However, there is a lot to be excited about for the upcoming season as you can see in the trailer below:
Guest stars stopping by the street include musicians SZA, Reneé Rapp, Samara Joy, Noah Kahan, and Chris Stapleton, as well as Michael B. Jordan, Jonathan Van Ness, and Billie Jean King.
The 55th season of Sesame Street will focus on expressing feelings, practicing mindfulness and building on resiliency.
Feature episodes include: Beachball Bop (Thursday, January 16), where Elmo learns how to do volcano breaths after he feels angry; Abby Taps Into Kindness (Thursday, April 10), where Abby learns what it means to be kind to yourself to overcome frustration, all with the help of her friends; Happy Bert Day (Thursday, July 24), where Ernie is excited to throw Bert a big, loud party for Bert’s birthday, but Bert gets frustrated as he wants to celebrate his birthday with a quiet puzzle – can lion breaths help them both feel better?; and New School Scaries (Thursday, September 4), where Cookie Monster, feeling nervous about going to a new cooking school, enlists his friends to help him prepare.
Mecha Elmo, Mecha Cookie, and Mecha Abby make their Sesame Street debut as Mecha Builders shorts air within select episodes. Mecha Builders is Sesame Street’s first-ever 3D CGI animated series, which combines the lovable characters with a STEM curriculum. Plus, Sesame Street’s BFF (best furry friends) duo, Elmo and Tango, along with their adventurous pal Gabrielle and certified fact checker, Grandma Nell, explore the unknown world both on and off the Street in the animated Sesame Street Nature Explorers shorts. And don’t miss Cookie Monster and his popular Foodie Truck!
Sesame Street 's season 55 premieres Thursday, Jan. 16 with new episodes dropping weekly on Max.
While Sesame Workshop looks for a home for future episodes, season 55 and selective episodes from Sesame Street's vast library will be available on MAX until 2027 and season 55 will also debut later this year on PBS.
Sesame Street's 54th season premieres November 9 on MAX.
Check out the press release touting the season below:
(October 17, 2023 – New York, N.Y.) – Sesame Workshop, the global impact nonprofit behind decades of award-winning engaging educational media content, today announced Sesame Street’s 54th season will debut on Thursday, November 9 on Max. Episodes of the iconic children’s series, 35 in all, will release every Thursday. The season will stream on PBS KIDS in Fall 2024.
“With so many unique stories to tell, Sesame Street will build upon last season’s joyful self and belonging content that resonated deeply with children and their families and will continue to do so by honoring, reflecting, and celebrating our diverse world,” said Sal Perez, Executive Producer, Sesame Street. “Season 54 will inspire children to be proud of who they are and connect with their community. At the core of the show, our furry and funny Sesame Street friends welcome children to play, laugh, and celebrate who they are with us.”
Through fun, uplifting stories with beloved friends, children will learn to feel confident and find oy in connecting with and learning about others, celebrating differences, and embracing similarities in their neighborhood.
“This season’s stories act as mirrors that reflect the lives of children and their families, as windows that offer them views to see and learn about others, and as sliding doors which invite children to participate in new experiences with their Sesame Street friends,” said Dr. Rosemarie Truglio, Sesame Workshop’s Senior Vice President of Curriculum & Content. “These child-relevant stories help children develop a healthy sense of self and belonging, and learn to treat each other with kindness, fairness, and respect.”
The characters and children of Sesame Street explore concepts and language that celebrate themselves, their friends and families, and the wider community, providing content for every young viewer to connect with.
Feature episodes include: The Sign Language ABC’S (Thursday,April 11, 2024) in which Elmo learns that sign language has an alphabet too, and this gives him a great idea to celebrate Alphabet Day by singing the ABC song while his friend Mathis, who is deaf, signs the alphabet using American Sign Language; Proud of My Name (Thursday, November 23, 2023) where Rosita feels frustrated when her basketball coach shortens her name and her friends Elmo and Gabrielle encourage her to tell the coach that she wants to be called “Rosita” as she is proud of her name; Brave Bessie by Brave Gabrielle (Thursday, May 23, 2024) where Gabrielle puts on a show to tell her friends about Bessie Coleman, the first African American and Native American woman who used her courage to learn to fly an airplane; The Oct-Dough-Pus (November 16, 2023) in which Grover and his friend the octopus learn that families all over the world make bread in different kinds of ways, shapes, and sizes; Sesame Street Song Day (January 18, 2024) where Mia learns how to sing “Heads, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” in Spanish with help from her friends Nina, Rosita, and Lalo; and Tamir Learns Tagalog (May 16, 2024) where Tamir learns to say a few words in Tagalog to have something to say to his favorite comic book artist, whose family is Filipino, and make him feel welcome.
