'The Muppets' get a midseason makeover

When it comes to Kermit and Miss Piggy, maybe Grandma knew best.

"Not your grandmother's Muppets" -- ABC entertainment chief Paul Lee's rallying cry for the revival of the Jim Henson franchise – doesn't seem to have cut it with viewers, who've largely shunned The Muppets update in which Miss Piggy's a late-night host and her once-favorite frog (and producer)  is seeing another pig.

Or at least he was until last week, when The Muppets returned from a winter break to a new time slot at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.

In her first episode since taking over as showrunner, Kristin Newman (Galavant, Chuck) lost no time in throwing Kermit and Piggy together in an old-fashioned duet that seemed to convince Kermit's girlfriend Denise that three's a crowd.

Newman, who cites her Twitter feed as evidence that fans want Piggy and Kermit together again, wasn't making any promises in an interview last month at an ABC press event. "I think that at least Kermit and Piggy are always going to have chemistry," she said. "Whether or not they get back together, we'll have to see."

For now, what she wants to see in "The Muppets" is "a little more heart, a little more joy," Newman said. Piggy's "a little bit lost herself in her celebrity, and she lost Kermit as a result of it. And I think she's going to notice that, and realize that she needs to stretch herself a little bit. And Kermit's going to notice."

But is it really all Piggy's fault? Because not-your-grandmother's Kermit seemed to have grown cynical.

"I really want him to also be that little optimistic frog that he has always been," Newman said. "He is, at the end of the day, so excited that he gets to work in show business. He left the lily pond because somebody said, 'You can make millions of people happy if you go to Hollywood.' He's never done it for fame or money. He's always done it because it's wonderful, and I do want the new Muppets to have a great time putting on the show."