'The Muppets Mayhem' Canceled At Disney+ After 1 Season
Another Muppets project barely given a chance.
There will be no encore for the Electric Mayhem. Disney+ has canceled The Muppets Mayhem after a single season. Its ten episodes from The Goldbergs creator Adam F. Goldberg were released on May 10 all at once but the streamer never disclosed any of the show’s viewership.
This came in the wake of six Children’s and Family Emmy nominations (more on that not here but hopefully soon). Despite the cancellation, Goldberg is undeterred from creating the “Muppetverse” he seeks and he declared such on Twitter. He said “Huge thanks to the critic & fan love that got us 6 Emmy noms and a #1 Billboard album,” he wrote. “Mayhem was truly the most joyful and collaborative experience of my career. From day one all I’ve cared about is creating a Muppet-verse and YES I am already cooking up more Muppets with billbarretta & JeffYorkes! IT’s HAPPENING.” This was a quick contradiction to reports that it was a “blow for plans”. Having a “Muppetverse” makes sense as the Electric Mayhem hadn’t had this big a spotlight on them, especially one without a hint of headliners like Kermit and his close friends. They would've easily dropped by another character or characters' shows and referenced events and people in their circles on their show.
Lilly Singh was Nora, a motivated junior executive tasked with managing the band, keeping them in check and helping them stand toe-to-toe with the current-day music scene as they try to make a platinum album. Tahj Mowry, Saara Chaudry and Anders Holm also starred alongside Electric Mayhem performers including Barretta as Dr. Teeth, Dave Goelz as Zoot, Eric Jacobson as Animal, Peter Linz as Lips, David Rudman as Janice and Matt Vogel as Floyd Pepper.
The use of the Muppets IP has only come in spurts for target demos above preschoolers for over a decade, between the short-lived ABC The Muppets series in the 2015-16 season, the first Muppets series for Disney+ called Muppets Now, and the admittedly successful Muppets Haunted Mansion special, but that is only a special, doesn’t create a long-term environment.
Goldberg, Barretta, Michael Bostick and Kris Eber as well as The Muppets Studio’s David Lightbody and Leigh Slaughter were executive producers. Yorkes is a co-executive producer.
Source: Deadline
Streaming services need to be run by executives that don't automatically give the chop to all of the good content.