Background: Disney and Henson's failed merger In the late-1980s,
Jim Henson had been in talks with Disney
CEO Michael Eisner to sell
Jim Henson Productions to Disney. In August 1989, the two officially announced a deal for Disney to purchase Jim Henson Productions for $150 million. The deal fell through several months after Jim Henson's death in 1990. Despite the collapse of the merger deal, by 1992, Disney and Jim Henson Productions had already struck a number of deals: • Exclusive domestic rights to Henson theme park attractions in the western United States until May 1994 plus 2 year non-exclusively, including the design of two Muppet attractions at
Walt Disney World •
Buena Vista Home Video's worldwide distribution rights to Henson's 300 hours of programming and a financing deal for up to 3 home video projects • Certain cable television distribution rights for
Disney Channel until 1997 • International distribution rights for existing television programming in free broadcast, cable or pay-per-view markets • Theatrical distribution for
The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) and
Muppet Treasure Island (1996) by
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution under the
Walt Disney Pictures label •
Dinosaurs co-production with
Walt Disney Television • In 1996, the Jim Henson Company produced
Muppets Tonight for
ABC, which had just been acquired by Disney. The Henson family subsequently sold the entirety of the Jim Henson Company to German conglomerate
EM.TV in 2000. In 2003, the Henson family repurchased The Jim Henson Company from EM.TV.
Disney acquisition and formation Eisner, still interested in the Muppet properties, re-opened negotiations with the Hensons and announced the purchase of
The Muppets and
Bear in the Big Blue House assets from
The Jim Henson Company for $75 million on February 17, 2004. One of the first appearances that the Muppets made after the purchase was on the television special
The Nick and Jessica Variety Hour in April 2004, starring
Nick Lachey and
Jessica Simpson. A new website was launched in November 2004 and the Muppets made an appearance on the 2004 Christmas episode of
Saturday Night Live. On July 30, 2005, Animal and Pepe the King Prawn made appearance on The
X Games 11 Preview show of All Access on
ESPN2. Bear's first appearance under Disney's control was in the reality show,
Breakfast With Bear in 2005. A fiftieth birthday tour for Kermit, "Kermit's World Tour" was planned with leadership changes made just days before the tour began. The tour made its initial three stops before being canceled:
Kermit, Texas;
Johnson Space Center tour; and cake with
The Rockettes at
Radio City Music Hall, NYC. The Muppets Holding Company was then paired with
Baby Einstein (before it was acquired by
Kids II, Inc. in 2013) under Senior Vice President and General Manager R. Russell Hampton Jr. ABC, in October 2005, commissioned ''America's Next Muppet
, a script and five script outlines, but ABC was reluctant to green light America's Next Muppet'',
The Muppets Studio In 2006, the Muppets Holding Company was transferred from the Disney Consumer Products unit to
The Walt Disney Studios; with studio executives passing on oversight, the unit was placed in the special events group. The company was transferred in 2015 to Disney's new media unit,
Disney Consumer Products and Interactive Media, specifically DCPI Labs. On April 3, 2015, a series of shorts named
Muppet Moments premiered on
Disney Junior. The series features conversations between the Muppets and young children. By April,
Bill Prady was commissioned to write a script for a new Muppets pilot with the title
The Muppets, That same month, a
reboot of the 1980s
Muppet Babies series debuted on Disney Junior. A relaunch of the Muppets franchise was planned as of February 2018 for the then-unnamed Disney streaming service scheduled to be launched in 2019. Soon two series were under development for the
Disney+ streaming service, the unscripted short-form series
Muppets Now, and the scripted comedy
Muppets Live Another Day.
Live Another Day was from
Adam Horowitz,
Eddy Kitsis, and
Josh Gad, and was planned as an eight-episode series which would depict events taking place after
The Muppets Take Manhattan. The series was at
ABC Signature Studios with a pilot order when Muppets Studios vice president Debbie McClellan departed and her replacement, Disney Parks Live Entertainment senior vice president David Lightbody, wanted a different take on the project. Unwilling to drop their concept, the creative trio left the project.
Muppets Now continued development and premiered on the streaming service on July 31, 2020. In 2021
Muppets Haunted Mansion, an original special that debuted in October 2021 on Disney+
. The special would win Outstanding Art Direction/Set Decoration/Scenic Design at the inaugural
Children's & Family Emmy Awards in 2022. According to
The Wrap, multiple specials where planned with one centered around
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad but never went into production. In 2022, it was announced that
ABC Signature and The Muppets Studio were developing a 10-episode series for Disney+ based on
The Electric Mayhem, under the title
The Muppets Mayhem, with
Adam F. Goldberg, Jeff Yorkes and Muppet performer and writer Bill Barretta as showrunners and executive producers. The series would debut May 10, 2023, on Disney+ but would be cancelled after one season in November 2023. The series would win the Outstanding Children's or Family Viewing Series award at the Children's & Family Emmy Awards in 2024. In September 2025, it was announced that The Muppets Studio,
20th Television and
Point Grey Pictures were developing a new version of
The Muppet Show with a
special. The special will serve as a backdoor pilot for a potential revival/reboot of the original series. The special was directed by
Alex Timberts with Albertina Rizzo as writer.
Seth Rogen,
Evan Goldberg and Muppet performers
Matt Vogel and
Eric Jacobson served as executive producers, alongside
Sabrina Carpenter as a star and executive producer. The special had its Disney+ and
ABC premiere on February 4, 2026 with universal acclaim from fans and critics praising it's humor and for being so faithful to the original 70's series. In November 2025, it was announced that The Muppets Studio,
Excellent Cadaver,
Fruit Tree and
Walt Disney Pictures were developing a
Miss Piggy movie with
Jennifer Lawrence &
Emma Stone as executive producers and
Cole Escola as writer. In December 2025, Leigh Slaughter mentioned that The Muppets will appear "a lot more" at Disney theme parks and onboard Disney cruise ships in "live appearances from the characters on land and sea," during an interview with
Time magazine. In February 2026, The Wrap reported that
The Walt Disney Company's new CEO
Josh D'Amaro was looking into bringing "More Muppets material" into the parks and beyond. ==Leadership==