'Sesame Street' Moves To New Home And Shares The Spotlight With 'Game Of Thrones'; Transfer To HBO Causes Uproar On Social Media

By Lovely Pao

Aug 14, 2015 09:16 AM EDT

The child-friendly show "Sesame Street" has moved to a new home and shared the spotlight alongside "Game of Thrones" which featured violence and nudity. That being the case, the show's transfer to the big leagues caused major uproar on social media.

The show that brought you well-loved characters led by Big Bird, Elmo, Grover and the gang has made a deal with top cable network HBO for a partnership of five years.

According to The Independent, episodes produced will be doubled in a year. Steve Youngwood, Sesame Workshop chief operating officer said, "The current path we were walking on wasn't going to work."

"Sesame Street" will also be shortened, from an hour to 30 minutes. The reason for the change of the length of the show was presumably due to the attention span of the viewers who were mostly kids.

Youngwood disclosed to Variety, "Given the way kids have evolved, that was the most engaging format that fits both linear and on-demand viewing habits and allowed us to be all about engagement."

"Without engagement, you don't educate."

Sesame Workshop, the group behind "Sesame Street" has been given an opportunity to notably increase the popular children's TV series production. According to The Bitbag, the partnership with HBO will essentially help Sesame Workshop in producing more quality episodes and getting more viewers.

Jeffrey Dunn, CEO of Sesame Workshop said in a statement to NBC News, "Our new partnership with HBO represents a true winning public-private partnership model. It provides Sesame Workshop with the critical funding it needs to be able to continue production of "Sesame Street" and secure its nonprofit mission of helping kids grow smarter, stronger, and kinder."

HBO will also benefit from the merger because hauling in "Sesame Street" will provide the chance needed for a sort of rebranding for the network, which has a reputation of producing envelope-pushing authentic theme like "Deadwood" and "The Sopranos." This will also be an opportunity for HBO to compete with Netflix and Amazon which has already pitched in a number of children's shows, as per Sentinel Republic.

Despite the mutual benefits that HBO and Sesame Workshop will derive from the partnership, fans of "Sesame Street" took to social media their reaction regarding the transfer from PBS to HBO.

Take a look at some of the fans' reactions on Twitter below. How about you? Do you think "Sesame Street" will do well with the cable network's other shows which feature mature and graphic contents?