According to Variety, around 200 episodes of Sesame Street have been pulled from HBO Max, which may be catastrophic for children and parents. According to Variety, the amount of Sesame Street episodes on the site has reduced from about 650 to 456, with many of the programmes being from the show’s early seasons.
HBO has had a long relationship with Sesame Street; in 2019, WarnerMedia (now Warner Bros. Discovery) signed a five-year contract to exclusively stream new episodes of the programme, and Sesame Street originally aired on HBO in 2016.
The older Sesame Street episodes aren’t the only ones being withdrawn; according to NPR, Warner Bros. Discovery plans to remove 36 titles from HBO Max. This includes Sesame Street specials and Elmo’s late-night programme, as well as HBO Max Originals like Infinity Train and Summer Camp Island.
Warner Bros. Discovery has been yanking programming left and right, most notably shelving Batgirl and removing at least six Warner Bros. films from HBO Max. The business slashed employees at HBO Max earlier this week due to overlap from the Warner Bros. Discovery megamerger.
