Why did they cancel Muppets Tonight so quickly?

[Movies205]

???? I liked it anyone else like it?

 

[Luke]

The premise behind it and the format wasn't too bad - i think some of the new characters made it too different from the Muppet show for the general public to really take to it.

 

[Salmoto]

I blame it on the fact that it was a moving target. They always changed the day and time of the show week after week, and there's no way the ratings could improve. Not to mention it was amidst a lousy block of programming.

 

[WiGgY]

It use to be on TGIF during it's last days. Then it moved to sunday at 7 or something. Who would remeber that? Then it moved to the Disney channel which really up set me at the time because I didn't have cable. I liked Muppets Tonight and I think if it was given the proper chance it would have done better. I'd like to see a new muppet show on NBC during the must see tv lineup! Friends is supposedly leaving and I think a real slam bang muppet show would fill a spot on NBC. Maybe not the Friends time slot but definatly one of the others during prime time. We've all heard of the plans for the muppets on FOX but FOX really doesn't have a line up anymore. NBC is stronger right now, I feel, and it would be neat to see the Muppets back on NBC.

 

[Movies205]

what station was Muppet Show on?

 

[ryhoyarbie]

Originally posted by WiGgY
It use to be on TGIF during it's last days. Then it moved to sunday at 7 or something. Who would remeber that? Then it moved to the Disney channel which really up set me at the time because I didn't have cable. I liked Muppets Tonight and I think if it was given the proper chance it would have done better. I'd like to see a new muppet show on NBC during the must see tv lineup! Friends is supposedly leaving and I think a real slam bang muppet show would fill a spot on NBC. Maybe not the Friends time slot but definatly one of the others during prime time. We've all heard of the plans for the muppets on FOX but FOX really doesn't have a line up anymore. NBC is stronger right now, I feel, and it would be neat to see the Muppets back on NBC.

haven't you heard....friends will probably be back for another year and a movie for next year from what i heard...

ryan

 

[ryhoyarbie]

i always thought having shows on friday nights just lets people know that the networks don't care about those shows....tgif used to be great, when people watched it, then peopel started doing stuff on fridays and people stopped watching tv on fridays..thats why muppets tonight probably didn't do that good.....

and on that note, as anyone noticed that the drew carey show has been moved to friday nights?....first they were on wednesdays for a good many years, then at the beginning of this past year, they got movied to monday before monday night football, which is a cool idea, now they're on fridays, and no one watches tv fridays........that show is going down in the ratings, and i like that show...poor drew carey...

ryan

 

[frogboy4]

What I think really happened -

Disney didn't know what to do with Muppets Tonight so they killed it. Most people didn't even know it was on. It wasn't continuously on either. It was a mid season replacement without very strong promotional backing. Only half of the 22 episodes actually aired on ABC.

It received good numbers. There was viewership, but Disney had recently acquired ABC. When new people come into a company they want to make their own mark and often kill off pet projects of others. (Management changes partly killed Fraggle Rock on HBO.)

The show didn't feature enough classic characters. Henson finally figured that out with the Christmas special. New Muppets are fine, but we want to see a lot of our classic characters too. But I can't say that was responsible for the show being axed. Good episodes like Prince (who never makes appearances) on Muppets Tonight never aired on ABC. Only on Disney Channel.

So my opinion is that Disney screwed it up. Muppets Tonight was not the only casualty during that period either.

 

[ryhoyarbie]

i still think if muppets tonight was aired on a tuesday like 7 30 instead of fridays, a lot of people would probably have watched it

ryan

 

[pezbalubah]

With the absence of many of the classic characters, and Kermit being replaced by Clifford (which at the time seemed like a lame lame attempt at making a "homey" muppet to be hip with the times) some people were probably turned off from that, but the main reason probably was it was because it was a Friday night and kids who grew up watching the rest of the TGIF shows that were now past their prime (Family Matters, Step by Step) were now teenagers with better things to do on Friday nights, and the parents that watched those shows with their kids probably stopped watching as well. I really liked the show but only saw 3 episodes being I was busy the other nights it aired. I think for the new show, a perfect spot would be somewhere in between the Simpsons, Malcolm in the Middle, and Andy Richter.