"Sesame Street" Moves To HBO, Cuts Three Long-Running Cast Members

In August 2015, Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind the classic children's show "Sesame Street", announced a new partnership with HBO that will bring the next five seasons of the series to the premium cable channel and its streaming services. The partnership means that "Sesame Street" will be able to produce almost twice as much new content in each season. The show will still be made available to PBS and its member stations, which has aired the program since 1969, only now it will be free of charge for them after a nine-month window.

Left to right: Emilio Delgado,
Roscoe Orman, Matt McGrath.

With the transfer to HBO, the program is undergoing several changes, including a switch from hourlong to half-hour episodes, the addition of some new faces, and a major overhaul of the set. However, some of these changes include the departure of three-long-running cast members: Bob McGrath, Roscoe Orman and HOLA member (and former HOLA honoree) Emilio Delgado.

McGrath has played Bob since the series premiered in 1969. Orman is the fourth actor to play Gordon, joining the series in 1974. Delgado has played Luis since 1971; on the show, he married María (played by Sonia Manzano, who retired in 2015) and had a daughter named Gabi. [Delgado and Manzano received an HOLA Ilka Award for Humanitarianism in 2005 for their work on the program.]

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