The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which funds PBS and NPR, announced a change to its operations in the coming months after Donald Trump signed an executive order defunding the television stations. Four months later, CPB voted to dissolve its organization. Since PBS and NPR are two of the most well-known platforms in broadcasting, viewers are wondering if this means PBS will shut down as a result.
Below, get an update on what will happen to PBS.
Why Were PBS & NPR Defunded?
PBS and NPR will no longer have the $1.1 billion of federal funds from the CPB due to an executive order from the White House, which was titled, “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media,” on May 1, 2025.
Trump said in his order that he defunded PBS and NPR because “government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.”
“At the very least, Americans have the right to expect that if their tax dollars fund public broadcasting at all, they fund only fair, accurate, unbiased, and nonpartisan news coverage,” the executive order indicates. “No media outlet has a constitutional right to taxpayer subsidies, and the government is entitled to determine which categories of activities to subsidize.”
The order claims that “neither” NPR and PBS “presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.”
Is PBS Shutting Down?
According to the CPB’s August 1 announcement, PBS looks like it will eventually shut down. Per the press release, the company will “begin an orderly wind-down of its operations following the passage of a federal rescissions package and the release of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s FY 2026 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-H) appropriations bill, which excludes funding for CPB for the first time in more than five decades.”
CPB President and CEO Patricia Harrison noted that the broadcast company will be “closing … operations.”
“Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations,” Harrison said. “CPB remains committed to fulfilling its fiduciary responsibilities and supporting our partners through this transition with transparency and care.”
Is Sesame Street Still on PBS? What Shows Are Impacted
Thanks to Netflix, Sesame Street was not canceled. Since PBS will eventually “wind down,” though, it looks like the children’s show will not be distributed by the network.
Netflix confirmed that Sesame Street will have new and old episodes streaming on its platform.
“Now Elmo, Cookie Monster, Abby Cadabby, and all their friends are coming to Netflix later this year, with Sesame Street’s all-new, reimagined 56th season — plus 90 hours of previous episodes — available to audiences worldwide,” Netflix’s Tudum announcement read in May.
