Katy Perry pulled from Sesame Street

[skinsguy]

Originally Posted by FRPLG

Ratings mean almost nothing to Sesame Street and PBS. Ratings only matter for ad-supported TV and customer-subscription TV. Unless SS was about to get shut down for a complete lack of interest they can't be even remotely mistaken for doing something for ratings. In fact doing something like this can be reasonably construed as bone-headed since they are supported by charitable funds which they put at serious risk by casting a questionable shadow over the content. In other words, nobody is sending more donations to PBS for being on the show but there are probably people who aren't sending in donations because of this. What they try to be is "relevant".

That's not true at all. Sesame Street IS more privately funded than what they were when they started out in the sixties. In fact, their format change (to Elmo's World) was the result of low ratings. CTW isn't funded solely on charitable contributions. In fact, I'd argue that the CTW relies more on a commercial based market than what they did twenty years ago.