Kids have grown up with different TV shows across the years, but most kids grew up watching cartoons.  Recently, there has been a shift in kids shows watched by kids born in 2006 to 2011 losing popularity. 

¨I think a lot of kids especially now grow up on social media and stream a lot of TV and less cartoons,¨ Mia Barrows, senior, said.

“Sesame Street” first came out in 1969 on the National Educational Television [now the PBS channel], but it is also available on Hulu, Amazon Prime, Youtube TV and Apple TV.

¨Streaming services have changed a lot of kids’ childhood. I remember when I would go home and watch “Sesame Street” on Blu-ray when I got home from school,¨ Barrows said.

The target audience for “Sesame Street” is preschoolers aged two to five. The show’s use of playful puppets creates an environment that is family friendly.

There have been 56 seasons of “Sesame Street” from 1969 to 2025, making it the longest running kids show in the U.S.

¨It’s definitely cool they keep making seasons of “Sesame Street”, because it has a place in most people’s heart where they knew that they watched that before,¨ Braden Williams, senior, said.

While no other popular shows have reached popularity beyond that of “Sesame Street,” some have come close.

“I liked “Amazing World Of Gumball”, my favorite character was Darwin, he was very funny and comedic,” Mason Berndt, freshman, said. 

Many kids shows now are very unlike the ones in the 2010s. Nowadays, kids shows attempt to entertain kids and most times fail because the humor is considered “brain rot” that doesn’t really entertain kids. Brain rot is a term for essentially pointless memes created through social media that are funny for their stupidity rather than comedic effect.

¨They’re not as educationally focused now, it’s more brain rot and very bland or plain. It’s not  very immersive with the kids, it’s more of just watching it and not learning anything,¨ Barrows said.