Potential New Muppet Show

[DannyRWW]

How about CW. They don't get the best ratings, but they will nurture a show with moderate success. Muppets could be their highest rated show...and they saw success for Muppets this year when they aired letters to Santa. I think the best thing for them to do would be to film a pilot and shop it around.

 

[Drtooth]

Nickelodeon has also gone down the tube so I would prefer to not see The Muppets on either of these channels- it would be a slap in the face to Jim Henson and all of his creative genius.

Nickelodeon is still in its "we wanna be the Disney Channel" phase. They really don't want to give any animated programming a chance unless it becomes an instant success like Spongebob really wasn't. It's like they couldn't wait to cancel Catscratch and El Tigre because they didn't want to wait a year or two for the shows to catch on. Impatience is why television sucks so much these days. All of the best shows start out small and then grow. Shows that are initially popular don't have much of a shelf life. I'm surprised they didn't cancel Desperate Housewives earlier.

Nick is desperate for the next big Spongebob, but they can't find it by cancelling everything willy nilly. Look how much merchandising money Invader Zim made them AFTER the show was canceled and became a cult hit. And I give them credit... unlike WB/CN, they actually found a market for their older cartoon series on DVD. Still, the only thing they have going for them right now are Dreamworks movie based cartoons... I swear they're trying to hide Tuff Puppy from the public. THAT has a potential for being a hit, but it's not what they want to be a hit.

How about CW. They don't get the best ratings, but they will nurture a show with moderate success. Muppets could be their highest rated show...and they saw success for Muppets this year when they aired letters to Santa. I think the best thing for them to do would be to film a pilot and shop it around.

The CW actually doesn't. They dumped Reaper after the second season, ending it with a cliffhanger, and replaced it with a bunch of "women's" reality shows conceived by men. Even though Smallville got a 10th season, I feel they were giving the bum's rush to it by airing it Fridays for the past 3 seasons because it wasn't a bunch of vapid rich bimbos whining about how tough having multiple sex partners was. I have no faith that the Green Arrow spinoff is going to last more than a season for that reason. Heck, the CW hasn't attempted comedy since they were desperately trying to kill off Everybody Hates Chris.

 

[beatnikchick300]

Every TV channel is such a dumbed-down joke nowadays that I'd almost rather not see the Muppets franchise get screwed over by them. Maybe (that's a big maybe) I could see a Muppets TV show lasting for a while on ABC Family, since when they're not trying to be the next "OMG-I'm-a-teenage-girl-and-my-life-sucks-for-some-reason" channel, they do have pretty good family entertainment (they show Boy Meets World reruns and, sometimes, Disney classics like Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast, and of course, who could forget "25 days of Christmas"?).

 

[Drtooth]

Dumbed down's not even the word. Try cowardly. Everyone's so afraid to make some sort of risk these days, and once they do, it does indeed pay off. ABC had nothing but trouble with sitcoms for years... then all the sudden they strike ratings gold with The Middle and Modern Family. That's they're most popular shows, right up there with The All New Sexy Doctor Adventure Hour.

Seinfeld was constantly on the cancellation block and it became the single most popular sitcom of that decade, and went down to be one of the greatest of all time. Heck, even Family Guy, a show Fox was desperately trying to cancel for years became so popular, they're milking it for all its worth. Again, a show they wanted desperately to kill because the ratings weren't spectacular until they hit reruns. Heck, I don't even think Spongebob was popular until a year or two after it premiered.

The potential is there, but risks have to be taken. Everyone's so afraid that a single low rating will end a show, so they wind up ending it anyway. This isn't even new. Remember how Ally McBeal's ratings slipped when it was on opposite Everybody Loves Raymond? They cancelled it that very season, and smartly replaced it with the exact same show (just the names and characters were changed) and it failed after a couple episodes. But it's all about fear that money will be lost. Shows never even make it to the last episode of the first season anymore.

 

[Pinkflower7783]

First of all I just wanna say 'OMG PLEASE SAY THE MUPPET SHOW IS COMING BACK!' Okay got that out of my system. LOL! Considering Disney owns the rights to The Muppets it would HAVE to be either on Disney channel, ABC, or ABC Family. I personally would love to see it on ABC.

 

[frogboy4]

People are watching most of their television in short segments on portable devices. I'm afraid that the simplification of entertainment into one-note set-ups is becoming more often because of this. There are still some great shows out there. I hope they stick around!

