Big Bird and friends search for new streaming home after Max departure

The children’s TV show “Sesame Street” will have to find a new place to stream new episodes after HBO parent company Warner Bros. Discovery decided to let the arrangement lapse.

Since 2015, new episodes of “Sesame Street” have been streamed first on HBO before later airing for free via PBS. The 55th season of the children’s programming staple, set to go up in January, will be the last on the Max streaming platform.

“Based on consumer usage and feedback, we’ve had to prioritize our focus on stories for adults and families. And so new episodes from ‘Sesame Street,’ at this time, are not as core to our strategy,” a Max spokesperson told The New York Times.

The catalog of older “Sesame Street” episodes hosted on Max will remain there through 2027.

“We are excited to extend our 10-year partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery, keeping Sesame Street’s iconic library available on Max through 2027. We will continue to invest in our best-in-class programming and look forward to announcing our new distribution plans in the coming months,” the nonprofit Sesame Workshop that produces its namesake show told The Hollywood Reporter.

Episodes have been hosted on Max since 2019. Nearly 200 episodes of “Sesame Street” were removed from the platform in 2022.

While everything from seasons 39 through 52 were left untouched and several spinoffs remained up, many older episodes got the ax. Only a selection of episodes from the first, fifth and seventh seasons of “Sesame Street” remained among those that predated the 39th season cutoff, according to NYT.