Can Seth Rogen Make ‘The Muppets’ a Hit Again?

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Disney wants a hit from Jim Henson’s lovable creations known as The Muppets. However, they feel the lovable friends have fallen out of relevance. So, they hire a comedian who was brought up under Judd Apatow as a schlub and has turned into a surprising leading man to bring The Muppets back in hopes of returning them to their former glory.

Why didn’t you stop me?! That happened before the release of 2011’s The Muppets. The film, written by Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller, saw The Muppets pulled back from the brink of irrelevance to save their former studio. It’s a fantastic movie, made an okay amount of money, and even won an Oscar for Best Original Song (which was shamefully not performed at the ceremony).

A sequel was greenlit, did not involve Jason Segel, and it tanked. The Muppets then disappeared from Disney’s output again. A few years later, the furry friends would appear in an Office-style mockumentary and— I’m actually getting word that I’m not allowed to talk about it. At all. Strange! Surely it wasn’t that bad— Oops… Yeah, my phone is ringing off the hook; lots of warnings. Let’s move on.

A new iteration of The Muppet Babies made its way to Disney+, showing that Disney still saw value in the property. There have also been specials and miniseries, like Muppets Now and The Muppets Mayhem. I believe there was a Haunted Mansion Muppets crossover? They haven’t really gone anywhere, but nothing seems to stick. That may change next year.

Seth Rogen is currently the hottest creator in Hollywood who is actively skewering Hollywood. He won a boat-load of Emmys the other night, and now, he’s reaping the benefits. I heard rumors that Rogen was circling The Muppets last month; now, those rumors have borne fruit, as ABC announced, through Variety, that Rogen would be reviving The Muppets’s titular show (and ABC announced nothing else last night. Nope. Not a thing.).

The Muppet Show will be returning in 2026 with a new special that will feature Sabrina Carpenter as a guest star. Allegedly, there are hopes that it will serve as a backdoor pilot for a proper revival of the series, which is funny, because it just seems like a normal old pilot, but nonetheless. The special will be written by Albertina Rizzo, directed by Alex Timbers, and Rogen and his longtime collaborative partner Evan Goldberg will be executive producers.

Carpenter is a huge get for the show. She will, ideally, bring along a host of new, young fans. But will they stick around? I love The Muppets, but I’m not super hopeful that this will fare any better than iterations from the past decade and change. Shows need to have massive audiences to remain on the air, and attempts at reviving variety shows have failed at every turn in recent years.

Could this be the special sauce that makes The Muppets a household name again? Has the answer to their woes been to revive the original show as it was? Will they get pulled from the air before production because Kermit once expressed a call for civility in the aftermath of a tragic event? We’ll find out in 2026; if television is still around, that is.