What to Watch to See Muppets at the Oscars

Today's the big day! It's officially Oscar Sunday and Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy are officially scheduled to appear on and around the Academy Awards telecast tonight which starts at 8:30pm/7:30pm central on ABC. Still no word yet on what they're presenting, but with Kermit and Piggy it's sure to be fantastic. You can actually see Kermit and Piggy talking with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president, Tom Sherak, in an exclusive clip from Entertainment Weekly. Piggy grabs her Oscar... but she doesn't get to keep it.

Tonight is also a huge night for The Muppets (the movie) because, as you obviously know, "Man or Muppet" is nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. It only has one song ("Real in Rio" from Rio) as its competition, so confidence in the Muppets winning their first ever Oscar is running high. Song writer Bret McKenzie will be present at the ceremony, but there's no word on whether or not Jason Segel will be there as well. There are various rumors of a few "Muppet surprises" at the ceremony... but nothing specific has been mentioned. Either way, I'm sending all my support to Bret McKenzie and whoever else is there representing The Muppets as "Man or Muppet" goes up for its award!

But the Awards telecast isn't the only place you can see Muppets. Yesterday it was confirmed that Glee's talented singer Darren Criss would be performing "Rainbow Connection" with Kermit the Frog on E!'s Red Carpet coverage today as well. No word on when exactly Kermit and Darren are performing, however, because "E! Live from the Red Carpet," when they're performing, starts at 5:30pm/4:30pm central time and ends at 8:30pm/7:30pm central time. I've recorded the whole thing on my TiVo... so somehow I'll be seeing Kermit and Darren Criss perform! Criss actually has a fantastic voice, so this should be a great performance. You can see a live streaming of E!'s actual Red Carpet coverage on E! Online.

It has been confirmed (by a picture tweeted by Kelly Osbourne of all people) that Kermit and Miss Piggy are walking the Red Carpet tonight as well!! They'll probably appear on both ABC and E!'s coverage of the Red Carpet. ABC's Red Carpet coverage starts at 7:00pm/6:00pm central time. However, nothing is confirmed, so if you can only watch one, E! is probably the way to go.

So... in conclusion: Kermit and Piggy are presenting, "Man or Muppet" doesn't have much competition, and Kermit and Darren Criss are singing "Rainbow Connection" and it'll probably all be awesome.

Image of Kermit and Miss Piggy practicing their Red Carpet walk tweeted by Kelly Osbourne

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, muppetmindset@gmail.com