Take away the commercials and you have 20 min, 30 sec. Dang, that's short! (I mean USA version of Muppets Tonight was 22 min, and what a difference those two minutes make! Note to self: Tape some regular Disney Channel shows and see if they're also the same length when you factor in the commercials)
The show felt disjointed but then that's most likely a mix of (a) various bits originally taped as stand alone interstitials with the decision made later on to put them together into a show (b) the Muppet writers weren't writing the show, they were producing it...Jim Lewis and Kirk Thatcher were credited as producers (along with Ritamarie Peruggi and exec prod Martin G Baker) with the writers and director credits being names i don't think i've seen before. (c) the concept wasn't really clearly established within the special itself, it's only because i read pre-show press that i understood what they were trying to pull off ... that it was showing a rehearsal for a show about to air ("almost live") hence that weird deja vu ending.
Since there's a second Almost Live coming up, i think the lack of Foz, Bunson, Beaker, Rowlf was due to again - combining previously taped stuff together into a special and dividing the different bits into two parts (makes me wonder if at one point this was going to be an hour special that they split in two) and that we'll see them in part 2.
I know i went on and on about the lack of promos less than two weeks before the show aired ... and thankfully we finally got them and they were in heavy rotation on the channel (but was it promoted anywhere else?), but i wish that the promos would have been more original footage of the Muppets and stars announcing the show since i probably would have enjoyed the show much more if i was unspoiled from the clips seen in the previews...had i seen the special totally blind to spoilers, i know i would totally have been digging it with fresh eyes.
The special basically serviced its goal - to be a cross promotional tool to introduce the Muppets to an audience that may not be as familiar with them and at the same time get people who tuned in to watch the Muppets a little more familiar with the Disney Channel fare (i'm sure the first goal will be much more successful than the latter!) At least they had several little Easter eggs for the Muppet fans watching but really this was more to bring more Muppet fans into the fold...and i can easily see this encouraging people to check out all the Muppety goodness at the new Muppets.com/XD whatever-you-want-to-call-it site and buying/renting some Muppet dvds. Since this was basically promoted "in house" - on Disney Channel and not much elsewhere, i don't see this as some grand re-introduction to the general public of the Muppets, more a little niche/target marketing to the DC watchers. And overall i think that's a good thing - it was a treat for that audience and would have been a bit disappointing for casual viewers who may have tuned in if it was being hyped all over the place outside of DC as "the Muppets return"
The bit about the director totally confused me - i could have sworn all throughout that it was Bill Baretta's voice...and yeah, that random whatnot at the end with the chickens appeared to have been his brief onscreen cameo...but then the end credits made it seem like it was someone else doing that voiceover (wonder if the Muppet was designed to look like him? I know nothing about Jeffrey Ross...is that some Disney celeb or something?)
I was also thinking that given the kind of disjointed nature, that maybe these two specials were not only attempts at centralizing some of the interstitial stuff previously taped but if they were actually initially going to be test pilots that DC finally decided to air as specials (hey, these DC stars do have fanbases as when they hear that so-and-so taped something with the Muppets, they'll want to see them somewhere). I think they ultimately work better as specials...it was good for what it was meant to do...but i wouldn't want to see the Muppet team's energy focused on this on a regular basis when there's so much more that can be better done with them instead.
Overall the Muppet performers themselves get high marks ... absolutely amazing Muppet choreography ... getting Kermit and Piggy to move like that during the Bop to You Drop number...i think there was some post-production fix-up on that...not that there's anything wrong with that as that's what Jim was always about: the marriage of camera/television special effects and basic puppetry to make Muppets do the unthinkable. Hard to tell who was Janice and Floyd since they did have brief lines - Floyd was right on! John Kennedy wasn't credited so musta been someone else - the credited Muppet performers were: (top tier) Bill Baretta, Dave Goelx, Eric Jacobson, Steve Whitmire (second tier) David Barclay, Tim Blaney, BJ Guyer, Bruce Lanoil, Lara Maclean, David Rudman, Michelan Sisti, Matt Vogel (who probably did Janice?)
Just my personal two cents on Billy Ray Cyrus...okay i obviously never had any personal interactions with him as someone who previously posted has apparently had so i can't say what he's like behind the scenes or in real life, but i will say that despite having written one of the most embarrassingly bad songs of all time...he later redeemed himself to me when he appeared in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive (and Lynch is very selective in his casting) as an actor if not as a singer and i sense that he's aware of where he could have ended up in the annals of music history and has done well to go into acting as a side career and has also had opportunity to lampoon his previous celebrity standings. Recovering from being the guy who forced "Achy Breaky Heart" onto the world can't be easy yet i think he's done well navigating his career into some more livlihood. Of course this says nothing about how "nice" he may be as a person but that's something i'm not as qualified to comment on.
Biggest missed opprtunity: background extra Muppets...a small but effective touch that makes a huge difference...random appearances by Muppet stage crew moving props/studio equiptment in the background or as extras during the hotel sketch would have made it feel more Muppety.
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Jim Henson Idea Man
Back to the Rock Season 2
Bear arrives on Disney+
Sam and Friends Book
and the Electric Mayhem (plus the stuff before it), and most everything else. 
. another thing, in the begining they were giving credits to who was in the special, The Muppets were joined together, yet Dylan and Cole were seprate (but considering how many muppets were in the show, that would've made it that much longer, or shorter depending) Also, WHERES FOZZIE! A Muppet production with out Fozzie Bear, thats not right i tells ya. 
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