SESAME STREET RETURNS TO NEW ZEALAND SCREENS WITH 48th SEASON AND A NEW SPECIAL ON TVNZ
Announcement posted by Esencia Communications 11 Dec 2020
Sesame Street will return to New Zealand screens with a brand-new season and a new special, to premiere on TVNZ.
Sesame Street’s Season 48 will premiere on Monday 14th December on TVNZ OnDemand at 8am, as well as on TVNZ 2 on 19th January, 2021 with a kindness curriculum focusing on respect and understanding and featuring celebrity guests Kate McKinnon, John Legend, Lucy Liu, and Josh Groban.
‘The Not Too Late Show with Elmo’ will premiere on Friday 8th January on TVNZ OnDemand.
“We’re delighted to see Sesame Street return to New Zealand television screens to delight another generation of children, and we’re thrilled that TVNZ will join us in helping kids everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder,” said Whit Higgins, Vice President of International Media Distribution and Business Development, Sesame Workshop.
Season 48 - December 14th, TVNZ OnDemand, and January 19th TVNZ 2
Sesame Street’s 48th season features its powerful kindness curriculum, and an all-new Cookie Monster segment that teaches pre-schoolers where different foods come from.
Sesame Street will focus on mutual respect and understanding, helping kids recognise similarities and celebrate differences – particularly around race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. With its diverse cast of humans and lovable monsters living side-by-side, the show has long helped kids and families navigate this space, and this season is no exception.
“The stories this season focus on cultivating cultural competencies, which are important prosocial skills for school readiness and for life – and they’re more vital now than ever,” said Dr. Rosemarie Truglio, SVP Content and Curriculum, Sesame Workshop. “By modelling constructive ways to experience difference and show compassion, we hope to give kids the tools they need to develop empathy by taking on the perspectives of others, appreciating differences while recognising fundamental similarities.”
Also new this season is the “Cookie Monster’s Foodie Truck” segment. In each five-minute installment, Cookie Monster and his new pal Gonger receive a video call from a child who orders something special from their food truck. Partway through each recipe, Cookie and Gonger jump behind the wheel to gather a key ingredient straight from the source, visiting a cranberry bog, a pasta factory, an avocado farm, and more. Farmers and artisans show Cookie and Gonger how their star ingredient is grown or produced before restocking the truck and sending the chefs home to get cooking. It’s an engaging way for kids to learn where food comes from.
As always, this season of Sesame Street features an incredible celebrity line-up, including: Lucy Liu as a reluctant Cinderella who wants to ditch her glass slippers; Tony Award-winner Josh Groban with a new song called “Hey Friend”; Kate McKinnon as Mother Goose, helping the friends create a new rhyme about Elmo; Top Chef’s Padma Lakshmi visiting an international street food fair on Sesame Street; John Legend singing a new song called “Come Together”; and Ellie Goulding learning all about clouds.
The Not Too Late Show with Elmo – January 8th, TVNZ OnDemand
The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo, hosted by a certain furry red monster, is a star-studded talk show for the whole family that highlights a different part of kids’ bedtime routines and is the perfect way for kids and parents to wind down together at the end of the day.
Elmo welcomes an exciting line-up of guests to The Not-Too-Late Show to entertain families with music, games, and fun - with Cookie Monster as his sidekick, other Sesame Street pals as backstage crew, and even his very own house band!
Performers like Lil Nas X, Dan + Shay, H.E.R., and the Jonas Brothers put their own spin on beloved Sesame Street songs; John Mulaney and Olivia Wilde get competitive with tricycle races and teddy bear dress-up contests, while Jonathan Van Ness gives Alan a “monster makeover”; Jimmy Fallon, Hoda Kotb, John Oliver, and Andy Cohen stop by to give Elmo some hosting advice, and much more—all before Elmo’s bedtime!
With a little help from these famous visitors, The Not-Too-Late Show gives familiar night-time activities like brushing teeth, choosing a bedtime story, and putting on pyjamas a fresh and fun twist that only Elmo could deliver.
************
About Sesame Workshop
Sesame Workshop is the nonprofit educational organisation behind Sesame Street, the pioneering television show that has been reaching and teaching children since 1969. Today, Sesame Workshop is an innovative force for change, with a mission to help Kids everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder. We’re present in more than 150 countries, serving vulnerable children through a wide range of media, formal education, and philanthropically funded social impact programs, each grounded in rigorous research and tailored to the needs and cultures of the communities we serve. For more information, please visit www.sesameworkshop.org
About TVNZ
TVNZ is New Zealand’s state-owned, commercially funded broadcaster. TVNZ’s all about sharing the moments that matter - whether it’s breaking news, following adventures, sharing stories or putting smiles on faces. Each day, TVNZ reaches more than 2 million New Zealanders through channels TVNZ 1, 2, DUKE and online platform TVNZ OnDemand. Leading news site 1news.co.nz and socially-driven online news brand Re: connect Kiwis to the important issues throughout the day, however they chose to engage.