Why Isn't "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" Airing on PBS This Year? (2024)

Thanksgiving will be here before we know it, and we're hoping to head to Charlie Brown's house to celebrate. The classic 1973 film A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving follows the Peanuts gang as they take on the holiday, learn the true meaning of gratitude, and tackle obstacles along the way. For the last two years, it's aired on PBS and PBS Kids, so you may be wondering when it's airing this year, but it looks like it won't be airing at all.

Now, if you're wondering why the animated special aired on PBS instead of ABC, there's a reason for that. As you may recall, ABC lost its rights to air the Charlie Brown holiday specials when Apple TV+ became the new home for all things Peanuts. In fact, the franchise's Halloween special, It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, was not shown on television two years ago for the first time in 54 consecutive years. While Apple TV+ did offer non-members the chance to stream the Halloween classic for free between October 30 through November 1, 2020, viewers who were accustomed to annually tuning in on network television were upset. A Change.org petition was started to bring back the holiday classics to TV, garnering over 265,000 signatures and counting.

While PBS stepped in and secured the rights to air the specials on TV in 2020 and 2021, they announced on Twitter that the network isn't able to show any Peanuts specials in 2022.

Currently, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is available to stream on Apple TV+ right now for all subscribers. For those who don't use Apple TV+, the DVD of A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving can also be purchased on Amazon.

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