Additionally, a variety of cultural celebrations will be showcased throughout the season with episodes such as Sesame Street’s Lunar New Year Celebration (Thursday, February 8, 2024) and Shabbat Shalom! (Thursday, April 25, 2024).
Celebrity and special guests Ariana DeBose (Thursday, November 9), Quinta Brunson (Thursday, January 4), Brandi Carlile (Thursday, March 7), Kal Penn (Thursday, March 14), Eugene Cordero (Thursday, May 16), and Dan Levy (Thursday, June 13) join for Street Stories, songs, and other segments.
Also, everyone’s favorite furry friends Elmo and Tango are back for the annual airing of the new family holiday classic, The Nutcracker: Starring Elmo and Tango, which airs December 2 on PBS Kids and will also be available on Max. An original take on a classic Christmas tale, this festive animated feature is a celebration of the greatest gift of all: friendship.
Plus, this year Sesame Street’s Elmo, Tango, Cookie Monster, and Oscar the Grouch leave the neighborhood on a mission to help others in three brand new specials focusing on giving back to the community. With celebrity friends Eddie Jackson, Sunny Anderson, and Jasmine Roth, each unscripted special features the Sesame Street crew teaming up to create fun and surprising solutions to everyday obstacles. Grover, Bert, Abby Cadabby, Gabrielle, and more also join in on the fun. Cookie Monster’s Bake Sale (premiered Aug. 10): Oscar’s Handmade Halloween (premiered Oct. 5): Elmo and Tango Holiday Helpers (premieres Dec. 7) are on Max.
Below you can watch the Sesame Street season 54th sizzle reel:
Sesame Street continues to be available on PBS stations and streams on PBS KIDS.
Sesame Street is the flagship series in Sesame Workshop’s growing slate of shows, which includes the CGI-animated Sesame Street spinoff Mecha Builders; The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo; Esme & Roy; Ghostwriter; Helpsters; and docuseries Through Our Eyes, as well as year round Sesame Street and Sesame Studios digital shorts, stories, specials, and songs.
Sesame Workshop is the global impact nonprofit harnessing the power of education, media, and research to support children in over 150 countries and empower each generation to build a better world.
Just yesterday it was announced that HBO Max removed the HBO Max Originals Esme & Roy, The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo, and an unspecified “select group of Sesame Street specials. Now we Variety is reporting that the streamer has removed something even scarier...about 200 classic Sesame Street episodes!
I wish I could say you had until the end of the month to see them, but the worst part of the decision to remove these titles is that there wasn't any warning for fans to view them before they were pulled.
As of today, HBO Max listed 456 total episodes of Sesame Street, with a selection from Seasons 1, 5 and 7 and the full lineup from the most recent Seasons 39-52.
Of those, only 29 are from the earliest seasons. Previously, the streaming service offered about 650 total Sesame Street episodes, including episodes from Seasons 2-4, Season 6 and those from every season between 8 and 35.
Still available for now on HBO Max, in addition to remaining episodes of the Sesame Street series, are the 10-episode Sesame Street Mecha Builders, seven seasons of My Sesame Street Friends and The Magical Wand Chase special.
We're not sure what this means for the future of Warner Bros. Discovery's relationship with Sesame Workshop, or their commitment to renewing their contract to fund the series.
According to Variety, HBO Max will remove 36 titles from its service as early as this week including a few Sesame Workshop titles.
The list includes the Sesame Workshop HBO Max Originals Esme & Roy, The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo and an unspecified “select group of Sesame Street specials.
“As we work toward bringing our content catalogs together under one platform, we will be making changes to the content offering available on both HBO Max and discovery+,” HBO Max’s statement reads. “That will include the removal of some content from both platforms.”
It is currently unclear whether they will be made available on DVD or rental services, or if their removal will result in them becoming completely inaccessible.
More Not-Too-Late is on the way from Elmo and friends as HBO Max has renewed faux late night show for a second season.
Not only that, Deadline is reporting that production is already underway with the new episodes set to premiere this fall.
"We are thrilled to continue creating new Sesame Street adventures with HBO Max, giving children and families new ways to explore the neighborhood they love,” said Ed Wells, Sesame Workshop’s EVP and Head of Global Media and Education. “This season of The Not-Too-Late Show is packed with all new ways to learn and play together; we can’t wait for kids and families to experience it.”
“Elmo is one of the most beloved characters in the world, and we are so lucky we get to hang out with him on HBO Max,” said Amy Friedman, Head of Kids and Family Programming, Warner Bros. “We think everyone, especially our preschool audience, will be delighted with this reimagined second season – it’s the ultimate family playdate.”
The Not-Too-Late Show With Elmo is streaming now on HBO Max.
