Fans of The Muppet Show are getting their first look at the show’s upcoming special 50 years after its debut.
A teaser for the upcoming special was released Wednesday. It shows Kermit the Frog turning on the lights in the massive theater and setting down a coffee cup, before a title screen flashes Seth Rogen as the executive producer, and the February date of the special is revealed.
The special event will air on Feb. 4 on ABC and will stream on Disney+.
The highly anticipated special is executive produced by Seth Rogen and Sabrina Carpenter, and will feature Carpenter as a special guest, along with music, comedy and all the chaos Muppet fans have grown to adore from the crew of puppets.
All five seasons of the show, which aired from 1976 to 1981, are currently available to stream on Disney+.
The Muppet Show, which was created by Jim Henson, became a national sensation in part by welcoming some of the biggest names in entertainment to join the puppet ensemble of Kermit, Miss Piggy and more.
Some of the names that appeared as guests on the show were Elton John, Johnny Cash, Diana Ross and more.
Jack Black during an interview with host Seth Meyers on Tuesday, December 16, 2025 (Lloyd Bishop/NBC)
Jack Black paid tribute to late director Rob Reiner during an appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers on Tuesday, calling the This Is Spinal Tap filmmaker “such an incredible inspiration to me.”
“There is no Tenacious D without Spinal Tap,” Black said.
This Is Spinal Tap, which was released in 1984, is a mockumentary about a fictional metal band called Spinal Tap. The film, which marked Reiner’s directorial debut, became a cult favorite and eventually inspired a sequel, Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, that just premiered in September.
“I just wanted to really quick give a shoutout for one of the biggest inspirations in my life and send love to the universe to one of the greats,” Black said of Reiner. “He brought so much joy.”
Reiner, 78, and his wife, Michele Singer, 68, were found dead in their Los Angeles home on Sunday. Their son, Nick Reiner, has been arrested for murder.
Purchased Powerball tickets ((Photo by Lori Van Buren/Albany Times Union via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A $1.25 billion Powerball jackpot prize is up for grabs Wednesday night, with a cash value of $572.1 million, after no winners were selected Monday.
This is the game’s sixth largest prize ever, according to Powerball. The largest prize ever was $2.04 billion won on Nov. 7, 2022.
The Powerball jackpot last rolled Monday night, when no ticket matched the five white balls — 23, 35, 59, 63, 68 — and red Powerball 2.
The Powerball jackpot was last hit on Sept. 6 by two tickets in Missouri and Texas that split a $1.787 billion prize. There have been 43 consecutive drawings with no jackpot wins.
If a player wins on Wednesday night, they will have the choice between annual payments worth an estimated $1.25 billion or an immediate $572.1 million lump sum payment.
According to Powerball, the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 292.2 million.
The drawing will be held just before 11 p.m. ET in the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee.
Singer Paul Rodgers was born in Middlesbrough, England.
Rodgers would go on to form the rock band Free in 1968 with drummer Simon Kirke, guitarist Paul Kossoff and bassist Andy Fraser. The band landed a #1 hit with ”All Right Now,” which Rodgers co-wrote with Fraser.
After their breakup, Rodgers and Kirke formed the supergroup Bad Company with Mott The Hoople’s Mick Ralphs and the King Crimson’s Boz Burrell.
Bad Company’s self-titled debut album was released in 1974 and hit #1 thanks to such classic songs as “Can’t Get Enough” and the title track. The band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2025.
After leaving Bad Company in 1982, Rodgers launched a successful solo career and fronted the band The Law, featuring former Faces drummer Kenney Jones. He also toured and recorded an album with Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor under the name Queen + Paul Rodgers.
In 2023, Rodgers released Midnight Rose, his first solo album in almost 25 years, and revealed to the world he had suffered a series of strokes starting in 2016 that nearly took away his ability to sing.
Gil Gerard as Captain William “Buck” Rogers (Photo by Herb Ball/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
Actor Gil Gerard, best known for playing the title role in the sci-fi series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century has died, according to a Facebook post by his wife, Janet Gerard. He was 82.
“Early this morning Gil – my soulmate – lost his fight with a rare and viciously aggressive form of cancer,” she wrote. “From the moment when we knew something was wrong to his death this morning was only days.”
She added, “No matter how many years I got to spend with him it would have ever been enough. Hold the ones you have tightly and love them fiercely.”
Janet also posted a message from Gil on his Facebook page that read, “My life has been an amazing journey. The opportunities I’ve had, the people I’ve met and the love I have given and received have made my 82 years on the planet deeply satisfying,” adding, “It’s been a great ride, but inevitably one that comes to a close as mine has.”
