ABC Cancels ‘The Muppets’ After Just One Baffling Season

Despite an attempt to turn things around with a new showrunner in the middle of the first season, The Muppets hasn’t really caught on with audiences the way ABC had hoped. What once seemed like a surefire hit (it’s the Muppets!) turned into a bizarre experiment (it’s a meta documentary series!) before ultimately becoming an interesting failure (shrug emoji), at best. The short version: ABC has cancelled The Muppets after just one season.

Per Variety, ABC has officially — and unsurprisingly — cancelled The Muppets, which recently underwent a bit of a reboot when Galavant co-executive producer Kristin Newman replaced Bob Kushell as showrunner. Under Kushell’s guidance, The Muppets imagined Jim Henson’s iconic characters as “real,” making them the subjects of a docu-series that explored their lives off-stage.

The more mature concept didn’t seem to really click with audiences, as the Muppets are traditionally more family-friendly and accessible. Newman came to the series during the midseason break, amid rumors that Kushell was clashing with executive producer Bill Prady. ABC hoped to revamp the series a bit before it returned with a shorter order of episodes in the spring, but it looks as though the damage had already been done — and let’s be real here: how many of you knew that The Muppets was still airing on ABC before today?

The news comes in the wake of several cancellations at ABC, including Marvel’s Agent Carter and Castle, the latter of which recently dismissed series star Stana Katic.

Source: ABC Cancels ‘The Muppets’ After Just One Baffling Season