Famed children’s show Sesame Street has finally succumbed to our shortening attention spans. PBS will begin broadcasting and streaming a half-hour version of the show this fall, the company said Wednesday.
For almost 45 years, Sesame Street has run only hour-long episodes, even as other children’s shows got shorter. But a jump in use of the PBS Kids Video app last year and slumping broadcasting ratings convinced the network to design a mobile-friendly version of the show.
“30 minutes is about as long as you can get [for mobile],” Lesli Rotenberg, PBS’s general manager of children’s programming, told the New York Times about the new format. “The hourlong show didn’t lend itself as well to that.”
The new half-hour shows will join PBS’ afternoon lineup starting Sept. 1. PBS will also stream more than just clips from the show for the first time in Sesame Street history: some episodes will be streamable via the PBS website, its mobile app and its Roku channel.
Hour-long Sesame Street episodes will continue to run in the mornings.
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