RED ALERT! "The Muppets" fans need to contact ABC **NOW**!!

[beaker]

Disney execs are big Muppet fans. They'll renew it just for the sake of having fun with new episodes. Been saying this all along. Even if it's another truncated season like this one

 

[beaker]

Also best way to get people to notice the Muppets is through memes. Sadly that seems to be the only way the cool kids communicate these days. Things like the mass fandom surrounding Walking Dead, Game of Thrones and Deadpool happen partly because of marketing, but because you don't want to feel out of the loop and missing out on something cool. If it's just older/middle age people commenting on official Disney twitter/facebook/etc feeds about "I miss the Muppets" instead of millions of young people showing fan love...then yeah we may be in a bit of trouble. But given how many crappy unfunny shows ABC still renews, I think we're in good hands. (I can count how many times Ive laughed at the ABC shows solely based around race jokes)

 

[Drtooth]

Ugh... memes. Those things are so hard to establish and the ones that do make it are wildly inconsistent and most are purely idiotic. Just throwing that out there so if anyone starts a "save the Muppets" meme you'll know it'll be overshadowed by someone taking a picture of something stupid and putting a misspelled on purpose caption on it.

That said, I won't be angry at ABC if this doesn't work out. I actually like their Wednesday Night sitcoms (though The Middle's really starting to lose me) and their Marvel shows. At least "Back in the Game" died a quick and deserved death, I'll give them that.

 

[Muppet Master]

Renewals have nothing to do with quality if the numbers are there the network renew it, if not then they'll be lucky if they don't yank the show off the air. ABC has lost a ton of money advertising for The Muppets, but ratings dropped sadly and they stopped advertising it, but I'm not sure what they want to do now, renew to save face maybe take over Galavant's slot or just cancel it and forget about it I'm hoping it's the first.

 

[Muppy]

I hope they advertise the show during the Oscars tonight. That would hopefully draw a bigger audience for Tuesday.

 

[GuySmileyfan]

The Muppets are doomed. I guess Disney is going to sell the Muppets and give them back to the Jim Henson company.

 

[Oscarfan]

Um....no.

 

[TwoHeadedLlama]

I'm curious, if they do end up canceling the show, what will happen? Would Disney get rid of the Muppets or just keep them on the backburner? Does anyone know what happens to bought up franchises if they don't make a profit?

 

[Muppy]

I'm curious, if they do end up canceling the show, what will happen? Would Disney get rid of the Muppets or just keep them on the backburner? Does anyone know what happens to bought up franchises if they don't make a profit?

Well, I know Disney's got some viral videos to release, so there's always that. Maybe if those are successful, then we might have more hope.

 

[Drtooth]

I'm curious, if they do end up canceling the show, what will happen? Would Disney get rid of the Muppets or just keep them on the backburner? Does anyone know what happens to bought up franchises if they don't make a profit?

If this is cancelled, the best case scenario is that Disney took the criticisms and translates them as people still love the Muppets, they just don't like what they've done here. While Oscarfan shot down a previous poster's comment about Disney selling it back to Henson, Disney would more likely just sit on the franchise for an indefinite amount of time unless they're willing to separate a mixed reception project with the more viable cast of characters. The thing that's a complication is MMW's lack of performance. If one did poorly and the other was successful (even moderately) they one would have been an indication of where to take the franchise next. I have the feeling if MMW was successful we would have either seen a third film or a TV show that was the Muppet Show 2.0 the audience says they wanted. Or both. I don't think Disney's keen on making a different Muppet Show the following year (though they're keen on using the same conspiracy show about a long lost relative coming back to life somehow). And even if they did, would the audience give a Muppet Show 2.0 a chance or just say "this is getting desperate" before saying how gosh darn great The Bachelor is?

That's why this show is frustrating. Muppets have had pretty sparse luck even when Jim was still in charge. The biggest mainstream Muppet hit on Network television was a cartoon series. It took 2 pilots before syndication picked up the famous show. If Disney sees that the franchise is overall bigger than a movie that was ignored and a TV show had an odd concept that should have worked better, I'm sure we'll at least see specials and internet videos until they're willing to try things again. At the very least, they should at least recognize the merchandising potential, even if it is just nostalgic.