‘Muppets’ Executive Producer Explains Decision To Split Miss Piggy And Kermit Up

Miss Piggy and Kermit’s separation shocked the world and was the jewel in the crown of this summer’s celebrity splits. Bill Prady, the executive producer of the upcoming new series of The Muppets, revealed why he and his writing team decided it was time for the couple to end their relationship after more than forty years.

Kermit and Miss Piggy at the London premiere of The Muppets Most Wanted in March 2014.

Speaking to THR about the upcoming series, Prady explained how the two actors, Eric Jacobson and Steve Whitmire, who perform Piggy and Kermit were frequently asked about the nature of their characters’ relationship. More often than not, they were forced to be vague about Piggy and Kermit’s love life as there was no way in which they could continue a story without their characters appearing in a show. Prady got the idea to split the couple up for the upcoming series when he watched an interview in which Whitmire and Jacobson portrayed Kermit and Piggy as evasive.

"Just listening to it, I said it sounds like they broke up. They're being really evasive. Then Bob Kushell [another Muppets executive producer] said, 'What if they're broken up?' and it seemed to make sense with what I saw when they were interviewed," Prady said. "It seemed like that couple that was putting up a public face but there was something going on."

"We started talking about it and I said Piggy probably wanted to be 'Brangelina' and wanted to be a public couple - and Kermit is a quiet fella from Mississippi who probably likes a night at home," he continued.

"I thought about other couples I know where one or both people in the couple are famous and the challenges they face and the difficulty they have of having a public persona of going out in the world and being recognized and how that affects your relationship. I said, 'Boy, I think it's entirely possible that they broke up and that they both had a good reason.'”

The upcoming series of The Muppets, which will air on ABC, will reportedly be shot in documentary style and follows the relationship between Piggy and Kermit. The former couple are still working together on a late night talk show which Piggy is presenting with Kermit running the show behind the scenes. According to reports in THR, the personal lives of some of the other Muppets will also be revealed during the course of the show.