The Muppet Show swept four Emmy Awards at this year’s Creative Arts Emmys, landing on the special’s 50th anniversary: Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special, Outstanding Picture Editing for Variety Programming, Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded), and Outstanding Production Design for a Variety Special. Sabrina Carpenter also picked up her first-ever Emmy for her work as an executive producer on the special.
The special picked up six Emmy nominations total, with one more still pending at Sunday’s ceremony for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance, honoring Matt Vogel’s work as Kermit the Frog. Carpenter’s win puts her halfway to EGOT status, needing only an Oscar and a Tony to complete the set. She didn’t attend the Creative Arts ceremony in person to accept. Vogel, who’s worked with the Muppets and on Sesame Street for more than 30 years, said simply that it felt right to do the special now.
We covered the special’s D23 Gold Member advance screening back in January, ahead of its February 4 debut on Disney+ and ABC, and it’s been a big year for the franchise across our coverage ever since, including our full ride-through of the new Muppets coaster at Hollywood Studios.
The special was reportedly designed from the start as a backdoor pilot, a test run to gauge whether a full series revival made sense. Six Emmy nominations, four wins, and reviews that ranged from warm to genuinely glowing would seem to answer that question.
So here’s the part worth sitting with: nothing new has actually been announced. The Muppets are clearly relevant again, and Disney knows it. They rethemed an entire Hollywood Studios coaster around the Electric Mayhem this year, rolled out new merchandise, and gave the franchise real estate at D23. Fans loved the special. Critics liked it. The pilot did exactly what a pilot is supposed to do. And yet there’s been no follow-up special, no series pickup, nothing beyond the one-off event that already proved itself.
It doesn’t need to be a full weekly series to be worth doing. An eight-episode season would be enough to give the format room to breathe without the production demands of a traditional weekly show. Even a steady stream of one-off specials, tied to holidays or anniversaries the way this one was, would keep the momentum going instead of letting it sit. Disney has already shown it’s willing to invest real money in the Muppets this year. The audience clearly showed up for it. At some point, that combination is supposed to turn into more content, not just a plaque.
