Ernie and Bert segments were continuously filmed, just not for the US market for some strange reason. I'm hoping that the new recast means he'll have a bigger on show (as in Street Story) presence. Seems like it could very well be the case. These recasts have brought back characters that were otherwise performed by unavailable performers, and look how much Cookie and Grover's stocks rose. It's like Cookie's getting more press than Elmo. So if this does bring back regular bits with Ernie, I'm very happy for it.