Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy are getting the biggest stage of their careers today. FIFA and Global Citizen have confirmed that the Muppets, along with characters from Sesame Street, will appear during the first-ever World Cup final halftime show, joining a headliner lineup that includes Coldplay, Madonna, Shakira, BTS and Justin Bieber.
Updated 4:00 pm: So far we got Janice, Sgt. Floyd Pepper from The Electric Mayhem doing Seven Nation Army.
Miss Piggy, Kermit the Frog along with Count von Count, Cookie Monster, and Elmo from Sesame Street, with Chris Martin, Shakira and a global kids quior.
The show is co-headlined by Coldplay, Madonna, Shakira and BTS, with Justin Bieber added as a co-headliner in the weeks leading up to the final. Shakira will be joined by Burna Boy, her collaborator on the official 2026 World Cup song. Conductor Gustavo Dudamel will lead a combined orchestra pairing the New York Philharmonic with Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, a segment organizers have framed as a tribute to Venezuela following recent earthquakes. The PS22 Chorus, the viral New York City elementary school choir, will perform with Coldplay’s Chris Martin, who is curating the entire show. The Ugandan dance troupe Ghetto Kids rounds out the supporting cast.
Kermit, Miss Piggy and other Muppets characters are confirmed to appear, alongside Sesame Street favorites Elmo and Cookie Monster. The pairing was first teased in the announcement video back in May, when Martin appeared on camera with the Muppets and Sesame Street characters before the group FaceTimed BTS to deliver the news. It’s the same duo whose animatronics we tracked down inside Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, where Statler and Waldorf now heckle from the ride’s exit scene the same way they heckled Chris Martin in the halftime show announcement video.
FIFA and Global Citizen have tied the halftime show to the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, an initiative aiming to raise $100 million to expand access to education and football for children worldwide. A dollar from every World Cup 2026 ticket sold has gone toward the fund throughout the tournament. Organizers pointed directly to the Muppets and Sesame Street’s decades of work in childhood learning as the reason both are woven into the performance rather than treated as a novelty cameo.
Game Info: Spain vs. Argentina, Kickoff Time – Today’s final pits reigning European champion Spain against defending World Cup champion Argentina at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Kickoff is set for 3 p.m. ET, with the match broadcast on Fox and Telemundo in the United States.
When the Halftime Show Starts – The 11-minute performance is expected to begin at roughly 3:45 p.m. ET, once the first half wraps and the stage is set on the MetLife Stadium field. FIFA has acknowledged the show may push the halftime break beyond soccer’s usual interval to 20 to 30 minutes, since laws of the game cap halftime at 15 minutes and setup and teardown for a production this size will likely require more than that.
The Year of The Muppets – It is getting hard to argue otherwise. The Muppet Show returned to Disney+ and ABC on February 4 with a full 50th anniversary special, guest starring Sabrina Carpenter and executive produced by Seth Rogen, and it landed six Emmy nominations for the 78th Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Variety Special. We broke down the full nomination haul when the list came out.
That momentum had already been building. Miss Piggy and Rowlf the Dog opened the run as presenters at The Game Awards in December, continuing a run of Muppets cameos at the ceremony in past years. Then Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets took over Sunset Boulevard at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on May 26, retiring the Aerosmith version for good and giving Kermit and the Electric Mayhem a permanent home at Walt Disney World, which we reviewed in full after riding it ourselves. Now Kermit and Miss Piggy are closing out the year on the biggest stage sports has ever offered a Muppet, sharing the World Cup final halftime show with Madonna, Shakira and BTS. Awards recognition, a new attraction, and the biggest sporting event on the planet, all in a single calendar year, is not a bad case for calling 2026 the year of the Muppets
Muppets and Sesame Street Join Madonna, Shakira, BTS for World Cup Final Halftime Show
