Disney’s ‘Muppets Mayhem’: Lilly Singh to lead new series
Disney’s ‘Muppets Mayhem’: According to Disney+, “It’s time to play the music” and “light the lights” again.
The latest attempt to launch a Muppets TV series for modern audiences, Disney+’s “The Muppets Mayhem” was recently handed a series order and filming was scheduled to begin this month. And while the Muppets are the series’ top draw (as they always are), the new comedy series also stars former late-night talk show host Lilly Singh, who is fresh off her recurring role in “Dollface.”
The Indo-Canadian YouTuber, actress and comedian will play the lead human role of Nora, a junior A&R executive tasked with managing Dr.Teeth and The Electric Mayhem Band — and that should amount to a lot of screen time because “The Muppets Mayhem,” which hails from “The Goldbergs” creator Adam F. Goldberg, will focus primarily on the musical group that has been the house band for “The Muppet Show” since 1975.
The 10 episodes have been described as a music-filled journey as band members Dr. Teeth (vocals, keyboards), Animal (drums), Floyd Pepper
(vocals, bass), Janice (vocals, lead guitar), Zoot (saxophone) and Lips (trumpet) set out to record their first studio album while also navigating the current-day music scene with Nora’s help.
Disney has been trying hard to revive/revitalize the beloved brand since acquiring the rights to “The Muppets” back in 2004, despite previous “Muppet” revivals, including ABC’s “Muppets Tonight” (1996-98) and “The Muppets” sitcom (2015), struggling to connect with audiences. And while Disney+’s first attempt at a Muppets scripted comedy series, “Muppets Live Another Day,” didn’t make it past the pilot stage due to creative differences, the streamer did launch the short-form series “Muppets Now” in 2020 and its first Halloween special, “Muppets Haunted Mansion,” in 2021.
“We are so excited to bring the story of the Electric Mayhem Band to the front and centre of this new series,” David Lightbody, executive producer and senior vice-president of Disney Live Entertainment and The Muppets Studios, said. “They’ve been entertaining audiences since “The Muppet Show,” which debuted 45 years ago, so it’s wonderful that these characters are finally getting to play lead rather than supporting roles.”
Esposito is ‘The Driver’: The final season of “Better Call Saul” is underway, but one of its cast members will be staying on at AMC after the series wraps.
Giancarlo Esposito, who played the role of drug kingpin/Los Pollos Hermanos owner Gustavo Fring in both “Breaking Bad” and its aforementioned prequel series, is set to extend his collaboration with the cable outlet by starring in a third (but completely different) AMC series.
The upcoming series “The Driver” is based on the 2014 BBC miniseries that starred David Morrissey (“The Walking Dead”) as a cabbie whose life is turned upside down when he agrees to drive for a criminal gang. Esposito will serve as both an executive producer and the star of the AMC remake, in which Esposito’s new (onscreen) boss turns out to be a New Orleans-based Zimbabwean gangster who is exploiting undocumented immigrants at ports in the southern United States.
Esposito was a big fan of the BBC series, according to co-creator Sunu Gonera, who explained, “This whole journey started as a simple conversation four years ago in my manager Josh Kesselman’s living room when he said, ‘Giancarlo is keen to play an everyman as his next role. There’s a British show he loves called ‘The Driver.’ Would you watch the pilot and see if you could come up with a take you both could get excited about?’ Um, would I? You had me at Giancarlo and everyman.”
Look for the first six episodes of AMC’s “The Driver” to premiere in 2023.
‘Cannon’ canceled: Amid many changes to the daytime talk show landscape this fall, it seems Wendy Williams and Ellen DeGeneres aren’t the only ones stepping away from the genre (at least for now, in Williams’ case).
Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury, the producer-distributor of “The Wendy Williams Show” and the upcoming “Sherri” (hosted by Sherri Shepherd), has cancelled “The Nick Cannon Show” after just one season on the air.
After a delayed launch due to controversial remarks made by Cannon on his “Cannon’s Class” podcast, the syndicated daytime show premiered last fall but has averaged just 568,000 daily viewers — quite a low number compared to the two-plus million who tune in daily to “Live With Kelly and Ryan” and “Dr. Phil.”
While staffers learned of the cancellation on the last day of production (March 10) before a pre-planned hiatus, Cannon addressed the cancellation on-air during the “Rumor Report” segment.
“This is show business, right?” Cannon said. “As a businessman, I know that as much fun as we have on the show, business is the thing that makes this whole thing tick and operate.”
The five-week hiatus had already been scheduled in advance to allow Cannon to participate in the production of new seasons of “Wild ‘N Out” and Fox’s “The Masked Singer.” Although staff had anticipated returning in midApril, enough episodes of “Nick Cannon” have been pre-taped to allow the show to continue its run through May.