BTW, Sillyred in response to your post, I think it's best that Abby wasn't used quite as much this year. Sometimes it seemed like she was taking over the show the way Elmo did. I think it's best if she is just like one of the group rather than a main character who appears in every episode. Nothing against Abby. Just my opinion.
I think that last season was the most of Abby we've seen so far. The first season she was introduced, she was in 3 episodes... the next one, she was in every episode... but a lot of it was inserted stuff (her word song,and closing the show specifically). This year I think they almost had the right balance... she had a lot of segments with other characters (mainly Elmo) and a few main street episodes. They almost had it, but they really need to make her the character who pops up halfway through the story, says, "I can use my magic to help," and then messes up and leaves the story completley... sort of how Mumford was used a bunch pf seasons back...
Though, to be fair, she did have that almost sort of a movie thingy, and he's on half the SS merchandise. They want to make the character big, but after 3 years, they're still trying to work the bugs out. Almost there...
That said, Elmo was used a lot this year, but compaired to previous years, not as much. Kevin must REALLY be busy nowadays... We only got 2 new Elmo's Worlds out of 26 episodes...