200 Sesame Street Episodes Removed By HBO Max

Sesame Street (Photo: IG @sesamestreet)

JAKARTA - The content clean-up on the HBO Max platform continues with the removal of some 200 old episodes from the children's show Sesame Street. This removal appears to be part of the Warner Bros. merger. Discovery, which aims to reduce payment obligations for streaming content.

Quoted from Variety, Friday, August 20, a total of 456 episodes of Sesame Street are still listed on HBO Max with selections from Seasons 1, 5 and 7 and the full lineup from Seasons 39-52. Of these, only 29 came from the earliest season.

Previously, the streaming service offered around 650 total episodes of Sesame Street, including episodes from Seasons 2-4, Season 6 and those from every season between 8 and 35.

"Sesame Street is and has always been an important part of television culture and the crown jewel of our preschool offering," an HBO Max spokesperson said in a statement to Variety.

"We're committed to continuing to bring 'Sesame Street' into families' homes, including with Season 52 premiering this fall and the more than 400 episodes of the latest and final season remaining on Cartoonito on HBO Max."

Currently, the only Sesame Street episodes still available on HBO Max are 10 episodes of Sesame Street Mecha Builders, seven seasons of My Sesame Street Friends and The Magical Wand Chase special featuring Elmo and Abby. The service will also air additional episodes of Sesame Street Mecha Builders later in 2022.

The removal of the Sesame Street episode comes after HBO Max said last Wednesday that at least 36 titles would leave the service this week. The titles include the original 20 HBO Max shows, the teen drama Generation, the animated anthology series Infinity Train and the children's show Summer Camp Island, as well as several Sesame Street specials.

“As we work to unify our content catalog under a single platform, we will be making changes to the content offerings available on HBO Max and Discovery+. That will include removing some content from both platforms," Warner Bros. said.

In recent weeks, HBO Max has also removed six Warner Bros films and other HBO shows such as Camping, Vinyl, Mrs. Fletcher, and Run. Under the supervision of Warner Bros. Discovery, HBO Max also recently removed the DC Strange Adventures series and the live-action Wonder Twins film.