Why did Muppets Tonight never air on the Odyssey Channel?

[minor muppetz]

I know that The Odyssey Chanel never aired Muppets Tonight, and the chanel was relaunched with part ownership from The Jim Henson Company after the series had been cancled, but does anybody know if maybe The Disney Channel had a contract to run the show during the time that Odyssey started? After all, that chanel did air other short-lived Henson shows (though not the MuppeTelevision segments of The Jim Henson Hour). I don't think Disney owned any distribution rights back then, so I think it could have aired on that channel. I think the chanel was owned by Henson for two or three years, and I could see The Disney Channel having a contract to air reruns of that show for perhaps that long (though I think Disney stoped airing reruns by the time the channel relaunched).

 

[BobThePizzaBoy]

Most cable networks keep their series on in re-runs for about 2-3 years after the show ends production. I think Disney Channel was just taking this route with MT, which meant Odyssey couldn't get the broadcast rights since Disney had them.

 

[minor muppetz]

If we are both right, then it's a shame that The Jim Henson Company didn't find it's way out of it's contract and broadcast reruns of Muppets Tonight on the Odyssey Channel. The Disney Channel stopped showing reruns by then, though I guess a contract is a contract. I wonder how much it would have cost to get out of its contract.

And if there wasn't a contract, then I wonder if Henson would have continued producing new episodes for Odyssey. It's a shame that Henson hardly had any original series for that channel. Henson had partial ownership of the network, Henson should have produced some new Muppet productions besides the Muppetisms. If not a series than occassional specials (though I didn't have Odyssey so I'm mixed on whetehr I would have wanted this).