Since The Walt Disney Company purchased The Muppets back in 2004, the franchise has had quite an uneven existence. Almost every television series featuring them has only been able to deliver one season, with attempts made in 2006, 2015, 2020, and 2023. Only two movies have been made starring the beloved characters during that time as well, even though one of them earned an Academy Award and grossed over $170 million at the global box office. Suffice it to say, in the more than two decades that they’ve been part of the Disney family, The Muppets developed a reputation for being neglected.
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After years of failing to crack the code, Disney was finally going back to what everyone knew worked and reviving The Muppet Show as a Disney+ special. Executive-produced by Seth Rogen and featuring Sabrina Carpenter as a special guest, it seemed like The Muppets would finally get back to a place of prominence if it was a success. Despite critical acclaim at the time of the premiere, though, there’s been nothing about the future of The Muppet Show on Disney+ until now, as Deadline brings word about what’s going on, and the Hollywood trade does not arrive with good news.
The Muppet Show’s Future on Disney+ Gets Grim Update
According to the new report, “there are no active series conversations” about the future of The Muppet Show on Disney+ at this time. They note that despite conversations about keeping it going, “there have been difficulties cracking a premise” for the series, specifically one that Disney, The Muppets Studio, and Rogen’s Point Grey have been able to agree on.
On its face, this is a confounding sentence to read about the revival of a series that previously ran for five seasons and 120 episodes. The premise was already perfected decades ago and involves a slew of Muppet sketches with a special celebrity guest, including behind-the-scenes moments in-between all the gags.
To that end, perhaps one reason that this is hard to make sense of in the modern era is the tone specifically. Variety shows of this type are not especially a thing anymore in the streaming landscape, so making the series stand out and not feel antiquated was almost certainly something that came up in discussions. That said, the one special episode that was produced appeared to go over well without any kind of hand-wringing or need to overly explain what the show was doing.
Despite what seems like gloomy news about the prospect of more episodes of The Muppet Show, though, there is at least a glimmer of hope. The 2026 special was nominated for six Primetime Emmy Awards, and actually won four of them this past Sunday, including Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) and Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special. As noted in the report, perhaps these wins can help get the series back up and going, but so far, there’s nothing happening, knocking The Muppets back two steps after they finally got to take one forward.
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Courtesy of Paramount+
