Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres is noted for staying on top of the Internet’s most topical memes, as well as having her finger on the pulse of a surging community of digital influencers. So it seems only natural that DeGeneres would be tapped by the YouTube Kids app to curate some of her favorite clips.
DeGeneres succeeds past monthly guest curators for YouTube Kids like National Geographic Kids, Kid President, and the actress Geena Davis. A playlist featuring 20 of her favorite kid-skewing videos has just gone live.
Several of the clips come from DeGeneres’ own show, naturally, such as when five-year-old presidential expert Macey Hensley met President Obama (below), while others, including the ‘apparently’ kid and this spunky little dance recital star, have become viral standards.
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DeGeneres, who inked a development deal with YouTuber Tyler Oakley and announced a full slate for her digital network last week, isn’t the only big name to have been recruited by YouTube Kids in recent days.
Last Friday, Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind Sesame Street, launched a new YouTube channel called Sesame Studios, which will feature a roster of new digitally animated characters and shorts lasting between 30 seconds and five minutes. Its theme song was composed by YouTube star Todrick Hall. (Sesame Street’s original channel, featuring its beloved puppet characters and counting close to 2 million subscribers, will continue to exist.)
“You can create an unbelievable amount of content for YouTube for the cost of an hour of television,” Sesame Workshop president and CEO Jeffrey Dunn told NPR. “We believe that YouTube is going to be for this generation a lot like PBS is for prior generations. It is going to be where kids congregate and get access to media at some of their earlier stages.”
