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Atlantic
13 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Atlantic
How Kids' TV Turned Into ‘Preschool Tinder'
Julia, a Muppet on Sesame Street, is a 4-year-old girl with bright-orange hair who likes singing, painting, and playing with her stuffed bunny, 'Fluffster.' She's also autistic—which means, as the show made clear during the character's TV debut, in 2017, that Julia expresses herself in a manner some might not understand. When Big Bird worries that Julia's silence means she doesn't like him, his fellow Muppet Abby explains that Julia does things 'in a Julia sort of way.' By the end of the episode, Big Bird and Julia are friends, even harmonizing in song. Neurodivergence is rarely portrayed authentically on-screen, let alone in a way children can grasp. But Julia, who went on to become a regular presence on the show, is the result of a collaboration between Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit company behind Sesame Street, and a team of researchers who study child development and autism. And her introduction did more than demonstrate what neurodivergence can look like; the show emphasized that she has an identity of her own and is as worthy of friendship as anyone else. Those are complex concepts, carefully constructed for young viewers to comprehend. In the years ahead, such meticulous work may be harder to accomplish. In May, President Donald Trump's executive order pulling federal dollars from public networks such as PBS and PBS Kids led to the abrupt termination of Ready to Learn, a grant designed in part to financially provide for the development of children's shows. Last month, Congress approved the Trump administration's rescission package, revoking $1.1 billion previously allocated to public radio and television. Canceling such funding, PBS Kids' senior vice president and general manager Sara DeWitt told me recently, 'really puts a lot of our future planning in jeopardy'—planning that involves ensuring that their children's shows are in line with the 'high quality' educational TV established by Sesame Street. Not helping matters is the fact that, despite being arguably the most consequential children's show in history, Sesame Street has spent this past year being passed around like a hot potato by different streaming partners. The series' turbulent journey to stay on the air reflects, in some ways, how precarious and expansive the children's-TV landscape has become. Before the streaming boom, parents could depend on a handful of publicly funded or dedicated networks for well-curated, enriching children's programming. But as newer media platforms have become more prevalent, kids' television has become more sprawling—and more difficult for families to navigate. Streamers such as Netflix now offer kids' programming, with their own siloed-off sections and parental controls; YouTube, too, is packed with content creators making children's videos. Koyalee Chanda, a creative executive at Lion Forge Entertainment, a production company geared toward family-friendly projects, describes the current multiplatform landscape as 'preschool Tinder,' a realm in which young viewers can swipe endlessly through videos, seeking a match without always knowing the difference between one show's intentions and another's—and in which it's harder for show creators to make their work stand out. 'Essentially,' Chanda told me, 'you only are as valuable as your thumbnail.' As such, children's television has become a diffuse field. Linda Simensky, a former executive for Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon who helped create shows such as Dexter's Laboratory and The Powerpuff Girls, told me she fears that the genre has ballooned out of control. The industry's changing priorities and shaky quality assurance have left her disenchanted by the business. 'I spent more than 30 years building this industry,' she said, 'and I feel like it's just all falling apart now.' Think of a beloved character from your childhood—a Teletubby, maybe, or Thomas the Tank Engine. What comes to mind? Nostalgia, probably. But according to a study by UCLA's Center for Scholars & Storytellers that was published earlier this year, a toddler's favorite characters can also promote the development of lifelong behaviors and skills. Take Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, the animated spin-off of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood that began airing in 2012. The show has consulted childhood-development experts to ensure that the 4-year-old Daniel behaves like many of the preschoolers who watch him: If he gets mad, he expresses his anger; if he is disappointed, he makes that clear. Afterward, he sings a 'strategy song,' teaching his audience social-emotional skills while simultaneously relating to them. The UCLA survey reported that 21 percent of teenagers who had grown up watching Daniel were still making use of the skills they'd learned years earlier. The goal for many of those working in children's entertainment, DeWitt explained, is to make shows that help viewers retain a variety of skills, emotional and otherwise. That's certainly the approach behind Sesame Street: 'Our guiding principle has been to center the preschooler in our storytelling, always,' Halcyon Person, the head writer for the show's upcoming season, told me over email. She explained that by observing kids' needs, 'we know not only that we're making something that will teach them, but something that will stick with them as they grow.' Doing this has become harder, however, as the industry becomes more fragmented. In the past, child-development experts were often included in the making of kids' television, DeWitt said, but now 'a lot of the new content that's being created for kids is being created by anyone and is uploaded into a space that isn't heavily regulated and also doesn't have curation tied to it.' Plus, children themselves have become content creators, even small-screen stars. A preschooler can learn their ABCs from Elmo in one video, then watch another made by someone their own age, encouraging them to like and subscribe. The proportion of self-produced work to network-commissioned programming started to change as soon as YouTube became a significant player in the entertainment industry, in the 2010s. The company is reportedly on track to outpace even Disney in revenue, as a majority of younger consumers find creator-driven, social-media efforts more relevant than traditional media. 