Parents Are Saying Good Riddance to "Demon Seed" aka 'Caillou'

PBS just announced that the popular children’s show, Caillou, was going to be canceled, although little information was released as to when or why. Caillou has been on the air for 20 years (or 23 years if you count Caillou’s initial release in Canada in 1997) and parents have rejoiced in the news that it’s been canceled. Many parents have agreed that it’s about time that “whiny, bratty” Caillou was taken off the air.

But why was Caillou canceled? Well, while they gave plenty of information on how to prepare children for their favorite show getting canceled, PBS provided little information on why Caillou was finally given the boot. However, there are a few potential reasons, although the most likely is probably just that Caillou has been on forever! Most of us probably watched episodes as kids, so maybe it really is about time that Caillou was taken off the air to make way for new programming.

PBS Kids announced that Caillou would be canceled on their Twitter, with a string of tweets, reading, “We're saying farewell to @cailloudhx, but remember, when we say goodbye to something … It just means we get to say hello to something new!” So our best guess as to why Caillou was canceled is just that it’s been on for a pretty long time, and that PBS will be replacing Caillou with a new show. However, we don’t know what that new show will be.

PBS Kids also shared a link to an article, “When Your Child’s Favorite Media Goes Away” to help parents talk to their kids about Caillou getting canceled. While it’s written to help young children grieve over canceled media, it might help some of us too with our favorite shows when they get taken off the air. Other than that, PBS did not give any more information as to why Caillou was canceled, but we can take some guesses.

Yes, Caillou has been a staple in children’s television, but that doesn’t leave it unmarred from controversy. As a character, Caillou was a pretty obnoxious child who parents think was a bad example to their young children. Throughout the years, there have been several complaints against Caillou. One woman, Kate McKenzie, even started a Change.org petition to cancel Caillou in 2017.

Kate wrote in the petition summary: “Children who watch this program tend to copy Caillou's behavior. Whining, demanding, throwing himself on the floor kicking and screaming ... His parents give him everything he wants. How is this teaching our children good values and communication skills? Its [sic] not.”

In a 2015 article in the Detroit Free Press, a parent wrote about Caillou as “the bane of [her] existence,” and backed up Caillou’s detriment by reminding us that four episodes have already been banned from PBS. This is because the titular character acted too badly in those episodes to bring them back by “lying to his mother, tormenting the family cat, [and] swatting his baby sister with a book.” Some parents had gone so far as to learn how to block Caillou from Netflix.

While there’s a pretty large consensus that Caillou set a poor example for young kids, some of us retro kids are sad to see the time capsule leave the air. While Caillou stopped making new episodes in 2010, it’s been in syndication since then, and now it’s officially canceled, although it seems to be sticking on the air for a little bit longer.

Regardless, we’re excited that Caillou might be replaced by something even better, and with a perhaps less evil main character.