'Muppet Night Football' Will Bring The Muppets To Monday Night Football Tonight

The Muppets are celebrating the holidays with, uh, football. During tonight's Monday Night Football broadcast on ESPN, the Muppets are going to stop by for something dubbed Muppet Night Football. Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy will kick things off in the broadcast booth while Fozzie Bear reports from the field, and all of this is leading towards a Carol of the Bells music video featuring the Muppets.

I am not well-versed in the world of sports, so this entire story leaves me a little frazzled. But it's my sacred duty to report on the news when the news involves Muppets, so here we are, with me telling you that tonight you can watch something called Muppet Night Football. During tonight's Monday Night Football broadcast, "Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy will make their debut in the broadcast booth while Fozzie Bear reports from the field, Statler and Waldorf join from the stands, and Animal comes in with the drums. Then, right before kickoff, the Muppets will return for a Carol of the Bells music video."

The regular Monday Night Football coverage will unfold as expected, but it'll also have these Muppet interludes to break up the monotony. The news came accompanied by a letter from Kermit the Frog himself (or so they claim – I'll have to check with my sources, but there's a pretty good chance the actual Kermit puppet did not write this):

Hi ho, Kermit the Frog here.For tonight's Monday Night Football game, we have something special planned. Don't worry – you'll still get all of the great game coverage and professional play-by-play and analysis from our buddies Steve Levy, Brian Griese, Louis Riddick and Lisa Salters. (We're football fans too, so we'll let the experts do their thing.)But tonight's game is going to start off with one of the most unusual – and holiday cheerful – openings in the history of MNF. To spread cheer and bring the Muppet and NFL families together, we asked our friends at ESPN if we could help them out with the game tonight. And after a few moments consideration – and some extremely persuasive 2×4 board-breaking from Miss Piggy – they said yes!So tonight, I'll be joined by Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Statler, Waldorf and Animal as we execute our Muppet game plan – sure to get you ready for kickoff. And we'll even be back with more fun throughout the game. Make sure you are ready right at 8 p.m. ET!

This entire idea sprang forth from ESPN's Creative Content Unit (CCU). Senior coordinating producer Julie McGlone said: "To bring the Muppets to life in a pandemic was a huge challenge." To pull this off, everyone worked from home, with the Muppet performers recording themselves "on green screens in their homes with help from their families." McGlone added:

"The Muppet crew are the kindest people, and they are so genuine with those characters and with the way they produce content, being authentic to their brand and to their show. The Muppets have been incredible, committed partners in production from concept through every final detail in post-production with editor Justin Belcher."