Finally, he offered, “Don’t waste your time on anything that doesn’t thrill you or bring you love. See you out somewhere in the cosmos.”
Gerard starred on NBC’s Buck Rogers from 1979 to 1981. The two-hour pilot of the series was originally released in theaters, before the network picked it up as a series. The show centered around an astronaut, William “Buck” Rogers, who gets frozen in space for over 500 years and is woken up in the year 2491.
His early career included a three-year stint on the NBC soap opera The Doctors.
Gerard was married five times; his third marriage was to actress Connie Sellecca. They were married from 1979 to 1987 and had one child together.
The trailer for season 2 of The Artful Dodger has arrived. Hulu has released the official trailer for the new season of the Australian comedy-adventure series starring Thomas Brodie-Sangster, David Thewlis and MaiaMitchell. The show returns on Feb. 10 …
Simu Liu is about to make his Broadway debut. The actor, known for his starring role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, will take to the stage on the Great White Way for the first time in the hit comedy Oh, Mary! Liu will play Mary’s Teacher in his upcoming run in the show, which is set for Feb. 3 to April 21 …
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star Whitney Leavitt is set to make her feature film acting debut in an upcoming holiday rom-com. She made the announcement on her Instagram, telling fans, “Here’s your Christmas present…but you can’t open it till next year.” She also posted an Instagram Reel about all of the unsuccessful auditions she took part in that led her to this new holiday film, which has the working title All for Love …
In this photo illustration a man holds a iPhone, that shows Netflix, Warner Bros and Paramount streaming apps on his phone screen on December 9, 2025 in Bristol, England. (Anna Barclay/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The board at Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. said early on Wednesday that its members had unanimously recommended that shareholders reject Paramount Skydance’s bid for the company in favor of Netflix’s earlier bid.
“Following a careful evaluation of Paramount’s recently launched tender offer, the Board concluded that the offer’s value is inadequate, with significant risks and costs imposed on our shareholders,” Samuel A. Di Piazza, Jr., board chair, said in a statement.
(NEW YORK) — When Alyssa Burkett arrived at her Texas workplace one fall morning in 2020, the 24-year-old mother of one didn’t know a deadly plan against her was already unfolding.
On the morning of Oct. 2 that year, Burkett pulled into the parking lot of the Greentree Apartments in Carrollton, where she worked as an assistant office manager, right before tragedy struck.
A new “20/20” episode, “Ride or Die,” airing Wednesday, Dec. 17, at 10 p.m. ET on ABC and streaming the next day on Disney+ and Hulu, examines the case.
You can also get more behind-the-scenes of each week’s episode by listening to “20/20: The After Show” weekly series right on your 20/20 podcast feed on Mondays, hosted by “20/20” co-anchor Deborah Roberts.
According to authorities, a black Ford Expedition pulled up next to her, and the darkly dressed driver shot her through her car window. Miraculously, Burkett managed to get out of, but as she tried to escape into her office, the assailant stabbed and slashed her 44 times.
Carrollton Police Detective Jeremy Chevallier, who responded to the crime, told “20/20” that the scene was extremely disturbing.
“I’ve been in law enforcement for 33 years,” he said. “When I arrived, it was the most brutal scene I think I’d ever been to.”
Given the violent nature of the crime, investigators believed it could have been a crime of passion.
Burkett had been engaged in a custody battle with Andrew Beard over their 1-year-old daughter Willow. Beard, who was 10 years older than Burkett and worked as a power tools salesman, had initially met her online, according to investigators.
The day after the killing, while canvassing a neighborhood near Beard’s home, police noticed a vehicle consistent with the one driven by Burkett’s assailant. Upon searching the car, they found a hole drilled into the side of the car that could have been a gun port alongside dark colored makeup and a fake beard, officials said.
Beard soon surrendered himself to the Carrollton Police Department, and he eventually faced federal charges and pleaded guilty to cyberstalking, using a dangerous weapon resulting in death and discharging a firearm in Burkett’s death. He was sentenced to 43 years in prison in May 2023.
However, Beard claimed to authorities that his fiancée Holly Elkins, whom he started dating in 2020, was actually the one who masterminded Burkett’s killing.
Beard pointed authorities to texts between him and Elkins where she said “I need to know you’re my ride or die” and “I’m not coming home unless I know you did this.”
In July 2023, investigators believed that they had collected enough evidence to charge Elkins. She was coming back from a trip in the Dominican Republic when police arrested her at the airport in Miami.
At her trial, Elkins pleaded not guilty and argued that it wasn’t her who committed the crime or installed trackers on Burkett’s vehicle as authorities alleged. Her attorneys also rejected the notion that she was the “mastermind” behind the killing.
