Business
How 'CoComelon' became a mass media juggernaut for preschoolers
Fifty-five years ago, preschoolers were captivated by the TV performance of a fuzzy blue monster, two striped shirt-wearing best friends and a big yellow bird.
Today, in the now-crowded field of children’s media, one big-headed, animated toddler named JJ is running to the top.
Born from YouTube, JJ and his friends in the animated kids’ franchise “CoComelon” represent a new wave of children’s programming. Focused on songs, bright colors and a world with no sharp edges, “CoComelon” has become a children’s media juggernaut, spawning spin-offs, video games, toys, a live tour and a story-time podcast. Although its multimedia approach to kids’ content has helped expand its audience, it has also raised questions about screen time and what kind of content — if any — very young children should be watching.
Reflecting on the brand’s growth, CoComelon General Manager Patrick Reese said the company is thoughtful about the needs of its young audience and its own legacy in children’s media.
“We very much stand on the shoulders of giants in this space, like ‘Mr. Rogers’ and ‘Sesame Street,’” he said. “If you learn to be kind and open in those early years, if you learn that growth mindset way of thinking, that becomes your behavior for the rest of your life. And if we can create an environment and create these various shows and these various different streams of content that just make the world 1% kinder, 5% kinder, 10% kinder … we’re going to seize that opportunity.”
“CoComelon” has indeed taken the lucrative kids media market by storm.
In 2023, “CoComelon” ranked fifth on Nielsen’s list of top 10 overall streaming programs, bested only by the legal drama “Suits,” the Australian animated series “Bluey,” the long-running procedural “NCIS” and the medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy.” Beyond its presence on Netflix, the brand also commands massive engagement on its native YouTube.
“CoComelon” producer Moonbug Entertainment declined to share financial results for the franchise, but parent company Candle Media said Moonbug was the biggest and most profitable piece of its business, which also includes actor Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine production company.
The market for kids entertainment is “massive,” said Brandon Katz, senior entertainment industry strategist at Parrot Analytics. “It boasts probably the best re-watchability rates of anything in the market. What that represents is an incredibly long tail of engagement for whatever that one project cost.”
The genesis of “CoComelon” dates back to 2006, when commercial director Jay Jeon and his wife, a children’s book author, posted their first video to YouTube of a short cartoon played to music — alphabet-related animations that stemmed from videos they made to entertain their own sons.
By 2017, the videos had started to center on a toddler named JJ with a single blond curl. By 2020, “CoComelon” was the most-watched YouTube channel in the world, with more than 3.5 billion average monthly views, and had attracted potential suitors.
That year, it was acquired by the London-based Moonbug Entertainment, which also bought fellow YouTube children’s program “Blippi.” A year later, Moonbug was acquired by Candle Media, led by ex-Disney executives Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs, for a reported $3 billion.
For “CoComelon‘s” Reese, who has worked on the franchise since 2018 and saw the dealmaking frenzy, the effect of the acquisitions has been stark.
There is now “CoComelon Lane,” a streaming series on Netflix that follows the adventures of JJ and his friends. In September, Moonbug released a live-action YouTube spin-off called “CoComelon Classroom,” which stars National Teacher of the Year awardee Juliana Urtubey as Ms. Appleberry. In the video series, Urtubey teaches lessons about letters, sings songs and interacts with an animated JJ.
Much of the creative team works at Moonbug’s office near the Grove in Los Angeles’ Fairfax district. A wall with three shelves’ worth of “Blippi” and “CoComelon” toys greet visitors.
“We’ve been able to grow so much faster,” Reese said. “We probably would not have been able to create all of these different shows, create all the different franchise moments that we’ve created, expanded consumer products and goods in the same way.”
But the franchise faces stiff competition in the preschool entertainment space from “Bluey,” which has generated 587 million hours of viewing through July, compared to 218 million hours for “CoComelon” and 45 million hours for “CoComelon Lane,” according to Nielsen data.
That disparity could be due to the difference in how “CoComelon” and “Bluey” are perceived, particularly by parents. Adults will readily admit watching “Bluey” with their kids, noting how the family dynamics feel real and relatable.
But “CoComelon” does have about a 50% co-watching rate with adults, said Staggs of Candle Media. Mayer said he and Staggs have been thanked by parents for their work on “CoComelon,” which provides relief and emotional stability for their kids during times of stress.
“It’s heartwarming, it’s easy to digest,” said Nancy Jennings, a professor at the University of Cincinnati and director of its Children’s Entertainment and Education Research Lab. “There’s not a lot of dialogue that you have to follow, and with the songs too, a lot of the characteristics of the show are attractive to kids in general.”
But even kids’ media is not immune to Hollywood’s recent struggles. Last year’s dual Hollywood strikes and the upheaval in the industry has touched nearly every company in the industry, including Candle Media, which is backed by Blackstone.
“Candle Media has come through a very difficult time, as the rest of the industry has … but as a whole, we’re profitable,” Mayer said. “And Moonbug is the main driver of that, and is, in and of, itself, very profitable too.”
