America’s Next Muppet - Muppets Do Reality TV

It goes without saying that reality TV is full of muppets. Everyone on X Factor is a muppet, from the binman muppet to that muppet that cries all the time. Strictly Come Dancing is stuffed to the rafters with twirling, preening muppets. And everyone who has ever stepped inside the Big Brother house is a bone fide, solid gold muppet.

Now the actual Muppets - the Jim Henson puppets as opposed to the general gonky stars of reality TV - have decided enough is enough. They want in on the reality TV action. That’s why you can expect to see the Muppets starring in a brand new show, America’s Next Muppet, in the very near future.

America’s Next Muppet is the first planned wave of Muppet (DVDs) attack
since Disney paid $90 million for Muppet rights last year. The series,
a parody of unscripted reality TV shows, is likely to air in America on
the ABC network, although it is at a very early stage of development at
the moment.

ABC is said to have ordered a pilot episode of America’s Next
Muppet, and five additional episode outlines. It’s thought that viewers
may get to help choose the newest addition to the Muppet family week by
week.

Muppet fans around the world are hoping that America’s Next Muppet will be a revival of fortunes for the Muppets, after a fairly shonky decade. After Muppet creator Jim Henson died in 1990, the Muppets were rarely seen, apart from a short-lived Muppets, Tonight TV show and a few films. Then in 2000, the Muppet rights were sold on to German firm EM.TV for $680, but they did very little with the Muppets, and finally sold the rights to Disney last year.

Will Disney be able to revive the fortunes of the Muppets with America’s Next Muppet? And more importantly, does anyone - apart from tiny children and fat Disney executives - care? Time will tell.

Read more:

ABC’s Muppet Makeover - E! Online

[story by Stuart Heritage]