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

[LouisTheOtter]

I swore I wasn't going to be "that guy" that wished bad fortune on the new series in The Muppets' time slot in a feeble attempt to give The Muppets a shot at a second season, but that's what I've been experiencing with The Real O'Neals. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm somewhat relieved that The Real O'Neals hasn't been tearing up Tuesday nights when paired with Fresh Off The Boat.

The ratings figures released today on TV By The Numbers indicate that last night's episode of The Real O'Neals, its third since the big launch last week during the big ABC Wednesday night comedy block, drew four million viewers. That's nearly a million fewer than FOTB, and nearly three million fewer than the premiere picked up last Wednesday. (The second episode, which aired an hour after the premiere, lost nearly a million viewers from the debut.)

I told myself earlier this week that if the combination of FOTB and The Real O'Neals was drawing five million-plus viewers and blowing the wheels off the combination of FOTB and The Muppets, we'd have more reason to worry. But that's not happening. More to the point, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (just off its own renewal announcement) drew a season-low last night, and Of Gods and Prophets and ABC's other big new series, The Family, are apparently tanking. (Which is a shame in a way, because Mrs. Otter and I were looking forward to Of Gods and Prophets. But I digress...)

Again, I'm desperately trying to avoid taking joy in others' misfortune. I actually feel like The Real O'Neals is, like The Muppets, getting stronger with every episode - last night the characters seemed more genuine instead of broadly-drawn caricatures pretty much lifted straight from The Goldbergs (especially the helicopter mom and the dopey loudmouth older brother).

I don't envy the people behind The Real O'Neals, nor their supporters (there are fans out there that would almost take a bullet for Martha Plimpton), nor the ABC execs that have to make such difficult decisions on which shows to renew. But with ABC woefully under-promoting the post-retool episodes of The Muppets while pouring all its energy into the launches of The Real O'Neals and The Family, it almost seems like a little poetic justice to see the new shows sputtering out of the gate while The Muppets, and their fans, are left twisting in the wind.

 

[Drtooth]

I told myself earlier this week that if the combination of FOTB and The Real O'Neals was drawing five million-plus viewers and blowing the wheels off the combination of FOTB and The Muppets, we'd have more reason to worry. But that's not happening. More to the point, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (just off its own renewal announcement) drew a season-low last night, and Of Gods and Prophets and ABC's other big new series, The Family, are apparently tanking. (Which is a shame in a way, because Mrs. Otter and I were looking forward to Of Gods and Prophets. But I digress...)

It's depressing that SHIELD can't get that audience it should have. It's nice that the show finally distanced itself enough from the Marvel movies to actually find a voice for itself.

Anyway, ...really!?! The Family is tanking?!?! HA! Just...just...HA! You know something is wrong when even the "best" review, one they use to promote the show calls it a "guilty pleasure." Guilty pleasure means something absolutely stupid that you can't stop watching because it's a trainwreck and you'd hate to admit you actually like something for fear of embarrassment, so you toss around a well worn term to pass the buck (or you really like ponies and don't want to be labeled a Brony). In other words, the network is using a blurb that essentially says "this show sucks! But it sucks SOOOO hard that it comes around to be entertaining because it sucks."

And frankly all the sucking I needed to see was the advertisement where a dramatic reveal was interrupted by a TV screen with a certain chimpanzee that is renowned for his inquisitiveness. Way to frame a dramatic moment.

As far as the other shows go, I'd love to find some schadenfreude in the show replacing TM or around its time slot. FOTB, I quite like and am routing for because, well... Asians don't get their own sitcom and only pop up as the token friend or one of a bunch of obvious stereotypes in others. I'd actually be crushed if the show ended, if only for that reason. And Real O'Neals...well... they did only greenlight 16 episodes of Muppets. I don't think they would have added more even if it was a smash success of a show. Some show was going to be in the slot, and whatever that show was wasn't going to look good for fans rooting for Kermit and Co. In the end it'd a decent show, just a little redundant and obvious. I don't know how much life they can get out of the premise.

That said, the cautious optimism now is that the other shows look like failures enough to make TM look like a reasonable way to fill up a timeslot. Kinda...kinda not good. It's a shame that FOTB is a poor lead in (and frankly all the Oscar So White complaints come off as hypocritical if no one's watching Non-Caucasian starring TV shows), and ABC really should have tried seeing how the Muppets would fare against Zooey Deschanel's not that good sitcom. Meanwhile, the supposedly lower rated Grandfathered is lasting the full season, and probably will get renewed because John Stamos is forcing it. The hope here is that The Muppets comes off as a cheap enough series to renew, and maybe it'll find an audience second season.

