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Elmo Is Canceled By The Ultimate Grouch

By Jonathan Klotz
| Published

News broke last week via The Hollywood Reporter that Sesame Street would soon be without a streaming home after Warner Bros Discovery decided not to renew the show’s contract with HBO. Since 2018, the most popular children’s educational show in history has been part of HBO and, later, Max, where it will remain, or at least should remain, through 2027, when the streaming contract runs out. What that contract doesn’t cover, though, is the new seasons, with Season 55 being the last one available on Max, and the fate of Season 56 is up in the air.

Sesame Street Is Homeless

Sesame Street in happier times

Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav may be making shareholders happy with his cost-cutting measures. Still, he’s managed to anger thousands, if not millions, of consumers. By pulling entire animated shows off Max without licensing them out to another company, the amount of shows that may never see the light of day again has spiked under his leadership. Sesame Street, despite being an American institution, was not spared from his cost-cutting, as hundreds of episodes have already been pulled from Max.

Though it was under Zaslav’s direction that Sesame Street had been purged, the massive amount of episodes, over 5,000, appeals to other streaming services that aren’t run by a CEO who thinks the best way to gain viewership is through another spin-off of Property Brothers. Sesame Workshop, the independent company behind the series, still has its deal with PBS. The Public Broadcasting Station has been under fire for years as a potential federal budget cut, and even if it sticks around, its future is uncertain. It can’t support the show on its own anymore, hence the need for a broadcast partner.

Sesame Street Is Going Through Major Changes

Elmo and his mortal enemy, Rocco, in Sesame Street

Season 56 of Sesame Street may not happen for a while, but when it does, it will not only be the first of the new seasons with its new streaming partner but will also be a dramatic format change. The classic short segment style of the series is being retooled into shorter episodes with a more narrative, Tales from 123. The show has changed formats before, dropping from 60 minutes in 2016 to 30 minutes, but no matter what happens, Elmo’s hatred of Rocco has to be carried over.

The switch to more narrative segments that include world-building might be a response to the current king of children’s programming, Bluey, the unbelievably charming Australian program about what life with kids is really like. The difference between the two is that Sesame Street is more like a traditional classroom, with each segment focused on a lesson to learn, and while it’s fun, thanks to the Muppet characters, it’s obviously learning. Bluey encourages a different type of learning, one that’s focused more on understanding the world and the importance of play in children’s development, and both are exceptional together; they are some of the finest shows ever made, but it’s clear why the older PBS series is again changing with the times.

No One Knows What Warner Bros Is Doing

Warner Bros. Discovery is also going through a period of change, which is why leadership decided that Sesame Street no longer fits the type of content they want on Max. Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Elmo, Abby, Rosita, Bert, Ernie, and all the rest have been sent out onto the streets because Warner Bros Discovery wants to focus on “family” shows, like the upcoming Harry Potter series no one asked for.

Someone, either Amazon or Netflix, will likely scoop up Sesame Street, but until 2027, the show’s entire back catalog will be trapped on Max, which means you can count on whoever picks up the show to have a huge celebration when all 5,000+ episodes are available again, while at the same time, Zaslav wonders why Max is the laughingstock of the streaming industry.


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Entertainment

This $10 upgrade transforms your PC — but it’s only on sale until midnight

TL;DR: Upgrade a PC affordably with this Microsoft Windows 11 Pro license, on sale for just $9.97 (reg. $199) through tonight at midnight.


Want to get the feeling of a new computer without having to shell out all the money for one? A new operating system gives your device a whole new feel, and if you’ve got a PC lying around, it could probably use this Microsoft Windows 11 Pro upgrade. If you act fast, you can get it for only $9.97 through tonight at 11:59 p.m. PT.

Windows 11 Pro breathes new life into an old computer, extending its lifespan for less than the cost of your lunch. Unlike older operating systems, this one was made with the modern professional in mind.

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Rest easy knowing Windows 11 Pro is filled with features that can improve your workflow — from an easy-to-use interface that enhances usability to snap layouts, seamless redocking, a more powerful search experience, and improved voice typing.

Take advantage of unique professional tools like Azure AD, Hyper-V, Windows Sandbox, and BitLocker device encryption. Then take a break and check out the impressive gaming experience offered by DirectX 12 Ultimate graphics.

