Why ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ Isn’t Airing on Broadcast TV This Year

For yet another year, fan-favorite classic A Charlie Brown Christmas will not be airing on television. The beloved Peanuts special hasn’t aired on TV for a few years now after being a staple on ABC for the holiday season. That’s because in 2020, Apple acquired the rights to the franchise meaning all specials, shows, and films are streaming exclusively on Apple TV+.

The special, which debuted on CBS in 1965, reran on the network each year until 2000. ABC acquired the rights in 2001, airing it for 18 consecutive years until its final broadcast in 2019. When Apple bought the rights and effectively pulled all of the Peanuts specials from future television broadcasts, the platform received much criticism. Apple then announced a deal with PBS to resume the annual broadcasts and without commercial interruption in accordance with PBS member stations’ non-commercial educational licenses.

While PBS, Apple, and WildBrain renewed the arrangement for 2021, PBS did not acquire broadcast rights in 2022, ending a 57-year tradition of Peanuts on TV. At the very least, while it is upsetting and disappointing that specials like A Charlie Brown Christmas will once again not be airing on TV, Apple is streaming the specials for free for a limited time again. As for the Christmas special, those who do not have an Apple TV+ subscription will still be able to get into the Charlie Brown holiday spirit for free on Saturday, Dec. 14 and Sunday, Dec. 15.

A Charlie Brown Christmas, as well as every other Peanuts special, holiday and non-holiday, is available year-round for Apple TV+ subscribers, but the couple of days that they are available for free is nice, even if it’s not the same as watching it on a broadcast network like ABC since it is pretty limited. It’s always possible that rights could change in the future, or Apple will offer the specials for free longer than two days out of the year, but it’s certainly better than nothing.

There are still plenty of holiday classics to look forward to that will be on TV, so at least there’s that. However, for the first time in 55 years, Frosty the Snowman will not be airing on CBS. Instead, it will be on NBC, which will also be getting Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer from CBS. Between the Christmas specials, movies, and episodes of fan-favorite shows, though, simple network shifts will be worth it as long as they don’t move exclusively to streaming.