The Muppets have proved they can still draw an audience. Keeping them there has been the harder part.
Disney has spent years trying to find a lasting home for Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, and company, cycling through television shows, streaming projects, specials, and theme park appearances with wildly different results.
The latest comeback initially looked like it had cracked the problem.
February’s The Muppets Show special returned the characters to familiar territory, placing them back inside the Muppet Theatre for a celebrity-packed variety show featuring Sabrina Carpenter, Seth Rogen, and Maya Rudolph.
The response was significant. Disney said the special reached 7.58 million viewers across ABC and Disney+ within eight days, while the wider Muppets catalog surpassed 125 million viewing hours.
The special won four Emmys, including Outstanding Variety Special, as well as honors for writing, production design, and editing.
For a franchise repeatedly subjected to short-lived revivals, the numbers seemed to offer Disney something unusually clear: proof that audiences were still interested.
Yet months later, the Muppets are once again without a television future.
Another Muppets Comeback Hits a Wall
Despite the special’s performance, Disney has not ordered a full season of The Muppets Show.
According to Deadline, efforts to turn the revival into an ongoing series have stalled over “difficulties cracking a premise” that satisfies everyone involved.
The potential series brings together 20th Television, The Muppets Studio, and Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s Point Grey Pictures, the production company that helped deliver February’s special.
Point Grey has reportedly remained interested in continuing.
Rogen also celebrated the special following its Emmy success, writing on Instagram, “I couldn’t be more proud to have been able to help bring this to life and I’m so thrilled our amazing team of writers, editors and production designers were recognized for their work.”
But no agreement has been reached over what comes next.
That has proved particularly frustrating for fans because the February special already revived the formula that made the Muppets famous: Kermit attempting to keep a chaotic stage production moving while performers, celebrity guests, and backstage disasters collide around him.
A source told Deadline there are “no active series conversations” surrounding the project at this time.
The news has triggered immediate backlash from viewers who argue Disney is searching for a solution to a problem that Jim Henson solved decades ago.
The premise for the series is the same premise you just did and the premise Jim Henson did in 1974 WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT https://t.co/OaMCcPnIJr
— Offhand Disney (@OffhandDisney) September 10, 2026
“The premise for the series is the same premise you just did and the premise Jim Henson did in 1974,” one fan wrote on X. “WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT.”
Another wrote, “Why are they overcomplicating a premise when jim henson literally gave them the perfect formula 50 years ago??”
One fan offered an even simpler pitch.
“What kind of excuse is this? It’s Muppets putting on a stage show and having celebrity guests. Throw in Chappell Roan and Josh Gad and you got your show.”
Disney Still Cannot Make the Muppets Stick
The abandoned expansion is particularly notable because it follows years of Disney struggling to turn individual Muppets successes into something sustainable.
The characters’ most recent full television project, The Muppets Mayhem, arrived on Disney+ in May 2023.
The 10-episode series followed Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem as they attempted to record their first studio album, with Lilly Singh playing the music executive trying to guide them through the process.
The show earned six Emmy nominations, while its accompanying Electric Mayhem album reached No. 1 on Billboard.
Disney+ nevertheless canceled The Muppets Mayhem after one season in November 2023.
It was hardly the first Muppets reboot to disappear quickly.
The original Muppet Show ran from 1976 until 1981, establishing the backstage variety format that remains synonymous with the characters.
Muppets Tonight attempted another television revival during the 1990s.
ABC tried again with The Muppets in 2015, introducing a mockumentary format focused on the characters’ personal and professional lives. That series was also canceled after one season.
“This is actually so heartbreaking for anyone who has been waiting years for a proper Muppets comeback. Why do major studios always overcomplicate simple nostalgia projects? Y'all skipped the actual creative roadblocks and went straight to blaming Disney executives,” another fan wrote following the latest news.
Disney has not abandoned the franchise entirely.
Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets opened at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in May 2026, replacing Aerosmith with the Electric Mayhem and giving the characters a significant permanent presence at Walt Disney World Resort.
That attraction arrived after Disney closed Muppet*Vision 3D, a decision that had already angered longtime fans concerned about the franchise’s shrinking footprint.
The February special briefly suggested television could become the next part of the Muppets revival.
Instead, another acclaimed project has ended without a clear successor.
Do you think Disney should make a full Muppets series?
