Charlie Brown Holiday Specials To Stream Exclusively On Apple TV+ This Year

The Peanuts holiday specials, including the Halloween classic It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and the Christmas favorite A Charlie Brown Christmas, are headed to Apple TV+. In a statement, Apple announced that they’ve teamed up with WildBrain, along with Peanuts Worldwide and Lee Mendelson Film Productions to make Apple TV+ the home for all things Peanuts. The new partnership will also include the production of new Peanuts holiday specials and, according to Vulture, may mean that the existing holiday specials will not air on ABC this year.

ABC has been the primary home all of the major Peanuts specials for the past two decades. Prior to that, they aired on CBS. However, thus far Great Pumpkin does not appear on ABC’s advance programming and per Vulture‘s report, while Apple’s press release doesn’t note anything specific about exclusivity and just notes that Apple TV+ will be home for the specials, sources familiar with the deal say that it is exclusive for both broadcast and streaming. If the Peanuts holiday specials do not air on free, over-the-air broadcast this year, it will be the first time since 1965.

The Peanuts holiday specials coming to Apple TV+ will add them to the streaming platform’s new Peanuts offerings, including a second season of the Daytime Emmy-nominated Snoopy in Space, as well as a slate of brand-new specials that will find the Peanuts gang marking Mother’s Day, Earth Day, New Year’s Eve and going back to school. Those specials will be produced by WildBrain’s animation studio. The new specials also join the previously announced The Snoopy Show, a Peanuts 70th anniversary documentary film from Imagine Documentaries and WildBrain and the Daytime Emmy Award-winning Peanuts in Space: Secrets of Apollo 10.

As for the existing Peanuts holiday specials, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown will debut on Apple TV+ on October 19th and will be available for free from October 30th until November 1st. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving will debut on November 18th and will be available for free from November 25th until November 27th. A Charlie Brown Christmas will begin streaming on Apple TV+ on December 4th with the holiday special available for free from December 11th until December 13th.

What do you think? Are you excited that the Peanuts holiday specials are headed to Apple TV+? Are you concerned that they may not be airing on broadcast television this year? Which is your favorite Peanuts special? Let us know in the comments below!