'There are stars, characters, and IP on YouTube that have bigger and deeper fan bases than what we're seeing on linear television,' Chris Williams, the founder and CEO of PocketWatch, a studio that harnesses the popularity of internet-driven talent, told me. His company partners with channels and creators that have major followings, such as Ryan Kaji, the now-teenage host of Ryan's World, and builds upon the content they've already developed. 'We kind of curate it, enrich it, package it,' Williams said of PocketWatch's aim. 'We basically turn it into TV.' That strategy is similar to what's deployed at Moonbug, the company that acquired and distributes Blippi and CoComelon. The latter show—a juggernaut on YouTube, attracting billions of views with its bobble-headed animated characters and earworm-y nursery songs—often came up as an example for, as one parent put it to me, the 'brain rot' their family encounters on YouTube. When I told Moonbug's chief creative officer Richard Hickey that some parents are wary of CoComelon, he sounded dismayed. He told me that Moonbug is a 'creative first' company, cultivating its shows with what he refers to as a 'story trust' that's concerned with finding storytelling elements that will resonate with their audience. 'Of course, yes, we are a business,' he said. 'We're looking for successful properties that we can then build on and try and create franchises from—but really, at the heart of it, how does that content connect with our viewers?' Williams pointed out that, in some ways, companies such as PocketWatch are simply trying to expand the reach of content that's already popular and considered good for kids, therefore streamlining the painstaking process of choosing what to watch. 'Parents have been media-shamed about YouTube for a really long time, like, Everything on YouTube's bad, right? ' Williams said. '99.99 percent of everything on YouTube for kids is bad, but we're mining for the .01 percent.' Making sure that children's videos on YouTube are better than the majority of what's available is a task that Katie Kurtz, the managing director and global head of youth and learning at YouTube, tackles for a living. She told me that when a creator marks a video or channel as age-appropriate on the YouTube platform, an algorithm—fine-tuned by machine learning and, at times, by human moderators—studies whether it follows the company's ' quality principles,' which educators and developmental psychologists helped establish in 2021. (Not all content labeled this way ends up on YouTube Kids. YouTube occasionally marks videos as 'Made for kids' based on its own algorithmic findings, although creators can appeal the label if they believe it's inaccurate.) The platform then recommends videos that promote the outlined principles, such as self-care, learning, and creativity, while burying submissions that don't meet these standards. YouTube also invites experts to host workshops that train creators on how to refine their videos in accordance with quality expectations. 'For us, it's really not enough to be a safe experience,' Kurtz said. 'We want it to be an enriching experience as well.' One of those experts is Yalda Uhls, the founder and CEO of the Center of Scholars & Storytellers at UCLA. Although she helps shape the direction of YouTube's content standards and has praised their impact, she has doubts about whether what's being produced will always enrich children. 'Companies are focused on money and engagement and the most eyeballs,' she told me. 'To continuously try to come up with a mechanism to get them to want to work with you on supporting their audience's well-being, it's just hard.' She recalled a meeting years ago in which a YouTube executive in charge of a former division making children's content asked experts which programs creators should draw inspiration from—only to bristle when they suggested Mister Rogers. (YouTube declined to comment.) ''I would never make a show like that, because it's too slow,'' she recalled the executive saying. 'And we were all like, What?! ' Of course, the children's-television genre today isn't devoid of series like Mister Rogers; Uhls herself pointed to Ms. Rachel, the popular YouTuber who specializes in toddler-friendly music, as a worthy successor. Yet young viewers have fewer sources directing them toward shows of this nature. The defunding of public networks has made the decentralization of kids' TV more stark, while individual companies and studios differ on what's considered worthwhile programming. 'We're trying to make the most nourishing content we can,' Hickey, the Moonbug executive, said. But in the end, caregivers should take charge, he argued: 'I don't think there's any shortcut.' Even creating guidelines for a single household, though, can get complicated quickly. Tetyana Korchynskyy, one of the parents I spoke with, told me that when her son began watching television just before his first birthday, she set ground rules for what he could view. There'd be no horror, no violence, and nothing meant for grown-ups. Screen time would not happen first thing in the morning or right before bed. She'd aim to allow up to three hours of daily viewing while also making sure he played outside, ideally with other kids. Korchynskyy's son is now 3, and maintaining those guardrails has often felt like a job in and of itself. Even though she tries to control the apps he can access and monitor which shows leave him glued to the screen, his media consumption can be 'very difficult to really control,' she told me. His preferences, too, can complicate the task; after liking Ms. Rachel for a while, he suddenly began rejecting her videos. This abandonment of Ms. Rachel —poor Ms. Rachel!