I haven't seen all of the clips yet, but here's my two cents.
The funniest thing I've seen so far is the Bunsen and Beaker Frankenstein parody. I also liked the Bear on Patrol sketch and Pepe knowing he's in front of a green screen.
But these are the Muppets I know and love. Cat and Angelo...uh, well...as one of my heroes said of an act that went all wrong: "I liked what they were trying to do."
Some celebrities (or chefs in this case) work well with the Muppets. Some don't. We even saw this back in the Muppet Show days. We knew which guest stars were having a ball and which ones were acting like Cat does.
When you think of well-known chefs that have their own cooking shows, who do you think of? Well, there's Martha Stewart. You know something? If someone at her company said to Frank Oz, "We'd like for Cookie Monster to be Martha's co-host from now on. We'll pay you big bucks! Sign here." I'd be so happy. That guest spot was pure gold and Martha sure reacted to him, didn't she? She was so mad, she was about three seconds away from having steam whistling out her ears! I'd tune in every day to see Cookie Monster or Swedish Chef creating havoc in Martha's pristine kitchen!
Another idea for a host might be Emeril. He worked once with Elmo on a home video (forget which one), but from what I remember, he didn't seem to have any trouble interacting with him. Again, imagine him saying "BAM!" while adding some ingredient and Animal imitating him by smashing fruit with a mallet Gallagher style. (You could even have Marvin Suggs do that in a cameo).
I also saw Kermit on Paula Deen once. Steve was great with the ad-libs, but I could see Fozzie being the assistant for her. Fozzie would be all nervous things wouldn't go right and Deen, being the grandmotherly lady that she is, would gently help him out. Statler and waldorf could make appearances to both heckle Fozzie and hit on Deen.
I don't know jack squat about cooking, so those are the only cooking shows I can think of right now. Cat is just...there. She's...okay, but she's about on the same level as Donna (from Donna's Day) with the Swedish Chef. Angelo doesn't really work for me. He's just...there, too. It seems like he was just created on the fly and they tried too hard to create a new character that looks too general compared to the rest, plus they shoehorn that character into a part that could have been filled by one with more familiarity to both hardcore and casual fans. (I feel the same way about Murray on Sesame Street).
An idea occured to me as a perfect co-host for this series. Why not Rowlf? I just watched "Dog City" and with some practice and studying Jim's work, Bill could do some great Rowlf performances. Would you watch Rowlf make bad puns and at the same time be helpful and caring like Rowlf always is? I would! He's got live hands so he could at least pick up and move some ingredients. He's a great character and we love him. Why not use him? He got the shaft in "Muppets Wizard of Oz". He was the perfect (and obvious) choice for Toto and they passed him by. If Muppeteers are trying to bring back Jim's characters, this would be a great way for Bill to work more on Rowlf and bring him more into the spotlight. If they did that, people would remember him when the movie comes out next year. With the right writing and exposure, moviegoers would see the movie next year and say "Hey, he's that funny Muppet dog from those cooking videos I saw online!"
The creators of this show probably thought "Well, we need a chef, but one the audience would learn from and speak articulately." So why not give Rowlf a chef's hat and let him go at it? He was a great co-host on the Jimmy Dean Show, so why not here?
Convincing John