It’s a sign of the times: PBS will introduce a half-hour version of “Sesame Street” in September. Today’s busy preschoolers have no time to waste. For those accustomed to mobile, digital entertainment, an hour-long television program is so last century.
Effective Sept. 1, PBS announced, “the additional half-hour program will air on weekday afternoons on PBS stations, complementing the one-hour series that airs weekday mornings (9 a.m. on RMPBS). For the first time, selected full episodes of the 30-minute show will also be available for free online at pbskids.org/video, on the PBS KIDS Video App and on the PBS KIDS Roku channel.”
Citing the growing popularity of mobile devices, PBS Children’s Programming boss Lesli Rotenberg said PBS Kids’ reach is “growing exponentially… In just the past year, the number of users streaming video on the incredibly popular PBS KIDS Video App increased 34 percent.”
The abbreviated edition of the show will be a condensed version of the traditional show, with a “Street Story,” “Word on the Street” and letter and number “dance breaks,” but without features like “Elmo the Musical” or “Abby’s Flying Fairy School.”
By Joanne Ostrow
Amber Johnson
Signs of the times!