By Lynn Elber, Television Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --The Muppets, longtime residents of PBS, are getting a second home at HBO.
The premium cable channel and Sesame Workshop, which produces "Sesame Street," on Thursday announced a five-year deal that will expand the "Sesame Street" footprint and its amount of programming.
The next five seasons of the respected children's series will be available on HBO and its related platforms, including HBO GO and HBO On Demand. The deal will allow the Sesame Workshop, a nonprofit educational organization, to produce almost double the content of previous seasons, HBO and the workshop said.
New episodes will go to HBO first, with PBS stations getting the episodes for free but to rerun nine months later. There won't be any interruption for "Sesame Street" on PBS, with the current season airing until new shows become available.
"Our new partnership with HBO represents a true winning public-private partnership model," said Jeffrey D. Dunn, Sesame Workshop's CEO. He said it provides his organization with "critical funding" to continue producing the show and airing it on PBS, its home for 45 years.
Besides "Sesame Street," the workshop will make a Muppets spinoff series and a new original educational series for children. HBO said it also has licensed more than 150 past episodes of "Sesame Street."
Joan Ganz Cooney, co-founder of the series, said she has "long admired the creative work of HBO and can't think of a better partner to continue the quality of 'Sesame Street's' programming." She noted there have been dramatic changes in the way children consume video and the economics of the kids' TV business, and said Sesame Workshop must "adapt to the times."
The move by HBO reflects another reality: Fledgling TV competitors such as Amazon and Netflix are making their own forays into children's programming as part of their streaming services.
The new episodes will begin airing as early as fall 2015, with HBO the exclusive, first-run subscription TV distribution partner for "Sesame Street" and the new series, in both English and Spanish.
In addition to Sesame Street, HBO will also license about 50 past episodes of "Pinky Dinky Doo," an animated series for preschoolers with a focus on early literacy, and "The Electric Company," which relaunched in 2009, from Sesame Workshop.
“Scandal” cast will reunite for online script reading for hurricane relief in western North Carolina
The cast of ABC's hit political drama "Scandal" may need to brush up on their snappy, speedy delivery known as "Scandal-pace," because they're reuniting for a good cause. Its stars including Kerry Washington, Tony Goldwyn and Bellamy Young will take part in a live virtual script reading on Nov. 17 to raise money for hurricane relief in western North Carolina.
Beginning Friday, fans can go online and donate to reserve a spot for the online reading. Proceeds will benefit United Way of North Carolina. Everyone who donates will be able to take part in a virtual pre-event with the cast and Shonda Rhimes will give an introduction.
Additional guest stars will also be announced. The online fundraising platform Prizeo is also holding a contest where one person who donates online via their site will be selected to read a role from the script with the actors. The winner should not worry about the "Scandal"-pace, assured Young over Zoom.
"Whomever the lucky reader is can read at whatever pace they want," she said.
Young, who played Mellie Young, the first lady and later Republican presidential nominee on "Scandal," was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina. She came up with the idea for the effort with a friend and took it to her fellow "Scandal" actors, who all jumped on board. Young said this is the first script reading the cast has all done together since the show ended after seven seasons in 2018.
Which episode they will be reading has not been announced yet.
Young said it's "been devastating" to see so many parts of her hometown badly damaged by Hurricane Helene, which ravaged western North Carolina one month ago.
To research the best use for donations, Young spoke with numerous political leaders, including North... Read More