The company must also grapple with concerns about children’s screen time.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that families avoid screen media, other than video-chatting, for children younger than 18 months, and that children ages 2 to 5 should get only an hour of screen time a day. The primary audience for “CoComelon” is kids ages 0 to 4.
Research, though largely correlational, has shown that heavy exposure to screens at early ages is associated with inattention and impulsive behaviors, said Drew Cingel, an associate professor in UC Davis’ communication department who directs the university’s human development and media lab. Programs with bright colors, repetition and songs grab hold of children’s attention, he said.
“There are 24 hours in a day, and when you’re a developing child, there’s a lot of things you need to do in those 24 hours in order to get you the inputs you need to develop normally and healthfully,” he said. “Anything that takes up a sizable portion of those 24 hours can displace the time that could be spent practicing these developmental capabilities.”
Reese said that the company works with educational consultants and that there are ways for families and children to interact with “CoComelon” beyond screen time, such as through books and live tours. The company says it takes seriously its responsibility of teaching and entertaining children for the amount of time they spend with “CoComelon” content.
“It’s for every family to decide for themselves what their level of comfort is with any activity,” Reese said. “We want to create the best environment and the best tools, and the most entertaining, enriching content that we possibly can. And use us how it makes you happy.”
Every episode must incorporate music and life skills, said Rich Hickey, chief creative officer. A so-called story trust meets weekly to discuss ideas, and themes revolve around milestones and lessons that families experience on a regular basis.
“You really want to meet kids and families where they’re at,” said Hannah Kole, senior development executive. “We really want to make sure that those are relatable experiences that we know kids are going through.”
That can include bath time, eating vegetables or experiencing something new for the first time.
“Every day, we’re reminding ourselves that we’ve got a responsibility to a huge audience, globally,” Hickey said. “We’re trying to make a meaningful connection, that parents and caregivers will trust us that we’re going to make content that’s enriching and warm and safe for their children.”
Nike is cutting about 1,400 jobs in its operations division, mostly from its technology department, the company said Thursday.
In a note to employees, Venkatesh Alagirisamy, the chief operating officer of Nike, said that management was nearly done reorganizing the business for its turnaround plan, and that the goal was to operate with “more speed, simplicity and precision.”
“This is not a new direction,” Mr. Alagirisamy told employees. “It is the next phase of the work already underway.”
Nike, the world’s largest sportswear company, is trying to recover after missteps led to a prolonged sales slump, in which the brand leaned into lifestyle products and away from performance shoes and apparel. Elliott Hill, the chief executive, has worked to realign the company around sports and speed up product development to create more breakthrough innovations.
In March, Nike told investors that it expected sales to fall this year, with growth in North America offset by poor performance in Asia, where the brand is struggling to rejuvenate sales in China. Executives said at the time that more volatility brought on by the war in the Middle East and rising oil prices might continue to affect its business.
The reorganization has involved cuts across many parts of the organization, including at its headquarters in Beaverton, Ore. Nike slashed some corporate staff last year and eliminated nearly 800 jobs at distribution centers in January.
“You never want to have to go through any sort of layoffs, but to re-center the company, we’re doing some of that,” Mr. Hill said in an interview earlier this year.
Mr. Alagirisamy told employees that Nike was reshaping its technology team and centering employees at its headquarters and a tech center in Bengaluru, India. The layoffs will affect workers across North America, Europe and Asia.
The cuts will also affect staffing in Nike’s factories for Air, the company’s proprietary cushioning system. Employees who work on the supply chain for raw materials will also experience changes as staff is integrated into footwear and apparel teams.
Nike’s Converse brand, which has struggled for years to revive sales, will move some of its engineering resources closer to the factories they support, the company said.
Mr. Alagirisamy said the moves were necessary to optimize Nike’s supply chain, deploy technology faster and bolster relationships with suppliers.
A bill that would have required insurers to offer coverage to homeowners who take steps to reduce wildfire risk on their property died in the Legislature.
The Senate Insurance Committee on Monday voted down the measure, SB 1076, one of the most ambitious bills spurred by the devastating January 2025 wildfires.
The vote came despite fire victims and others rallying at the state Capitol in support of the measure, authored by state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Pasadena), whose district includes the Eaton fire zone.
The Insurance Coverage for Fire-Safe Homes Act originally would have required insurers to offer and renew coverage for any home that meets wildfire-safety standards adopted by the insurance commissioner starting Jan. 1, 2028.
It also threatened insurers with a five-year ban from the sale of home or auto insurance if they did not comply, though it allowed for exceptions.
However, faced with strong opposition from the insurance industry, Pérez had agreed to amend the bill so it would have established community-wide pilot projects across the state to better understand the most effective way to limit property and insurance losses from wildfires.
Insurers would have had to offer four years of coverage to homeowners in successful pilot projects.
Denni Ritter, a vice president of the American Property Casualty Insurance Assn., told the committee that her trade group opposed the bill.
