Big Bird is in the top 1%

Even Big Bird has to make some money. The Sesame Workshop's 990 form for the 2010 tax year reveals that Caroll Spinney, the man behind the newsworthy yellow guy and Oscar the Grouch, made $314,072. That's the most recent form available at Guidestar, which covers the tax year ended June 30, 2011. Spinney has played the bird since the show began in 1969, though others have stepped into the role at times.

During last week's presidential debate, Republican Mitt Romney horrified some fans of "Sesame Street" when he said he was going to stop federal subsidies of PBS even though he likes Big Bird. Mitt Romney is not as big of a threat to Big Bird. Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that produces "Sesame Street," gets very little direct support from the government. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting awarded the show $1.25 million in funding through a National Program Service grant to PBS in fiscal 2011 and $1.4 million under the same program a year later, according to a CPB spokesperson. Those funds represent about 2% of Sesame Workshop's annual budget.

But Sesame depends on PBS to distribute its shows and would be hurt if government funding for public television ended, as Romney and others have advocated. 

Sesame Workshop reported more than $132 million in total operating revenue, including $46.9 million in licensing revenue for toys and other merchandise, in 2011. About 35% of its revenue comes from corporate, foundation and government support.

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