Sesame Street to celebrate 50 years with star-studded TV special

Sesame Street isn't going anywhere, but the long-running children's show is ready to take stock of its accomplishments — as well as how far it still needs to go. ABC announced on Thursday that Sesame Street: 50 Years of Sunny Days, a new two-hour special about the history and legacy of the series produced by TIME Studios, is set to air Monday, April 26 at 8 p.m. ET.

True to form, Big Bird and company will bring some famous friends along for the ride. W. Kamau Bell, Gloria Estefan, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Whoopi Goldberg, Christopher Jackson, John Legend, Lucy Liu, Olivia Munn, Questlove, Chrissy Teigen, and Usher are all set to appear in the new special, with additional participating celebrities to be announced at a later date.

In addition to looking back at Sesame Street's history of teaching kids about important topics like homelessness, autism, refugee crises, and addiction, the new special will also look forward by introducing a new Black family of Sesame Street Muppets. The father-and-son duo of Wes and Elijah Walker are part of the show's new "Coming Together" initiative that seeks to teach kids about race and inequality. This is the latest effort from Sesame Street to address race in the wake of last year's nationwide uprisings against police violence, following a CNN town hall and a special teaching kids how to stand up to racism.

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