—reminded me of something Simensky, who helped develop series such as The Ren & Stimpy Show and Rocko's Modern Life, observed about her work as a former creative executive. She'd know something was resonating if she saw children playing pretend with the characters. She called it 'the yard platform'—as in, were the kids putting the show on in the yard? If so, that meant they were passionate enough about what they were watching to become active participants rather than just passive viewers. In other words, children's interests and tastes can help greatly in the design of kids' shows—if not in the studio, then in focus groups and research studies. Chanda, the Lion Forge executive, recalled her early days of directing Blue's Clues, when she learned that the show followed a specific rhythm—one that could feel slow for adults. Children, studies indicate, seem to struggle to perform tasks after watching fast-paced content. Conventional wisdom may dictate that not much is required to hold a preschooler's attention—'There's always been an attitude of 'Kids will watch whatever you give them,'' Simensky said—but Blue's Clues aimed to also enrich its young viewers' minds. The history of the genre is one of constant disruption: Kids grow up quickly, the tech industry innovates rapidly, financial support fluctuates often, and societal norms are always changing. Lately, the combined disruption has become more acute—the funding more sharply slashed, the landscape more difficult to navigate—which, in turn, is threatening the quality control that children's programming needs. But key to finding a way forward through the uncertainty, Chanda pointed out, is understanding that a clear constant exists amid all the shakiness. 'Everyone who works in kids' TV knows who their boss really is,' she said. 'Their boss is that kid.'
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Helping Hands Hawaii looking for your kokua
HONOLULU (KHON2) –Helping Hands Hawaii is about to kick off their Ready to Learn program. Hawaiʻi Foodbank giving keiki free meals this summer Their annual back-to-school initiative that assists students from across the state get the basic school supplies they need. Download the free KHON2 app for iOS or Android to stay informed on the latest news Families in need can visit their website or register their children for Ready to Learn. How can you help? Starting on June 1 through July 31st, you can donate school supplies or contribute online. Supplies and donations can also be dropped off at their office at 2100 N. Nimitz Highway weekdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and the 3rd Saturday of the month from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Be sure write 'Ready to Learn' on your more information find it at Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
PBS sues Trump administration over order to revoke federal funding
PBS is suing President Donald Trump and other members of his administration in an effort to halt his order stripping federal funding from the television network. The lawsuit, filed Friday, argues that 'regardless of any policy disagreements over the role of public television, our Constitution and laws forbid the President from serving as the arbiter of the content of PBS's programming, including by attempting to defund PBS.' Trump and his administration have targeted a wide array of media companies he views as his adversaries, including looking to strip federal funding from public media organizations. Earlier this month, the president signed an executive order to restrict public funds to both NPR and PBS. In his order, Trump claimed the organizations engage in 'biased and partisan news coverage.' PBS argues in its lawsuit that Trump's order violates the First Amendment because it 'makes no attempt to hide the fact that it is cutting off the flow of funds to PBS because of the content of PBS programming and out of a desire to alter the content of speech.' 'That is blatant viewpoint discrimination and an infringement of PBS and PBS Member Stations' private editorial discretion,' the suit states. In a statement to POLITICO, the White House disputed PBS's accusations. 'The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers' dime. Therefore, the President is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS,' said deputy press secretary Harrison Fields. 'The President was elected with a mandate to ensure efficient use of taxpayer dollars, and he will continue to use his lawful authority to achieve that objective.' Both NPR and PBS have been regular targets for Trump, outgoing Department of Government Efficiency chief Elon Musk and the administration's allies on Capitol Hill. A PBS spokesperson previously told POLITICO that government dollars accounted for roughly 16 percent of its funding. The television system also names Education Secretary Linda McMahon in the suit, after the Education Department cut grants to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — the independent, congressional-funded organization that provides grants to public media — for Ready to Learn programming, which includes making shows like 'Sesame Street.' The Department of Homeland Security and FEMA are also named in the suit because PBS's technology is used as a backup for the nationwide emergency alert system. PBS's lawsuit comes just three days after NPR filed a similar lawsuit against the Trump administration. Like PBS, NPR's lawsuit accuses the president's order of violating the First Amendment. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is also suing the Trump administration after the president tried to fire board members.