 

[Pinkflower7783]

We don't know how it would do till we try. If they market it right and put it on a decent station and time slot I don't see why it wouldn't do well. Maybe I'm just being optimistic but even portable devices can't beat the real thing on TV.

 

[Teheheman]

I think I've heard on a Simpsons commentary them talking about how fast execs get fired in TV, that they develop/greenlight a project and aren't around when it premieres, and the person after them either hates it, or their bosses hate it, and when the ratings tank, it gets the bums rush. The most popular way to do that is to change timeslots 50 times in 6 months and go 'Well, there you go, the ratings suck on this show, we gotta cut it'. Maybe if you stop changing the dang timeslot, you'd find an audience for it and it'll thrive.
As far as networks for this go, I would LOVE to see them shop a pilot around, and see what networks come up to take it on. I think there are pros and cons to all networks, even NBC, CBS, FOX, ABC and even the CW. Let me start with NBC
NBC:
Pros-They got nothing, they've aired "Letters to Santa" before, they could put it on Wednesdays at 9:00 between Are You There Chelsea, move Whitney to 9:30, and Community to 8:00 for a comedy block to rival ABCs Wednesday block.
Cons-They're too stupid to see a good thing and/or take a chance with that(See: Tonight Show)
CBS:
Pros-They are the #1 network, they could probably replace an aging show or 2 with something fresh and different.
Cons-They probably have no room and anything for CBS less than a 7.0 in ratings is pretty much shot to heck
ABC:
Pros-Disney owns the network, they probably wouldn't mind having a nice, family program that has shown that it has fans
Cons-Where do you put them? Friday and Saturdays are probably the lowest rated days of the week, that's where shows go to die. They have a pretty filled schedule with reality shows on Monday and Thursday, a whole night of strong comedy on Wednesdays, Dramas on Tuesdays, there's no real place to put em.
FOX:
Pros-House is ending, so there's a place for an hour long show. If it takes a while to make the pilot, which it might, they can replace the Simpsons with the Muppets. From one iconic show to another.
Cons-Again, there's really no place for them other than Friday. Mondays are usually dramas, and Tuesday, even without Glee, has a decent comedy block. Wednesdays and Thursdays are Idol, so there's not really a "spot" for them unless they cancel a show or 2 that fits what the Muppets do.
CW:
Pros-They need a family show. Something that the whole family can sit down and watch together. They really don't care about ratings. It could pull in a 0.1 and it would be the best show they've ever done
Cons-Every other promo is either a nighttime drama or a catty reality show. Unless somebody tells the execs there that there needs to be either a 'comedy' night, a 'family' night, or both, that the ratings will continue to be slim to none.
Don't get me started on cable because we'll be here ALL NIGHT......but I will in another post.

Daniel

 

[DannyRWW]

The CW actually doesn't. They dumped Reaper after the second season, ending it with a cliffhanger, and replaced it with a bunch of "women's" reality shows conceived by men. Even though Smallville got a 10th season, I feel they were giving the bum's rush to it by airing it Fridays for the past 3 seasons because it wasn't a bunch of vapid rich bimbos whining about how tough having multiple sex partners was. I have no faith that the Green Arrow spinoff is going to last more than a season for that reason. Heck, the CW hasn't attempted comedy since they were desperately trying to kill off Everybody Hates Chris.

I stand corrected. Now that I think about the two shows I was thinking of were Smallville (Which you mentioned) and Supernatural...both hold overs from WB if I'm correct. I still think they might hold onto a name liscense like the muppets rather than kill it though. CW still might not be the best choice. That is really my biggest fear though. We may get excited about a new Muppet show, but would it really fly in todays market? The movie at least showed us what it could be and I don't think the Muppets will veer to far from that. (watered down or filfthed up). How about streaming? I know someone mntioned Netflix, but diseny streams movies from their site (You know when you purchase DVDS and such) anyways they could charge a small fee per episode and see what the interest is. I still am not too sure about Disney channel being a bad place to air it. TRue many of their shows are tween friendly, but PHineas and ferb is probably one of the most brilliant things on TV (One of my students said it's a clean version of family guy). Maybe if they try to hit that audience.

 

[Speed Tracer]

I think that, for what we all clearly want (a new variety show), ABC or NBC is our best bet. That format wouldn't work as well on Disney Channel, with the things they're most successful at, but I could easily see a new iteration of The Muppet Show leading into Modern Family.