The Muppets Studio

The Muppets Studio, LLC is an American entertainment production company and subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company, that owns and produces media content for The Muppets franchise. The division was previously formed as The Muppets Holding Company, LLC on February 14, 2004, through Disney's acquisition of The Muppets and Bear in the Big Blue House intellectual properties from the Jim Henson Company.

The Muppets Studio manages the rights to The Muppets characters, including supervising their appearances across Disney's various divisions, as well as producing films, television series, specials, theme park attractions, music recordings, publishing, and live performances featuring the characters. The division does not have ownership of the Sesame Street or Fraggle Rock characters, which are owned by Sesame Workshop and the Jim Henson Company, respectively.

In the late-1980s, Jim Henson had been in talks with Disney CEO Michael Eisner to sell Jim Henson Productions to Disney. In August 1989, the two officially announced a deal for Disney to purchase Jim Henson Productions for $150 million. The deal fell through several months after Jim Henson's death in 1990.

Despite the collapse of the merger deal, by 1992, Disney and Jim Henson Productions had already struck a number of deals:

The Henson family subsequently sold the entirety of the Jim Henson Company to German conglomerate EM.TV in 2000. In 2003, the Henson family repurchased The Jim Henson Company from EM.TV.

Eisner, still interested in the Muppet properties, re-opened negotiations with the Hensons and announced the purchase of The Muppets and Bear in the Big Blue House assets from The Jim Henson Company for $75 million on February 17, 2004. The acquired Muppet assets were then placed into The Muppets Holding Company with Chris Curtin as general manager within Disney Consumer Products. One of the first appearances that the Muppets made after the purchase was on the television special The Nick and Jessica Variety Hour in April 2004, starring Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson. A new website was launched in November 2004 and the Muppets made an appearance on the 2004 Christmas episode of Saturday Night Live.

The first Muppet production under full Disney control, The Muppets' Wizard of Oz, went into production immediately and aired on ABC in May 2005. On July 30, 2005, Animal and Pepe the King Prawn made appearance on The X Games 11 Preview show of All Access on ESPN2. Bear's first appearance under Disney's control was in the reality show, Breakfast With Bear in 2005.

A fiftieth birthday tour for Kermit, "Kermit's World Tour" was planned with leadership changes made just days before the tour began. The tour made its initial three stops before being canceled: Kermit, Texas; Johnson Space Center tour; and cake with The Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall, NYC. Following Eisner's exit from Disney, new CEO Bob Iger removed the head of the Muppets Holding Company and several senior staff members hand-picked by Eisner. The Muppets Holding Company was then paired with Baby Einstein (before it was acquired by Kids II, Inc. in 2013) under Senior Vice President and General Manager R. Russell Hampton Jr.