Politico
30-05-2025
- Business
- Politico
PBS sues Trump administration over order to revoke federal funding
PBS is suing President Donald Trump and other members of his administration in an effort to halt his order stripping federal funding from the television network. The lawsuit, filed Friday, argues that 'regardless of any policy disagreements over the role of public television, our Constitution and laws forbid the President from serving as the arbiter of the content of PBS's programming, including by attempting to defund PBS.' Trump and his administration have targeted a wide array of media companies he views as his adversaries, including looking to strip federal funding from public media organizations. Earlier this month, the president signed an executive order to restrict public funds to both NPR and PBS. In his order, Trump claimed the organizations engage in 'biased and partisan news coverage.' PBS argues in its lawsuit that Trump's order violates the First Amendment because it 'makes no attempt to hide the fact that it is cutting off the flow of funds to PBS because of the content of PBS programming and out of a desire to alter the content of speech.' 'That is blatant viewpoint discrimination and an infringement of PBS and PBS Member Stations' private editorial discretion,' the suit states. In a statement to POLITICO, the White House disputed PBS's accusations. 'The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers' dime. Therefore, the President is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS,' said deputy press secretary Harrison Fields. 'The President was elected with a mandate to ensure efficient use of taxpayer dollars, and he will continue to use his lawful authority to achieve that objective.' Both NPR and PBS have been regular targets for Trump, outgoing Department of Government Efficiency chief Elon Musk and the administration's allies on Capitol Hill. A PBS spokesperson previously told POLITICO that government dollars accounted for roughly 16 percent of its funding. The television system also names Education Secretary Linda McMahon in the suit, after the Education Department cut grants to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — the independent, congressional-funded organization that provides grants to public media — for Ready to Learn programming, which includes making shows like 'Sesame Street.' The Department of Homeland Security and FEMA are also named in the suit because PBS's technology is used as a backup for the nationwide emergency alert system. PBS's lawsuit comes just three days after NPR filed a similar lawsuit against the Trump administration. Like PBS, NPR's lawsuit accuses the president's order of violating the First Amendment. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is also suing the Trump administration after the president tried to fire board members.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sesame Street Is Relocating to Netflix
Elmo's brief unemployment era is over. Sesame Street has found a new home at Netflix following the expiration of its contract with Warner Bros. Discovery, which began in 2016 when new episodes went into production at HBO after the Public Broadcasting Service, or PBS, could no longer afford the expenses required to keep the series afloat. 'We are excited to announce that all new Sesame Street episodes are coming to @netflix worldwide along with library episodes, and new episodes will also release the same day on @PBS Stations and@PBSKIDS platforms in the US, preserving a 50+ year relationship,' Netflix shared in a statement published on social media. 'The support of Netflix, PBS, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting serve as a unique public-private partnership to enable Sesame Street to continue to help children everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder.' More from Rolling Stone 'Forever' Showrunner Mara Brock Akil Wants to 'Give Boys Their Full Humanity' Madonna Biopic Series With Shawn Levy in the Works at Netflix: Report Karol G Celebrates Netflix Documentary Release with 'Milagros' At HBO, new Sesame Street episodes would premiere nine months before they would air on PBS. Netflix plans to close the gap with its same-day release schedule beginning with Season 56. The uncertain fate of the beloved children's series reached a depressing turning point when a LinkedIn post claimed that Elmo, who is perpetually three years old, lost his job. 'Hi LinkedIn, unfortunately Elmo was recently laid off because of the federal budget cuts,' the post read. 'Elmo worked at Sesame Street for 45 years. Elmo is sad. Elmo loved his time at Sesame Street.' On May 1, Trump announced an executive order demanding the end of all federal funding for NPR and PBS, on the grounds that they allegedly 'receive millions from taxpayers to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as 'news,'' according to a White House social media post. The Ready to Learn program, which provided $23 million in funding for educational kids' shows and games, was among the targeted grant cancellations, per the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Best of Rolling Stone The 50 Best 'Saturday Night Live' Characters of All Time Denzel Washington's Movies Ranked, From Worst to Best 70 Greatest Comedies of the 21st Century
