Tubi is betting that viewers are feeling nostalgic for old-school episodes of Sesame Street.
The free, Fox-owned streamer is bringing select episodes of seasons one through 38 of the iconic children’s series to its platform starting Wednesday, April 1, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. Two hundred fifty old-school Sesame Street episodes, aired between 1969 and 2007, will be available on the platform as part of the one-year deal.
Every quarter, 10 percent of the available episodes will be swapped with new ones, bringing additional old-school favorites to the fore.
“Few brands have shaped young minds and sparked imagination quite like Sesame Street,” Tubi’s chief content officer Adam Lewinson said in a statement. “By bringing hundreds of episodes to Tubi for free, we’re giving today’s kids access to joyful, foundational learning while inviting parents to share a piece of their own childhood with the next generation.”
Some notable episodes that will be available on the platform include the series’ 1969 premiere, “Gordon Introduces Sally to Sesame Street.” The 1988 episode when characters Maria and Lewis get married (and Elmo serves as the ring-bearer) will be on offer, as will the 1980 episode when Star Wars characters C-3PO and R2-D2 visited the Street. That’s not to mention one of the series’ first big on-location shoots, 1978’s “Big Bird Goes to Hawaii.”
Sesame Street, produced by the New York-based nonprofit Sesame Workshop, has aired on PBS since its debut in 1969. But streaming platforms have shown deep interest in carrying the series in the last decade or so as well. Starting in 2015, HBO partnered with the series for several years to serve as its first window before the show went to public-access television.
After HBO declined to renew its deal, Netflix stepped in to air new episodes alongside PBS in 2025 while that year YouTube also inked a deal with Sesame Workshop to air classic episodes.
The Tubi deal demonstrates just how enduring the power of Big Bird and Elmo is. The move additionally aligns with polling released by Tubi and The Harris Poll earlier this year that emphasized viewers’ interest in watching nostalgic storytelling. The poll found that 97 percent of respondents were interested to watch projects released more than 10 years ago and that 79 percent of respondents thought streamers should resurface old, beloved projects and not just promote new shows and films.
“For more than 55 years, Sesame Street has been making trusted, joyful learning accessible to every child,” Sesame Workshop chief operating officer Joseph Giraldi said in a statement. “Bringing Sesame Street to Tubi allows us to expand our reach and impact — and we are thrilled that our beloved characters and proven educational media will now be available to even more children, families, and fans.”
