Netflix is for the children!
On Monday, the streaming giant revealed the trailer for its first Sesame Street season — the 56th season overall of the iconic preschool series — which premieres in exactly one week. Netflix promises its version will have an all-new playability, as well as more comedy.
Netflix will release Sesame Street episodes four at a time over three separate premiere periods — think Stranger Things season five, just with much furrier monsters. The first feature guest appearance on season 56 is NASCAR champion Bubba Wallace, whom parents might remember from this incident.
“Season 56 reimagines Sesame Street, inviting children into the action and bringing them hand-in-hand through high-stakes stories, powerful learning moments and laugh-out-loud surprises,” Sal Perez, Sesame Street executive producer, said in a statement. “As always, Sesame Street’s curriculum is designed to meet children’s most pressing needs — so our focus this season is on kindness and compassion, something we can all use more of today.”
Sesame Street episodes on Netflix will remain 30-minutes long; until 2016, they were an hour.
The show’s new head writer is Halcyon Person, who served the same role on Netflix’s Karma’s World (2021), the animated show from rapper Ludacris starring his daughter, and Dee & Friends in Oz (2024). Netflix’s Sesame Street will be available in 30-plus languages.
Sesame Street first launched on Nov. 10, 1969, exactly 56 years prior to its Netflix era (the seasons align to the years).
Watch the trailer, below:
These changes have been in the works for a while. More than two years ago, Steve Youngwood, the CEO of Sesame Workshop, walked The Hollywood Reporter through the new vision for the old show.
The single-largest change will see the program drop the “magazine”-style format it has long used in favor of two longer, more narrative-driven segments, which will be paired with a new animated series, Tales From 123. The new format will feature two 11-minute story segments, with the new animated series sandwiched in between them. Read more here.