In their eighth week, The Muppets continued their ratings dip by matching their ratings of last week, scoring a 1.2 ratings share for adults 18-49. They are still on the decline after being steady at a 1.4 rating for a couple weeks. They are two weeks away from taking a winter break before their ‘reboot’ in the spring, so the ratings falling is as expected, but I am interested to see how the show does in it’s last week for its ‘finale’.

In this weeks episode, entitled “Too Hot To Handler”, Scooter takes Chelsea Handler on a date and Kermit investigates Fozzie’s girlfriend. Both muppets are dorky and tend to fail when it comes to their love interests, so it is nice to see them succeeding for once. Scooter is beginning a new relationship while Fozzie is about to take the next step in his. The episode was received very positively online despite the ratings going down.

You can find the most recent episode here: http://abc.go.com/shows/the-muppets/episode-guide/season-01/08-too-hot-to-handler

The Muppets ratings this week were very similar to last weeks, as they again got a 1.4 rating share for adults 18-49. This week it went up against FOX’s new show Grandfathered and beat it by .4 in the ratings. Reports indicated that this episode had the most women and children watching since the premier episode. ABC ordered 3 more episodes due to this spike.

Behind-the-scenes there were some shakeups though, since the show is still not performing the way ABC would like it to. Bob Kushell, executive producer and show-runner has left, and ABC is in negotiations with Kristin Newman, of Galavant, to succeed him. The studio made this move as a part of a complete creative overhaul, which is going to be taking a break to reboot after episode 10.

The season will be a total of 16 episodes, four more to air in the fall and six after a winter hiatus. The spring will most likely be marketed and treated like a re-launch of the show.

You can find the most recent episode here: http://abc.go.com/shows/the-muppets/episode-guide/season-01/06-the-exfactor

The Muppets came back to their normal 8pm slot on Tuesday nights at ABC after a week off to air “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”, which drew a 2.0 rating. The Muppets did a bit worse than the Peanut special, only garnering a 1.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic. I personally credit this slight drop in ratings to taking a week off the air.

The episode titled, “Walk the Swine”, is about Miss Piggy and Reese Witherspoon’s feud over an Oscar Witherspoon won for the “Walk the Line” role she got instead of Piggy. When the two volunteer together for Habitat for Humanity, their feud escalates to a whole new level. Kermit asks Up Late with Miss Piggy guest Reese Witherspoon not to mention her Oscar on the show, because Miss Piggy is still upset about it. Kermit’s request is ignored, because Miss Piggy brings up Reese’s Oscar immediately. Piggy is still holding a grudge against Reese, and when the actress brings up her charity work with Habitat for Humanity, Piggy volunteers too. She’s definitely not going to be one-upped by Reese Witherspoon. The episode had a bevy of guest stars and was one of the best episodes yet in my opinion.

You can find the episode here: http://abc.go.com/shows/the-muppets/episode-guide/season-01/05-walk-the-swine

This week The Muppets continued it’s ratings slide as it has become apparent that the show is not attracting the audience the show is aimed at. In the 18-49 demographic, The Muppets scored a mere 1.3 rating and only got 4.5 million viewers to tune in. This marks the second consecutive week scoring lower than a 2.0 rating in the 18-49 demographic. At the 8pm slot, The Muppets went up against NCIS on CBS (the clear winner of the time slot), The Flash on CW, Best Time Ever on NBC and Grandfathered on FOX.

The new episode is entitled “Pig Out” and focuses on how the crew of Up Late with Miss Piggy was forced to invite their demanding boss, played by Ed Helms, to their traditional after work get-together. The twist is that they actually have a great time with their boss.

Personally, I had a great time watching, the karaoke sequences with Chef doing “Rapper’s Delight” and Beaker singing “I Got You, Babe” had me laughing so hard!

You can find the episode here: http://abc.go.com/shows/the-muppets/episode-guide/season-01/04-pig-out

The Muppets went down in its third week and I think it is time to take a serious look at the problems with the show. The 18-49 viewer rating plummeted over .5 points to a 2.45 rating. It’s ratings share for the evening was a 1.6/6. The show got out performed by The Voice and NCIS.

There are some clear problems with the programming. There are groups of mothers up in arms due to some of the sexually explicit themes and innuendoes. The show is not reaching the younger generationg that The Muppets is known for gathering. I think ABC put too much trust in the belief that because it’s the Muppets all children will watch, but they aren’t. It is not the Muppets of the 1970’s. Mothers have been protesting the show for weeks. The new show is aimed at a mature, modern audience.

You can find the episode here: http://abc.go.com/shows/the-muppets/episode-guide/season-01/03-bear-left-then-bear-write

The Muppets premiered last night, September 22^nd, 2015, at 8pm on ABC. The 30-minute comedy aired against FOX’s Grandfathered CBS’s NCIS season 13 premier and NBC’s The Voice. On the night, The Muppets earned a 2.8 adults 18-49 rating.

Miss Piggy plays the demanding superstar. Kermit the Frog works on her show as the executive producer. He and Miss Piggy recently split up. The characters deal with real life relationships and feelings. Fozzie Bear plays Miss Piggy’s on-air side kick. The rest of the gang fill up the writers room, on-air band and staffers behind the scene.

In the episode, Kermit has to deal with the backlash he gets from Miss Piggy after booking Elizabeth Banks for her show; Miss Piggy wants to drop her as a guest. Fozzie Bear is dating a human, and meets her parents. By the end of the episode, it is clear that Kermit is going through a midlife crisis. He even says, “my life is a bacon rapped hell” on the show. We get introduced to Kermit’s new girlfriend, Denise, mid episode. Tom Bergeron and Imageine Dragons guest star.

You can find the episode here: http://abc.go.com/shows/the-muppets/episode-guide/season-01/01-series-premiere-pig-girls-dont-cry-pilot