Dear PBS Sprout

I just emailed this to PBS Sprout:

Hi.

Love your channel.

I have a problem though.

The Thomas the Tank Engine episodes.

We DVR shows on your channel.   We have young kids.  One of the major points of TV for young kids is a break for parents.  Yet when we DVR Thomas on your channel, we get 10 minutes of ads and prattle, then a tiny Thomas episode, and then the episode ends.

Then we have to stop what we are doing, come back, and move on to the next one.  Then more ads and prattle start and the child starts screaming for Thomas.  Then a tiny Thomas episode, often cut off, comes on, and then you go back to your dishes….  Then it ends.  And child screams.

And you have to stop, dry off,and come back.   To start another one, for more ads, and puppet stars making origami with glitter, before you get to what the child wants.

Can’t you make the episodes more like the ones on On Demand when it’s 3 episodes – 20ish minutes long?  Even with the ads and the repeated credits over and over, the child is happy and calm for a moment without asking “More Thomas???”

Please? Thank you!

A harried parent who really needs to get some dishes done,

Mike Stewart Coventry, Rhode Island

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