• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, April 23, 2020

How can parents explain COVID-19 to their young children?

They can ask Big Bird to do it. The 8’2” yellow-feathered “Sesame Street” star will join other Muppets and Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN Saturday morning for a special show being positioned as a town hall for kids.

The 90-minute show, titled “The ABCs of COVID-19” and anchored by Erica Hill, “will provide information and tools for families, and answer the big questions both parents and kids have about the coronavirus pandemic,” CNN said in a news release Wednesday morning.

Also scheduled to be on hand: “Sesame Street” Muppets Abby Cadabby, Elmo, Rosita and Grover.

This town hall project represents a useful and constructive application of WarnerMedia corporate synergy. Since 2015, Warner-owned HBO has been the first-run home for “Sesame Street” (via its kid-friendly channel HBO Family).

This is how “Sesame Street” and its Muppets have come to be available to CNN. In addition to the three CNN television networks, “The ABCs of COVID-19” will also stream live (without the cable log-in or authentication process that this would usually require) on CNN.com and on the CNNgo app.

The Saturday morning kids COVID telecast is the second time that WarnerMedia has put its Muppets to work helping families get through the pandemic. 

On April 14, the half-hour “Sesame Street: Elmo’s Playdate” (pictured above) had Elmo at play with other homebound Muppet pals via a conference call.

That show was seen simultaneously on all of HBO and HBO Latino channels, plus co-owned TBS, TNT, truTV, Cartoon Network and Boomerang. It was (and likely still is) available on all of HBO’s streaming platforms.

These “Sesame Street” specials and the help they are providing for families are brought to you by the letters W-A-R-N-E-R-M-E-D-I-A.

“The ABCs of COVID-19” airs Saturday morning (April 25) at 9 Eastern on CNN, CNN International and CNN en Español.