But if the letter/word on your mind re: this whole situation is simply “Why?”, well, that’s more complicated. The most obvious reason for the cuts is one we reported on late last year: Warner Bros. Discovery’s decision not to renew its distribution agreement with Sesame Workshop, ending a decade-long relationship that saw the series premiere its new episodes on Max. Besides forcing the show to seek out a new (as-yet unfound) home, it also means Sesame Workshop is suddenly operating without its primary financial backer. That issue was put front and center in a memo to staff sent by CEO Sherrie Rollins Westin (and posted online by media reporter Max Tani) this week, in which Westin wrote about “a significant budget gap” currently facing Sesame Workshop.
Westin’s note also noted “policy changes affecting our federal funding” affecting the company’s finances; that might refer to the Trump administration’s long-stated desire to destroy public television funding outright, but it also might end up being a DOGE thing: As has been occasionally highlighted as Elon Musk and his pack of feral teens wander around the U.S. government, breaking shit and high-fiving with chainsaws, Sesame Workshop gets several million dollars a year in funding from groups like the now deeply-imperiled USAID to do various outreach and public works projects. (Specifically, the company was given a $20 million USAID grant, stretching from 2021 to 2027, to adapt a kids show called Ahlan Simsim, meant “to promote inclusion, mutual respect, and understanding across ethnic, religious, and sectarian groups,” for children in Iraq.) The dismantling of USAID has presumably been another major mark against the nonprofit’s balance sheet.
But also, it is very hard not to take notice of the fact that news of the oncoming downsizing comes just one literal day after more than 200 employees of Sesame Workshop asked the company to recognize a new union. Although performers and writers on Sesame Street are already covered under their respective unions, many of the show’s non-performing or writing staff—including, per a posting from the Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 153, early childhood education experts, fundraisers, facilities staff, producers, paralegals, and more—have now asked for similar recognition, only to be told, a day later, that layoffs were coming instead. (Westin’s memo doesn’t seem to acknowledge the organizing efforts.) The whole thing is very “Elmo on fire,” honestly; it’s not clear what any of it means for the show’s future, with previous reports suggesting that production on Sesame Street‘s 56th season was set to begin next month.