 

[ConstantineFan]

I hope we get Season 2, because Season 1 was jumbled with The Muppets trying to be a ABC comedy + Muppets Tonight + The Muppet Show combined into one show.

 

[Quazimoto]

Don't post much here, but wanted to say that I really hope The Muppets gets at least a truncated second season. Certainly won't be surprised if it doesn't, but I'm crossing my fingers that we get ten or more new episodes to put a nice little cap on the series. Loved the first season, particularly the second half.

 

[BlakeConor14]

I'd rather have no 2nd season than a second season in a poor timeslot

 

[ploobis]

I can't tell if they're saying that show show may be renewed or not!

http://nypost.com/2016/03/10/days-may-be-numbered-for-these-tv-bubble-shows/

 

[ConstantineFan]

If the show doesn't get renewed, can't Disney just reair Season 1 on Disney Channel and do future seasons on Disney Channel and Disney XD, like what they did with Muppets Tonight in the past.

 

[Daffyfan4ever]

That would be a good idea. At least on the Disney channel they probably wouldn't have the Muppets sing a song about the word 'da**.' Yeah, I know, you're all thinking, "Daffy. Get over that." But I kind of like that Disney is more family friendly than ABC. For example, when "Boy Meets World" was on ABC, we've had quite a bit of bad language and things like that in the later seasons. But with it's spinoff "Girl Meets World," we don't need to worry about that too much because Disney stays away from these things. (Though I hear they did have shows about drinking and homosexuality on that channel, so I don't know.) Anyway, I hope no one gets upset with me for what I said, I just wanted to put in my two cents.

But I was just looking at a site where they talked about shows that were facing cancellation and "The Muppets" was indeed on that list which is a disappointment because of last episodes cliffhanger leaving us wondering what will happen between and Are they going to do what they did with ALF, just have us wait six years for a TV movie to come out and find out what happened. I completely agree that moving the show to a different network might be the best move. Heck, that worked with "Clueless," "Sister, Sister," etc.

 

[Muppet Master]

Well let's have a look at the Oscar promoted failures of ABC.

Of Kings and Prophets - 0.8 for it's premiere dead for sure.
The Family - 0.8 for it's first Sunday episode, dead for sure.
The Real O' Neals - 1.1 for it's first episode on Tuesdays, just two tenths below The Muppets finale with huge shoving down our throats promotion, not good, likely to be cancelled as it's not done sinking, it couldn't even come close to The Muppets fall episode ratings.

This is all making The Muppets look good, laughing how bad Real O' Neals did that's what they get for shoving the same concept for the billionth time. Now I'm not saying the muppets is going to get renewed, but it certaintly won't be gone before these shows.

 

[Drtooth]

Here's the thing. I'm clearly getting mixed signals from Disney. Just was at a Disney store last night to look at the Zootopia stuff, and they completely restocked some of the 2011 movie merchandise. It was just the figure set (the '11 one without Walter and Constantine which I needed) and the plush toys of the main 5 (stinks they didn't also rerelease Rizzo and Pepe, considering their roles in the series). They didn't even restock merchandise after the merchandise was selling out after the first film.

Then there's this...

Which normally wouldn't confuse me, but this thing is due in October, and the press release/back of the book says this...

Whether you’re a longtime fan of the Muppets or love watching their reality series on ABC, you’re sure to get a kick out of the 21 stories featured inside Muppets Mad Libs! With fill-in-the-blank stories about all the most beloved characters and moments, this book is a must-buy for Muppets fans young and old.

While it got the description of the show wrong, it still mentions it. If the show doesn't get a renewal, unless they plan to type that back up, that's going to look like a huge embarrassment for all parties.

I can overlook the Miss Piggy show mug coming out in the summer, and I'm sure there are those who would still buy it even if the show's not on the air. But it really seems Disney wants the show to be renewed, but it's a matter of convincing the heck out of ABC's president. I know I compare this series to The Looney Tunes Show a lot, but the bright spot in that series is that it brought some focus on the Looney Tunes back (CN actually started showing the original cartoons for one) after the multiple failures since Back in Action. I'd love to think that even if the show wasn't successful, the interest in the Muppets is still there, especially for the nostalgia crowd.