Sesame Street Reveals Format Changes, New Cartoon Segment For Season 56

Sesame Street will unspool longer stories and at long last take viewers inside the iconic 123 address, as part of a "reimagining" of the program on tap for the 2025-26 TV season.

As detailed by our sister site THR.com, Season 56 of the long-running children's series, which should premiere about two years from now, will set aside its well-known "magazine"-style format so as to accommodate a pair of 11-minute, "narrative-driven" story segments.

"Both the A story and the B story will come together in some way to really help us with whatever curricular focus that we're trying to have," Kay Wilson Stallings, an EVP and chief creative development and production officer for Sesame Workshop, explained to THR. "Kids love a little bit of peril, they love having emotional stakes, and in nine minutes it's kind of hard to really dive into those areas really effectively" — ergo the longer blocks of stories that can be more "dynamic" and "sophisticated." 

Inserted between the two story segments will be Tales From 123, a new animated series that via five-minute segments "for the very first time will give viewers an opportunity to go inside 123 Sesame Street, which is probably the most famous apartment building in the world," said Wilson Stallings. "And there, beyond the stoop, is where monsters and humans and fairies and dinosaurs and talking numbers and letters and even food will call home."

Other changes on tap for Season 56 include "a signature song" in every episode (hopefully sung on occasion by a famous singer), and having the Muppet characters speak to the camera, to the moppets watching at home.

Of note, Warner Bros. Discovery's current deal to stream the series on Max expires with Season 55, so the reimagined Season 56 might feature a new home, as well.

Sesame Street Season 54 premieres Thursday, Nov. 9 on Max, with the new episodes airing on PBS some nine months later.