for their continued support as we work together to help children grow smarter, stronger, and kinder."
"Sesame Street has a longstanding legacy of doing incredibly important things for children by shaping culture and sparking important conversations among all of us. For me personally, I'm thrilled to be reunited with all the exceptional people that make Sesame Workshop the force that it is," added Tom Ascheim, President, Warner Bros. Global Kids, Young Adults and Classics.
Sesame Street's latest season marks the beginning of a two-year curriculum focused on playful problem-solving, designed to build critical thinking skills in young children and better equip them to handle challenges in school and beyond. As Sesame Street Muppets, human cast members, and guest stars alike face obstacles - while building a castle, staging a circus, fixing the inner workings of a grandfather clock, and more - they approach these problems with curiosity, creativity, and perseverance, together using phrases and corresponding gestures as starting points in finding solutions: I wonder... ? (pointer finger to temple); What if... ? (pointer finger to chin); and Let's try! (pointer finger in the air).
A new anthem - "I Wonder, What If, Let's Try" - performed by celebrity guest Hailee Steinfeld, brings this curriculum to life and makes its season debut on Thursday, November 26. The anthem will appear in Sesame Street episodes throughout the year.
Additional celebrity guests this season include Maggie Rogers (Thursday, November 19), Issa Rae (Thursday, December 10), Stephen and Ayesha Curry (Thursday, March 25), Billy Porter (Thursday, April 1), and Kelsea Ballerini (Thursday, June 17), taking part in Street Stories and other segments throughout the season.
Sesame Street continues to be available on PBS stations and on the PBS KIDS 24/7 channel, and anytime on the free PBS KIDS Video App (no subscription needed).
Sesame Street is underwritten in part by Beaches, SeaWorld, Blue Lizard, and Chrysler.
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SESAME STREET'S 50TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION KICKS OFF THE 50TH SEASON OF "SESAME STREET" NOV. 9, FOLLOWED BY NEW WEEKLY EPISODES STARTING NOV. 16
Joseph Gordon-Levitt hosts the star-studded special, with guest appearances by Whoopi Goldberg, Patti LaBelle, Elvis Costello, Meghan Trainor, Sterling K. Brown, Norah Jones, Nile Rodgers, and Itzhak Perlman
Season 50 of the acclaimed children's series marks the last season on the HBO service before moving to the HBO Max streaming platform
For five decades, SESAME STREET has been helping kids grow smarter, stronger and kinder. This November, the groundbreaking show launches its 50th season with a special evening presentation of SESAME STREET'S 50TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION, debuting SATURDAY, NOV. 9 (7:00-7:45 p.m. ET/PT), followed by new weekly episodes starting SATURDAY, NOV. 16 (9:00-9:30 a.m.).
The new season begins with SESAME STREET'S 50TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION, a star-studded primetime special that offers a sweeping look at fifty years on the Street. Hosted by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the special reimagines classic segments and songs like "People in Your Neighborhood" and "It's Not Easy Being Green" as the Sesame Street gang gets ready for a big celebration. The special includes cameos from rarely seen characters like Roosevelt Franklin and Kermit the Frog, and visits from celebrity guests Whoopi Goldberg, Patti LaBelle, Elvis Costello, Meghan Trainor, Sterling K. Brown, Norah Jones, Nile Rodgers, and Itzhak Perlman. Human cast members returning for the special include Bob McGrath (Bob), Sonia Manzano (Maria), Emilio Delgado (Luis), Loretta Long (Susan), Roscoe Orman (Gordon), Linda Bove (Linda), Alison Bartlett (Gina), Nitya Vidyasagar (Leela), and Olamide Faison (Miles).
Season 50 of SESAME STREET also features "Big Bird's Road Trip," a special segment that tours the United States and beyond to find out what kids love about their communities. In each installment, Big Bird meets a new friend and video chats Elmo back on Sesame Street, sharing what's special about their families, interests and neighborhoods.
This season, the iconic children's curriculum focus "Oops and Aha!: Embracing the Power of Possibilities" addresses a pervasive issue facing young children. Today's preschool kids are under an unprecedented amount of stress and pressure to meet certain academic and social-emotional benchmarks, often before they're developmentally ready. That result-oriented mindset can make kids afraid to take even the safest risks, like coloring outside the lines or asking "silly" questions.
Individual episodes throughout the season show how caring adults can help relieve that pressure by giving kids room to make mistakes and tools to persevere afterwards. In one episode, for example, Abby Cadabby's brother Rudy feels upset when he "ruins" a drawing; Alan encourages him to keep trying, and Rudy eventually creates a new picture inspired by his mistake.
SESAME STREET is also currently available on HBO NOW, HBO GO, HBO On Demand partners' streaming platforms. Starting with season 51, HBO Max will be the streaming home of Sesame Street with premiere episodes and exclusive access to the entire 50-year Sesame Street library. Sesame Street content continues to be available to PBS KIDS viewers.
First episode date: November 10, 1969
Network: HBO, NET, PBS
Show type: Animated, Educational, Pre-school, Sketch Comedy
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