NEW YORK (AP) — Big Bird has never been so hot.

“Saturday Night Live,” Jimmy Fallon, Piers Morgan, the “Today” show and “Good Morning America” all asked for appearances from the “Sesame Street” character Thursday after he was unexpectedly thrust into the presidential campaign by Mitt Romney. Sesame Workshop says the giant yellow Muppet is declining all appearances.

During Wednesday’s debate with President Barack Obama, Romney called for cutting federal funding to PBS, despite saying, “I love Big Bird.” It renewed a longrunning debate over subsidies to public broadcasting.

“I’m going to stop the subsidy to PBS,” the former Massachusetts governor, a Republican, said during a deficit-cutting discussion. “I’m going to stop other things. I like PBS. I love Big Bird. I actually like you, too, Jim (Lehrer, PBS newsman and debate moderator). But I’m not going to … keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for it.”

PBS chief Paula Kerger said she “just about fell off the sofa” when the issue came up during the debate. She said that if the subsidy goes, so will some PBS stations.

Federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting totals $450 million this year, accounting for about 15 percent of the CPB’s budget, she said. Federal money supplements the budgets of PBS’ 179 stations nationally. Some of the smaller stations in rural areas can’t operate without subsidy.

Considering Romney stressed the importance of education, she said she hopes he realizes the extent of educational programming that PBS offers. Four out of five children under age 5 watch public television, where “Sesame Street” is a long-running hit, she said.

Public broadcasting funding has been a frequent target of congressional Republicans, who believe PBS and National Public Radio favor liberal points of view.

For several years, “Sesame Street” has produced videos and other materials for the Pentagon to help children deal with parents’ absences during tours of duty. Asked at a Pentagon briefing whether the Defense Department wants to see its relationship with the program continue, press secretary George Little said, “I will say that we’ve had a long-lasting and effective partnership with ‘Sesame Street’ and they have supported military children.

“But I’m not going to get into politics here — I wouldn’t want to ruffle any feathers, so to speak.”