Well, ain't that a kick in the head. The optics on this look terrible, not just because it was the lowest-rated episode of the season but because it looks like The Muppets lost nearly half of the lead-in audience from Fresh Off The Boat. (Mind you, Agent Carter has fared poorly so far this year, so maybe that had something to do with it, as well.)
And that's after a day and a half of pretty intense Muppet promotion on several networks (not just ABC) and various public appearances. Yikes.
Well, I guess our best hope is that the small-but-passionate audience that has stayed with this show makes a whole lot of noise about how much they like it, and that somebody at ABC feels there's still some room for growth, both in the remainder of this season and the possibility of a second season.
I take some solace in the experience of Kristin Newman's previous ABC show, Galavant. It opened with just over seven million viewers last January and dropped three million of those by the end of the season, but ABC liked it enough to give it another shot (even thought it must have cost a fortune to produce). Sadly, the numbers kept falling in Season 2 (undeservedly so, from where I sit, as the show got MUCH better), but the simple fact is that ABC didn't give up on it.
Maybe, just maybe, we'll be that lucky with The Muppets. I hope so. This series represents some of the best Muppet content (TV or otherwise) that I've seen in several years. Despite my feelings about last night's return-from-hiatus, I look forward to the remainder of the season and won't give up on a renewal until someone from ABC tells me otherwise.