She was convicted of conspiracy to stalk, stalking using a dangerous weapon resulting in death, and brandishing a firearm in relation to a crime of violence and given two consecutive life sentences.
In December 2025, Elkins had her conviction on the firearm charge overturned on appeal, reducing her sentence to life without parole.
In an exclusive new interview with “20/20,” Beard said that his biggest regret was letting down his daughter.
“My message to my daughter is simply this: Willow, my sweet baby girl. You instantly became our world. I’m sorry for letting you down the way I did, honey,” he said. “Maybe one day you can forgive me for that … I love you with every inch of my heart. I truly do.”
Beard has not seen or had any contact with his daughter since he was arrested. Teresa Collard, Burkett’s mother, adopted Willow, whom she told “20/20” reminds her of her late daughter.
“They are a spitting image of each other. I mean, even the way Willow walks … Willow turns around and walks off and I see Alyssa walking off,” Collard said.
Men work in construction in Manhattan on December 16, 2025 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The federal government released two major economic reports this week, easing a backlog of data pent up by the 43-day government shutdown.
The data flashed some warning signs, showing the unemployment rate had ticked up to its highest level in four years and retail sales had stalled at the outset of the holiday season, some analysts told ABC News. Even so, the reports offered bright spots and elicited a dose of skepticism about numbers released after a weeks-long delay, analysts added.
The latest snapshot of the economy arrives at a wobbly period, landing amid a slowdown of hiring alongside an uptick of inflation.
The jobs report on Tuesday “paints a sobering picture of a job market that may officially be turning frigid after a prolonged cooling period,” Laura Ullrich, director of economic research in North America at the Indeed Hiring Lab, told ABC News in a statement.
Even so, Ullrich acknowledged, “the incomplete and unconventional jobs report may always need an asterisk attached to it.”
Mark Blyth, professor of political economy at Brown University, echoed that view, saying the fresh numbers should be taken with more than a few grains of salt.
“Eventually you’re just left with salt,” Blyth told ABC News.
The U.S. added 64,000 jobs in November, which marked a significant decline from 119,000 jobs added in September, the most recent month for which complete data is available, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said.
The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.6% in November from 4.4% in September. Unemployment remains low by historical standards but has inched up to its highest level since 2021.
Partial data for October — limited by the government shutdown — showed a staggering loss of 105,000 jobs that month, though the decline owed largely to employees who accepted a deferred resignation offer by the federal government earlier this year.
“The October payrolls figure is jarring,” Elyse Ausenbaugh, head of investment strategy at JP Morgan Wealth Management, told ABC News in a statement.
A retail sales report on Tuesday also sounded a cautionary note about consumer spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of U.S. economic activity. Retail sales were left unchanged in October from September, meaning performance remained flat despite the ramp up of the holiday season, U.S. Census Bureau data showed.
“October was supposed to be the big holiday shopping kickoff,” Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at Bankrate, told ABC News. “About half of holiday shoppers planned to begin making purchases before the end of October, but consumer pullbacks elsewhere left October retail sales right where they were in September.”
“Retail sales seem to be losing momentum at a crucial time of year,” Rossman added.
To be sure, the fresh data offered up some positive signs. As in previous months, the health care sector stood out as a robust source of hiring in November, adding 46,000 jobs, the BLS said. The construction and social assistance industries also contributed to the uptick in hiring.
Unemployment ticked up due to a larger number of people searching for work and in turn counting toward the tabulation, rather than a rise in the count of people out of work altogether, the Royal Bank of Canada economics team told ABC News in a statement.
On Tuesday, the White House touted continued growth in the labor market.
“The strong jobs report shows how President Trump is fixing the damage caused by Joe Biden and creating a strong, America First economy in record time. Since President Trump took office, 100% of the job growth has come in the private sector and among native-born Americans — exactly where it should be,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Retail sales, meanwhile, demonstrated some areas of strength. Core retail sales, which strips out volatile items like auto fuel, exceeded economists’ expectations, Bret Kenwell, U.S. investment analyst at eToro, told ABC News in a statement.
“Even if October’s retail sales data is dated, it reinforces a central theme for investors and the Fed: The resilience of US consumers,” Kenwell added.
The fresh jobs data arrived less than a week after the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate a quarter of a percentage point in an effort to boost the sluggish labor market. The move amounted to the third rate cut this year, bringing the Fed’s benchmark rate to a level between 3.5% and 3.75%.
Interest rates have dropped significantly from a recent peak attained in 2023, but borrowing costs remain well above a 0% rate established at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking at a press conference in Washington, D.C., last Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell touted the rate cut as an effort to improve the labor market, but he suggested the central bank may be cautious about further rate reductions.
“We’re well-positioned to wait and see how the economy evolves,” Powell said.