“While we appreciate the intent behind those conversations, those concepts do not remove our opposition, because they retain the same core flaw — substituting underwriting judgment and solvency safeguards with a statutory mandate to accept risk,” she said.
In voting against the bill Sen. Laura Richardson, (D-San Pedro), said: “Last I heard, in the United States, we don’t require any company to do anything. That’s the difference between capitalism and communism, frankly.”
The remarks against the measure prompted committee Chair Sen. Steve Padilla, (D-Chula Vista), to chastise committee members in opposition.
“I’m a little perturbed, and I’m a little disappointed, because you have someone who is trying to work with industry, who is trying to get facts and data,” he said.
Monday’s vote was the fourth time a bill that would have required insurers to offer coverage to so-called “fire hardened” homes failed in the Legislature since 2020, according to an analysis by insurance committee staff.
Fire hardening includes measures such as cutting back brush, installing fire resistant roofs and closing eaves to resist fire embers.
Pérez’s legislation was thought to have a better chance of passage because it followed the most catastrophic wildfires in U.S. history, which damaged or destroyed more than 18,000 structures and killed 31 people.
The bill was co-sponsored by the Los Angeles advocacy group Consumer Watchdog and Every Fire Survivor’s Network, a community group founded in Altadena after the fires formerly called the Eaton Fire Survivors Network.
But it also had broad support from groups such as the California Apartment Association, the California Nurses Association and California Environmental Voters.
Leading up to the fires, many insurers, citing heightened fire risk, had dropped policyholders in fire-prone neighorhoods. That forced them onto the California FAIR Plan, the state’s insurer of last resort, which offers limited but costly policies.
A Times analysis found that that in the Palisades and Eaton fire zones, the FAIR Plan’s rolls from 2020 to 2024 nearly doubled from 14,272 to 28,440. Mandating coverage has been seen as a way of reducing FAIR Plan enrollment.
“I’m disappointed this bill died in committee. Fire survivors deserved better,” Pérez said in a statement .
Also failing Monday in the committee was SB 982, a bill authored by Sen. Scott Wiener, (D-San Francisco). It would have authorized California’s attorney general to sue fossil fuel companies to recover losses from climate-induced disasters. It was opposed by the oil and gas industry.
Passing the committee were two other Pérez bills. SB 877 requires insurers to provide more transparency in the claims process. SB 878 imposes a penalty on insurers who don’t make claims payments on time.
Another bill, SB 1301, authored by insurance commissioner candidate Sen. Ben Allen, (D-Pacific Palisades), also passed. It protects policyholders from unexplained and abrupt policy non-renewals.
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Politicians in Washington and the reporters who cover them have an often adversarial relationship.
But on the last Saturday in April, they gather for an irreverent celebration of press freedom and the First Amendment at the Washington Hilton Hotel: The White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
Hosted by the association, an organization that helps ensure access for media outlets covering the presidency, the dinner attracts Hollywood stars; politicians from both parties; and representatives of more than 100 networks, newspapers, magazines and wire services.
While The Times will have two reporters in the ballroom covering the event, the company no longer buys seats at the party, said Richard W. Stevenson, the Washington bureau chief. The decision goes back almost two decades; the last dinner The Times attended as an organization was in 2007.
“We made a judgment back then that the event had become too celebrity-focused and was undercutting our need to demonstrate to readers that we always seek to maintain a proper distance from the people we cover, many of whom attend as guests,” he said.
It’s a decision, he added, that “we have stuck by through both Republican and Democratic administrations, although we support the work of the White House Correspondents’ Association.”
Susan Wessling, The Times’s Standards editor, said the policy is a product of the organization’s desire to maintain editorial independence.
“We don’t want to leave readers with any questions about our independence and credibility by seeming to be overly friendly with people whose words and actions we need to report on,” she said.
The celebrity mentalist Oz Pearlman is headlining the evening, in lieu of the usual comedy set by the likes of Stephen Colbert and Hasan Minhaj, but all eyes will be on President Trump, who will make his first appearance at the dinner as president.
Mr. Trump has boycotted the event since 2011, when he was the butt of punchlines delivered by President Barack Obama and the talk show host Seth Meyers mocking his hair, his reality TV show and his preoccupation with the “birther” movement.
Last month, though, Mr. Trump, who has a contentious relationship with the media, announced his intention to attend this year’s dinner, where he will speak to a room full of the same reporters he often derides as “enemies of the people.”
Times reporters will be there to document the highs, the lows and the reactions in the room. A reporter for the Styles desk has also been assigned to cover the robust roster of after-parties around Washington.
Some off-duty reporters from The Times will also be present at this late-night circuit, though everyone remains cognizant of their roles, said Patrick Healy, The Times’s assistant managing editor for Standards and Trust.
“If they’re reporting, there’s a notebook or recorder out as usual,” he said. “If they’re not, they’re pros who know they’re always identifiable as Times journalists.”
For most of The Times’s reporters and editors, though, the evening will be experienced from home.
“The rest of us will be able to follow the coverage,” Mr. Stevenson said, “without having to don our tuxes or gowns.”
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