Windows 11 Pro includes Copilot, Microsoft’s very own AI-powered assistant, which can assist you with a wide range of tasks. Get some help kickstarting your writing process, summarizing web pages, changing your settings, or even opening your apps.

You can also enjoy improved cybersecurity with Windows 11 Pro, as it adds biometric logins, encrypted authentication, and enhanced antivirus protection.

Get your PC a Microsoft Windows 11 Pro license for only $9.97 tonight through midnight.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

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3 AdultFriendFinder red flags — how to avoid scams on AFF

Depending on who you ask, AdultFriendFinder is either the Wild West of hookup sites, an “anything goes” paradise for adult fun, or a total scam replete with bots, fake profiles, and inactive accounts. 

After months of personal testing, I can confidently say which AFF you experience ultimately boils down to how you use the site. If you approach it naively, without a strategy, you’re probably going to have some frustrating experiences. On the other hand, if you exercise a modicum of caution and common sense, you’ll discover a huge, fun, and kink-friendly community.

Here are three red flags to look out for as you use AFF, to help you spot potential scammers and separate the authentic users from the fake profiles.

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Unverified accounts

AdultFriendFinder already offers a fantastic first step in combatting fake profiles that they call ConfirmID. Once you’ve created an account, you can, at any time, upload a clear scan of a government-issued ID card and then, using a webcam, undergo a quick face verification scan to confirm that you are indeed the person identified in the government document. 

This step strikes the perfect balance between not being onerous enough to annoy the average user but still requiring enough effort to deter scammers, who notoriously go after the low-hanging fruit. 

Once you’ve completed the ConfirmID sequence, you’ll be rewarded with a verification badge on your profile, and we strongly recommend that you limit your one-on-one interactions on the site to other verified users. 

Perfect profile photos

Alright, admittedly this one requires some personal judgment, as everyone should strive to upload good, high-quality photos of themselves to dating websites. But if every photo looks like it belongs in a magazine, or if the person in the photo looks a little too good to be true, you should exercise caution.

In the age of generative AI and filters, it’s trivially easy to create a fake photo or series of photos, so you should also be on the lookout for what isn’t in the photos. Are there recognizable local landmarks (clubs, restaurants, well-known parks, or street corners) in the photos, or are they all equally generic?

Over-eager chatters

Ever since chat bots became a thing, dating sites have become plagued with them, and as AI improves more and more, it’s not always easy to know, right away, if the “person” you’re talking to is really human. One dead giveaway, though, is how much they chat and how quickly they reply. 

Real people go off on tangents, employ non sequiturs, and sometimes stumble with awkward questions or comments. Chat bots, on the other hand, are typically always chipper and extremely fast-talking, so much so that a paragraph-long answer can come back to you in seconds. 

They also almost always have an agenda, too, whether that’s directing you to click on a link (“Follow my Instagram profile”) or getting you to divulge some potentially compromising bit of personal information about yourself.

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SNL opens with another Pete Hegseth press conference

Saturday Night Live returned from a brief hiatus Saturday with a cold open depicting a joint press conference between Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and FBI Director Kash Patel, with “Master of None” creator Aziz Ansari playing the latter.

Colin Jost’s Hegseth hit the familiar beats at the podium — performative machismo, military bravado, and repeated jabs at the secretary’s well-documented drinking habits. This time, Hegseth arrived at the mic hauling an oversized pitcher of scotch, which he assured the room was his one for the day. He then fielded questions from the press about the administration’s handling of U.S. strikes on Iran, dismissing each reporter with the particular brand of smug confidence that has become central to Jost’s portrayal of the character.

Ansari’s Patel proved to be the sketch’s standout, arriving to defend his tenure at the FBI and proceeding to do so poorly. The bit’s centerpiece involved Patel simultaneously denying and admitting that he had locked himself out of his work email for 36 hours after forgetting he had changed his password to “kashmeoutside69.”

Funnily enough, Patel was reportedly locked out of his FBI email in real life and believed, at least momentarily, that he was being fired. As the sketch demonstrated, the distance between SNL’s Cold Open and the actual news cycle has rarely felt smaller.

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