End of an Era: Charlie Brown Holiday Specials Moving to Apple TV+

No more "Great Pumpkin" or "A Charlie Brown Christmas" on ABC

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Want to watch "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" this year? You'll find it on Apple TV+.
ABC/Warner Home Video

Well, this is worse than getting a rock while trick-or-treating: for the first time in decades, you reportedly won’t be able to watch It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown on broadcast TV this year.

Perhaps proving our point that streaming killed the holiday special, the Peanuts classic is moving exclusively to Apple TV+ this year, as reported by Vulture. However, all is not lost: if you’re not an Apple TV+ subscriber, Great Pumpkin will stream for free outside of the platform’s paywall from Oct. 30 through Nov. 1.

The Halloween episode isn’t the only Peanuts holiday special to move from ABC, which previously owned the rights to all the specials involving Charlie Brown and the gang after purchasing them from CBS in 2000. A Charlie Brown Christmas will also stream on Apple TV+ beginning on Dec. 4, with a free period for non-subscribers from Dec. 11 to Dec. 13.

This will be the first time since the Christmas special originally debuted in 1965 that a Peanuts special won’t air on a free, over-the-air broadcast network. Apple also announced that it will be teaming up with WildBrain, Peanuts Worldwide, and Lee Mendelson Film Productions to produce new Peanuts holiday specials about Mother’s Day, Earth Day and New Year’s Eve that will also stream on Apple TV+.

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