Sesame Street puppeteer fears for PBS after public broadcasting cuts

Before he was building puppets for Sesame Street and The Muppets, David Bizzaro was a kid with a sock, a rubber band, and a vivid imagination.

“I didn’t have access to cable,” he said. “I had access to PBS.”

Bizzaro now works in television, but credits public broadcasting with giving him his first spark of creative freedom.

 It’s also why he’s speaking out as federal lawmakers finalize more than $1 billion in cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) — funding that helps keep PBS and NPR stations on the air, especially in rural and underserved areas.

The cuts were included in a larger budget package signed by former President Trump last Friday.

Bizzaro says these changes go far beyond programming.

“Without PBS, I can’t say that it’ll go away completely,” he said. “But the way that it’s trending, I’m a little fearful of that happening.”

For Bizzaro, PBS wasn’t just entertainment — it was his only accessible source of storytelling, education, and creativity as a child. And for many families today, he says the stakes are even higher.

“PBS gives access to underserved communities that may not have access to weather news. Just basic emergency notifications,” he said.

Republican lawmakers have pushed to cut public media funding for years, arguing that PBS and NPR promote liberal bias. But Bizzaro believes those critiques miss what makes public broadcasting essential.

“We’re ignoring the fact that it’s actually giving people the ability to express different ways of teaching,” he said. “And that’s vital.”

Unlike commercial streaming services, which often target trends or attention spans, PBS programming is still rooted in research and designed by education experts, Bizzaro says.

“They are focused on the curriculum… and they look around and go, ‘What does America need?’”

He also worries about accessibility — not just for creators like himself, but for families who rely on free content.

“To get Netflix these days, it’s like 20 bucks a month,” he said. “Not everybody has 20 bucks to spend on Netflix… they need groceries.”

What Comes Next: A Change in the Air for Public Media

Congress has approved a m rescissions package that cuts roughly $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) over fiscal years 2026 and 2027. That funding was set to support over 1,500 local PBS and NPR stations nationwide.

Federal officials, led by President Trump, argue that public broadcasting is ideologically biased, outdated, and unnecessary given the rise of streaming and private media funding.

But for many local and rural stations—some of which rely on CPB for 40% to 50% of their revenue—these cuts could prove devastating.