Last week, ABC ordered three additional episodes of The Muppets to close out its first season at 16 episodes. But there may be some big changes ahead, thanks to some creative turmoil.

According to Deadline, The Muppets co-showrunner and executive producer Bob Kushell is leaving the series after clashing with fellow co-showrunner Bill Prady. Kushell and Prady collaborated on the pitch to ABC that brought The Muppets back to TV, but they have reportedly not seen eye-to-eye about the creative direction or tone of the series.

Kristin Newman (Galavant) is said to be in negotiations to take over Kushell’s role as co-showrunner on The Muppets. Newman has previously written for That ’70s Show, How I Met Your Mother, Chuck, The Neighbors, and she also created Single With Parents.

With a new showrunner comes a new direction for The Muppets as well. After episode 10, The Muppets will go on hiatus for a creative retooling. The remaining six episodes of The Muppets will be treated as a relaunch in the spring.

All of these changes would not be surprising if The Muppets was failing to bring in an audience. But The Muppets is actually doing quite well, and it has been Tuesday night’s highest-rated new TV show. However, Disney and ABC have much higher expectations of The Muppets, and they want the show to be a bigger hit than it currently is.

What changes do you want to see from the upcoming reboot of The Muppets? Should the current format be retained? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

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HT: Deadline
Image Credit: ABC/Disney