Like many young millennials, I grew up on “Blue’s Clues.” Within a certain important demographic, it’s a virtually universal experience — the kind of ubiquitous cultural unifier that’s increasingly difficult to find in the stratified digital age. And like so many others, I watched Steve Burns, the original star of the mostly animated, direct-to-audience Nickelodeon children’s show, walk away in the early 2000s, replaced by Donovan Patton as Steve’s younger brother Joe.
Following this departure, Burns became the favorite target of early Internet conspiracy, with rumors of his disappearance and reasons for his departure from the series – all greatly exaggerated – constantly circulating. Although he occasionally returned to public to dispel these stories, he mostly kept his head down, with a handful of small musical and on-screen projects.
In recent years, with the “Blue’s Clues” revival series “Blue’s Clues & You,” Burns has more publicly embraced his legacy as a children’s television icon, appearing several times on the series and its associated spinoff projects, while also working behind the scenes in various capacities. He’s also spoken more openly about his initial reasons for leaving the show — a decision he previously attributed more simply to being too old for the role, but which he said had more to do with mental health issues and the burnout they caused. Although his work on the series was not the cause of these concerns, Burns says they made it difficult to continue playing the cheerful role of TV sidekick.
Steve is exhausted, but not because of Blues Clues
From 1996 to 2002, Steve Burns might as well have been the face of children’s educational programming. And although the role gave him a great sense of fulfillment, both then and now in retrospect, he ultimately decided to walk away from “Blue’s Clues” for personal reasons.
The aesthetic of growing up and losing his hair on a series where he played a perpetually young character was part of the equation, Burns told Variety in a 2022 profile. “I wasn’t going to be a boy anymore,” he explained — both an acknowledgment of aging and a desire to move on to new things. But that was not the reason for the choice. “I didn’t know it yet, but I was the happiest depressed person in North America,” Burns told Variety. “I suffered from severe clinical depression the entire time I was on that show. It was my job to be totally full of joy and wonder at all times, and that became impossible.”
After a while, this feeling of burnout and his unresolved decline in mental well-being took its toll. “I could always dig and find something that felt authentic and was good enough to be on the show,” Burns explained, “but after years and years of going to the well and not restocking it, there was a cost.” Looking back, Burns told Variety he can better appreciate the work he did on the show.
What has Steve Burns been doing since Blues Clues?
Immediately following his release of “Blue’s Clues”, Steve Burns began a musical career, with his first indie rock album, “Songs for Dustmites”, released in 2003. One of the tracks from this album, “Mighty Little Man”, later became the theme song for the hit CBS “Big Bang Theory” spin-off/prequel “Young Sheldon.” Burns released another album in a similar style in 2009 and a children’s album, “Foreverywhere”, with Steven Drozd in 2017.
In recent years, Burns has also returned to the world of “Blue’s Clues”, serving as a writer, director and consulting producer on the revival series “Blue’s Clues & You” since 2019. He has also made several appearances as an older Steve in some episodes, films and specials. You may also have heard his voice in various places over the years, as he continues to work as a VO performer and occasional on-screen actor.
Burns’ journey toward greater awareness and well-being has become an authentic part of his modern image, as evidenced by a viral 2021 video from Nick Jr. where he briefly reprized the role of Steve to speak to his former adult viewers. “We started with clues, and now it’s what? Student loans, jobs, families, and some of them have been pretty tough,” he said at the time in his classic direct-to-camera style. “Look at everything you’ve accomplished in all this time.”
Earlier in 2025, Burns launched the podcast “Alive with Steve Burns,” which covers wellness and cultural topics with a gentle approach he told the New York Times he hoped could be “a counterpoint to today’s manosphere.” This seems like an appropriate role. “It’s very normal for me to not have the answers,” Burns told Variety in 2022. “But Steve became my role model. Because he wasn’t afraid to ask for help.”
