Sesame severs 20 percent of staff; takes heat on "Good Night Show"

Sesame Workshop announced today that it is cutting 67 of 355 positions, citing "the unprecedented challenges of today’s economic environment." Also today, Harvard University psychologist Susan Linn, who heads up Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, asked the PBS KIDS Sprout network to dump The Good Night Show, an evening program about a puppet getting ready for bed. “It is disturbing that that even as late as 9:00 p.m. – after three hours of television viewing – Sprout would encourage its preschool audience to ask parents for even more screen time,” Linn said in a statement on the group's website. Sandy Wax, head of Sprout, told The Associated Press that says she lives in the "real world" where families watch television, and is trying to do her best to put on programs that help parents.