The Business
Making Preschool TV: From Sesame Street to Disney Junior
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Making Preschool TV: From Sesame Street to Disney Junior

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What goes into making television shows for the preschool set? Lots of research, focus groups and test sessions. We talk with decision makers at Sesame Street and Disney Junior about how they seek to engage young girls and boys and what they hope to teach them through educational TV.

Banner image: (L-R) May Chao and Nancy Kanter read Sofia the First to a group of preschool students at ABC Little School in Van Nuys, California during a storybook testing session for the animated series. Photo © Todd/Wawrychuk/Disney Junior

Banter

The Hollywood News Banter ()

John Horn, film writer for the Los Angeles Times, and Michael Schneider, Los Angeles Bureau Cheif of TV Guide magazine, banter about some of this week's top Hollywood news stories.

- NewsCorp announces their answer to ESPN -- a new cable channel, FOX Sports 1 -- but can they take on this 30-year sports behemoth?
- The broadcast channels spend big this pilot season hoping to find something that will stick after a lackluster year. Some familiar names are shooting pilots, including Robin Williams and Greg Kinnear
- NBC begins to think about when and how Jay Leno will finally walk away from late night

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Main Topic

Preschool TV: Sesame Street to Disney Junior ()

Preschool TV is booming. That's good for business, but what about kids? Since the advent of Sesame Street in 1969 the field has expanded. Now there are entire channels -- like Disney Junior -- devoted to the youngest of viewers. The Business producer Darby Maloney sits in with Disney Junior executives and educational researchers as they test out a new show, Sofia the First -- at a preschool. Then she discusses the making of preschool TV -- princesses, muppets and the rest -- with Nancy Kanter, Senior Vice President of Original Programming at Disney Junior and General Manager of Disney Junior Worldwide, and Carol-Lynn Parente, Senior Vice President of Sesame Workshop, Executive Producer of Sesame Street.

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