Sesame Workshop’s The Electric Company Sparks a Literacy Power Surge With A Brand New Season Premiering January 25, 2010 on PBS KIDS GO!® Celebrities Recharging The Electric Company Include Dwight Howard, John Leguizamo, Kyle Massey, Chris Massey, LL Cool J, Monique Coleman, Sherri Shepherd and Samantha Bee American Greetings Joins Beaches Resorts as Sponsors of The Electric Company New York, NY (December 16th, 2009) – Sesame Workshop, the non-profit educational organization behind Sesame Street¸ is charged up to deliver a second season of the hit show The Electric Company. The series, designed to combat the literacy crisis facing America’s six-to-nine year-olds, will premier a brand new season of 12 exciting half-hour episodes beginning January 25, 2010 and can be seen 5 days a week on PBS KIDS GO! (check local listings). Season two of The Electric Company begins with a special three-episode recurring role by kid comedian and Cory in the House star, Kyle Massey, playing Keith’s cousin, PJ. Then, following the premiere week, new episodes will air each Friday. This re-invented version of The Electric Company is designed to appeal to today’s kids with fresh animation, music videos, and exciting narrative storylines. Other celebrities turning on the power this season include: NBA superstar Dwight Howard, Emmy Award-winning actor John Leguizamo, The View co-host Sherri Shephard, actor and rapper LL Cool J, actor Chris Massey, High School Musical star Monique Coleman and comedian and The Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee. “It is such a thrill to have a season two of a series that, on one hand, was designed to teach today’s techsavvy kids the incredible power of words, while on the other hand, is such an iconic part of educational television history,” says Karen Fowler, Executive Producer, Sesame Workshop. “By bringing back The Electric Company for a second season, we are continuing to pave the way for kids to make the transition from ‘learning to read’ to ‘reading to learn.’” With more than one-third of fourth graders across the United States scoring below basic levels in reading1, The Electric Company aims to tackle this literacy crisis by coupling a strong literacy curriculum with entertaining and engaging stories. Each week, The Electric Company focuses on a specific literacy themed domain and the entire week’s episodes will introduce vocabulary words that fall within this theme. The premier week of The Electric Company will focus on storytelling and includes vocabulary words such as ‘unbelievably,’ ‘character,’ ‘details,’ ‘detective,’ ‘courageous’ and ‘predictable.’ “PBS continues to be committed to guiding children in literacy skill development and The Electric Company is a comical and fun way for kids to strengthen these skills,” said Linda Simensky, VP, Children’s Programming, PBS. “The second season will not only continue to help children who are at-risk but will also be a helping hand for other children as they develop literacy skills and learn about age-appropriate social-emotional life lessons.” The Electric Company is a multimedia literacy campaign designed to reach out to today’s 6-to-9 year-olds, not only on television, but wherever kids are: in the community, after-school programs and online. To date, over 20,000 curriculum based outreach kits and over 200,000 magazines have been distributed nationwide. In addition, The Electric Company website has had over 8 million site visits and over 21 million videos streamed2. The website also recently won the 2009 Best in Class Interactive Media Award. Season two of The Electric Company is made possible by the generous support of Beaches Resorts and American Greetings. Both Beaches Resorts and American Greetings are longtime sponsors of Sesame Workshop programming and they continue to champion children’s education by sponsoring The Electric Company. The Electric Company is part of PBS KIDS Raising Readers, a national literacy initiative focused on using public media to improve the reading skills for children ages two-to-eight, with an emphasis on children from low-income families. The effort is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and a Ready To Learn grant from the U.S. Department of Education, part of a cooperative agreement with CPB and PBS. Visit The Electric Company at: www.pbskids.org/electriccompany U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 2007 Reading Assessment. 2 Google Analytics Website Visits & TEC video plays from PBS Platform (TEC Site & GO Player)" January 19, 2009 November 30, 2009 1 The contents of this media kit were developed under a grant, #PRU295A050003, from the Department of Education. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. The Electric Company YouTube Channel The Electric Company on Facebook ### About Sesame Workshop Sesame Workshop is the nonprofit educational organization that revolutionized children’s television programming with the landmark Sesame Street. The Workshop produces local Sesame Street programs, seen in over 140 countries, and other acclaimed shows to help bridge the literacy gap including The Electric Company and Pinky Dinky Doo. Beyond television, the Workshop produces content for multiple media platforms on a wide range of issues including literacy, health and military deployment. Initiatives meet specific needs to help young children and families develop critical skills, acquire healthy habits and build emotional strength to prepare them for lifelong learning. Learn more at www.sesameworkshop.org. About PBS KIDS and PBS KIDS GO! PBS KIDS, for preschoolers, and PBS KIDS GO!, for early elementary school kids, offer all children the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television, online and community-based programs. With positive role models and content designed to nurture a child’s total well-being, PBS’s children’s media and family and educator resources - including PBS KIDS and PBS KIDS GO! television series, PBSKIDS.org , PBSKIDSGO.org , PBS Parents (PBSPARENTS.org ), PBS Teachers (PBSTEACHERS.org ), PBS KIDS Raising Readers and literacy events across the country - leverage the full spectrum of media, technology and community to build knowledge, critical thinking, imagination and curiosity. Empowering children for success in school and in life, only PBS KIDS and PBS KIDS GO! have earned the unanimous endorsement of parents, children, industry leaders and teachers. In September 2008, PBS KIDS GO! launched its video player (PBSKIDSGO.org/video ), featuring hundreds of video clips and dozens of full-length episodes. Since launch, the site is averaging 1.3 million streams per week. PBSKIDS.org averages nine million unique visitors a month. PBS is a nonprofit media enterprise owned and operated by the nation’s 356 public television stations, serving more than 124 million people on-air and online each month. For more information on specific shows supporting literacy, science, math, and more, visit PBS.org/pressroom . About Corporation for Public Broadcasting The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967 and is the steward of the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting. It helps support the operations of more than 1,100 locally-owned and operated public television and radio stations nationwide and is the largest single source of funding for research, technology and program development for public radio, television and related online services. About PBS KIDS Raising Readers PBS KIDS Raising Readers is a national literacy initiative that uses the power of public media to build the reading skills of children ages 2-to-8, with an emphasis on children from low-income families. The effort is funded by a Ready To Learn grant from the U.S. Department of Education, part of a cooperative agreement with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), PBS and The Ready To Learn Partnership. Press Contacts: Sesame Workshop Alicia Durand/Philip Toscano 212-875-6223/212-875-6687 [email protected] [email protected] The contents of this media kit were developed under a grant, #PRU295A050003, from the Department of Education. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.