Breitbart- Changes in Federal Funding Forces Sesame Workshop to ‘Downsize Significantly’ amid Layoffs.
The Sesame Workshop will “downsize significantly” due to ongoing layoffs, said President and CEO Sherrie Rollins Westin on Wednesday.
Westin announced the layoffs in a letter to staff shared on Wednesday while expressing her “gratitude” for all of their past contributions.
“Unfortunately, Sesame Workshop is not immune to the current economic challenges inherent to the drastically changing media landscape,” she said. “Combined with the end of our current distribution deal and the policy changes affecting our federal funding, we’re confronted with a perfect storm. These factors, among others, have left us with a significant budget gap that we must solve for as we head into the next fiscal year.”
“Given that our largest single expense is people and benefits, we must downsize significantly and make what we hope will be temporary changes to our benefits and bonus program,” she added. “These changes are necessary to ensure that the Workshop is poised to continue to deliver on its mission for years to come, but that does not make the human impact of these reductions any less painful.”
She concluded with a promise to ensure that Sesame Workshop will be around “for children and families for decades to come.” more here
Oh no! What will I do with my PhD in puppetry?
^^^or my Master’s in Muppetry lol
Here’s my big bird. 🖕
Sesame St. has needed some revitalization and gentrification for quite a while.
I have no idea how all the licensing worked out for all those Sesame Street characters, but we all know just how lucrative that franchise has been across all merch platforms, not to mention all the proceeds from media broadcast, films, etc. But, no one will convince me that Sesame Street (in whatever form or platform) has a need of public monies to continue, nay, to thrive. Further, from what I’ve read and seen, Sesame Street’s time has come and gone — for the same reasons as for the Disney brand.
I’ve looked and looked and looked some more but I simply cannot find anything in the Constitution of the United States that empowers Congress to appropriate money for a little kids’ TV puppet show.
I never understood why children’s programming has to continue being produced. If Sesame Street is for the 2-5 year old demographic, the audience turns over every four years. Why don’t they just re-run the first four years of the show over and over? It’s not as if the alphabet has changed since the program began.
L is for LEECH.
Anonymous
Thursday, 6 March 2025, 16:02 at 4:02 pm
‘Oh no! What will I do with my PhD in puppetry?’
I have a place you can slide your hand into!
If the Sesame Street budget gets any tighter they’re going to have to cook Big Bird to feed the staffers.