"The Muppets" Showrunner Bob Kushell Exits as Series Heads for Reboot

[JamesG]

"The Muppets" Showrunner Bob Kushell Exits as Series Heads for Reboot
by Nellie Andreeva
November 4, 2015


There is a behind the scenes shakeup on ABC’s freshman comedy series "The Muppets". Gone is co-creator, executive producer and showrunner Bob Kushell.

Kristin Newman (Galavant) is in negotiations to succeed him as new showrunner under her overall deal at ABC Studios, the studio that produces "The Muppets".



The move is part of a creative overhaul of the freshman comedy, which is expected to take a hiatus after finishing Episode 10 for a reboot.

ABC recently ordered 3 more episodes, bringing "The Muppets‘" first season to 16 episodes — 10 to air in the fall and the other 6 in midseason after a winter hiatus. The spring run will likely be treated as a relaunch.



Kushell co-wrote the original "Muppets" presentation with "The Big Bang Theory" co-creator/executive producer Bill Prady. Because of Prady’s commitment to the hit CBS comedy, Kushell was tapped as solo showrunner on "The Muppets", with Brady coming in two days a week.







"The Muppets" was rushed to air by broadcast TV standards, filming a last-minute presentation in April and getting a slot on the fall schedule just a couple of weeks later — before its concept, style and tone had been fully formed.

That added tension to the already stressed environment on the show, which faced a tight production schedule and a complicated shoot because of the seamless mix of real actors and puppets.





Because it marked the TV return of beloved characters, there were high expectations for the series, which was launched with a big marketing campaign that employed ABC’s biggest stars plugging the Muppets’ comeback comedy.

But after a highly-rated premiere, ratings dropped. "The Muppets" has done an OK job opening Tuesday night for ABC at 8 PM, with its numbers on par with lead-out "Fresh Off the Boat", but because of its marquee title, "The Muppets" has been held to a different standard, so its performance has been considered somewhat disappointing, and there has been a concern about its creative direction.





Behind the scenes, I hear there was a clash in styles and vision for the show between Kushell and Prady, which was exacerbated by Prady’s part-time participation, leading to swings in direction on scripts that had been already in progress.

I hear Kushell was well-liked among the cast, crew and the producers, but the discord proved too taxing on everyone and was starting to show on the screen. It was getting harder for the show to go on with both Prady and Kushell, and a decision was made to let Kushell go, though I hear many wanted him to stay.





Season-to-date, "The Muppets" still ranks as Tuesday’s highest-rated new TV show among Adults 18-49 (2.6). On average, the freshman show is improving its half-hour for ABC by 69% in Total Viewers (7.6 million) and by 86% in Adults 18-49 (2.6), standing as the net’s strongest performing Tuesday comedy in 4 years.

In its most recent airing last night, "The Muppets" matched its delivery from last week, a 1.4 in 18-49 (Live+same day). "Fresh Off the Boat" did a 1.5.

http://deadline.com/2015/11/the-mupp...ot-1201606360/

[TMC]

Parents Television Council Takes Credit for 'Muppets' Relaunch https://t.co/8pyrbyMAwZ

[James28]

According to the ABC Network's 2016 midseason schedule, The Muppets is slated to return on 2 February 2016 with the remaining six episodes of its first season. If the report says "Spring run", then I'm guessing that February would have to count as "Spring" rather than winter, even if February is commonly recognized as a "winter" month, just like December and January.

Also, on 8 March 2016, Fresh Off the Boat moves to 8:00 and The Real O'Neals will have its time-period premiere at 8:30 (after having a special preview at both 8:30 and 9:30 on Wednesday, 2 March). I think this means The Muppets will finish its first season on 1 March.

[TMC]

http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-wat...it-and-friends

"I wanted to see the Muppets getting to perform sketches and bits on Up Late with Miss Piggy,” says Kristin Newman so we could use the fact that a late night show is really the modern version of a variety show, and getting to see the Muppets doing sketches and bits of things like they used to do. Not the old ones, but modern versions of them: Fallon-esque and Kimmel-esque sort of bits. I wanted to see a human bad guy that could cause the Muppets to come together and fight against an outside antagonist, instead of having to fight each other and fight Piggy.”