Sesame Street celebrates its 40th year on TV

Sesame Street is an American educational children’s television series and a pioneer of the contemporary educational television standard, combining both education and entertainment.

Sesame Street is well known for its Muppets characters created by Jim Henson. It premiered on November 10, 1969, and is the longest running children’s program on US television.

The show is produced in the United States by the non-profit organization Sesame Workshop, formerly known as the Children’s Television Workshop (CTW), founded by Joan Ganz Cooney and Ralph Rogers.

By 2006, Sesame Street had become “the most widely viewed children’s television show in the world”, with 20 international independent versions and broadcasts in over 120 countries.

By the show’s 40th anniversary in 2009, it was ranked the fifteenth most popular children’s show on television.