HBO Max Faces Backlash for Removing 'Sesame Street' Episodes

Sesame Street is among the latest content HBO Max has removed from its streaming platform, and fans of the long-running program have expressed their anger about it online.

"This was why we threw a tantrum when Sesame Street went to HBO originally," read a Twitter post from the entertainment website Sunshine State Cineplex. "It is a program that should never have been controlled by corporations trying to appeal to stockholders. It was always a pubic good above all."

Social media outrage came after viewers noticed the streaming service had pulled about 200 episodes of the educational children's series. After having 650 total episodes of Sesame Street recently, HBO Max had only 456 titles listed as of Friday afternoon. Variety reported that 29 of the remaining episodes come from the earliest seasons of the show, while the bulk comes from seasons 39 through 52.

"It's a little jarring to consider what's happening over at HBO Max a bloodbath in the context of Sesame Street, but that's exactly what's going on at the streaming platform right now," Twitter user DataAugmented tweeted.

The move with Sesame Street is part of a recent purge from HBO Max's parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, which has resulted in numerous movies and shows being taken off the platform in recent weeks. This week, 20 original shows were removed, including teen drama Generation and animated anthology series Infinity Train.

Perhaps the most controversial move from Warner Bros. so far this summer was the decision to not release the DC feature Batgirl. The film, which was highly anticipated by fans, cost the studio $90 million and was nearly completed. However, the company decided to shelve the project reportedly as a cost-cutting measure.

Even with the anger still simmering over Batgirl, the HBO Max topic of choice on Twitter Friday was Sesame Street.

"Removing Sesame Street is like the book banning in Texas. Sesame Street teaches respect, tolerance, acceptance, that everyone is equal no matter what their religion, skin color, sexual orientation etc. this says more about the politics at the head of HBO Max than anything else," user JudiLecoq wrote.

Meanwhile, others tried to calm the outrage, with Twitter users like julie_k tweeting: "The episodes still exist, just not on HBO Max. Prior to streaming, it was standard for on-demand channels, HBO included, to rotate through episodes available for older series. There are over 4600 episodes of Sesame Street and, before today, only 650 were on HBO Max. It's 450 now."

Some responses to the episode removals tried to inject some humor into the situation.

"You: Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street?" user WordsMeanings tweeted. "HBO Max: No."

Newsweek reached out to HBO Max for comment.