In a surprise move, Fox has announced they're expanding their crop of animated series, this time turning to one of their long-running legacy comedies for a spinoff, rather than developing another new series. Family Guy will have its second spinoff, centered on fan favorite Stewie Griffin, seventeen years after the show's first spinoff - The Cleveland Show - debuted. Titled Stewie, the new animated comedy will feature Stewie spicing up his boring days at preschool by using his inventions to visit various points in history and space. The spinoff will not interfere with Stewie's presence on Family Guy, and Seth MacFarlane will voice him on both shows. Stewie has received a two-season order, and is set to premiere in the 2027-2028 broadcast season, meaning its order will take it through to the end of Family Guy and American Dad's current four-season renewals.
Fox's veteran animated sitcoms are coming back in a big way. The network has announced that legendary cartoons The Simpsons, Family Guy and Bob's Burgers have all been granted four-season renewals at the network. All three shows were coming off two-season renewals that were announced in January 2023. An April pickup is a later renewal confirmation than these shows would typically receive, but the size of the order is a likely culprit for the delayed announcement. In addition to these renewals, Fox has also officially confirmed that American Dad! will return to the network where it began. The series had been a TBS staple for the last decade before that network moved away from scripted programming amid corporate restructuring. American Dad's pickup is also for four seasons. All four animated staples will have fifteen-episode seasons going forward. That's a decline from the norm, but not far off from recent seasons, which have seen Bob's Burgers and The Simpsons benched at midseason and Family Guy left off the fall schedule, all resulting in shorter seasons. All three veteran renewals are correct predictions for The TV Ratings Guide.
Below are the February 22nd renew/cancel predictions for the Fox network in the 2024-25 television season. The numbers listed in the table mark the Nielsen rating low, average, and high for each respective program in the Adults 18-49 demographic. The "Y2Y (year-to-year) Change" column denotes how much the series has grown or declined when compared to its average from the previous season.
Grimsburg: In its return, Grimsburg posted a 0.14 Adults 18-49 rating, retaining barely half of its Family Guy lead-in. Despite the poor performance, this number is actually higher than eleven of the thirteen episodes that aired in 2024. When looking at the big picture, Fox doesn't really need to keep Grimsburg around. They have their three animated veterans (Simpsons, Bob's, Family Guy), a decent performer in Universal Basic Guys, and two more cartoons (Krapopolis & The Great North) that are much closer to syndication than Grim. And yet, it starts as a Likely Renewal in this column. The fact that Fox bumped it up an hour to give it a Family Guy lead-in means they want it to succeed. If they were fine with its dismal performance last year, they are probably fine with it doing about the same this time around.
Family Guy: On Sunday, NASCAR zoomed into primetime and caused significant delays. Because of this, the season premiere of Family Guy aired at ten instead of eight, but that was probably for the better as Peter Griffin and company returned with a 0.27 rating. The series likely took advantage of its sizable lead-in, as this is its best Adults 18-49 performance since 2023. Though it is possible that airing two hours late canceled out any boost it may have gotten from NASCAR, it's more likely that Family Guy will deal with a sizable decline in week two. For now, the series is Likely to be Renewed. This is the first time in a while that Fox has scheduled the series in a worthy time slot, and it is unlikely that any of the other three in this lineup will be doing any better. A move to Hulu seems to be on the horizon, but Fox needs it on broadcast for now.
Doc:Doc recently jumped to a 0.27 rating, setting a new season high in the process. This drama has come a long way since it posted that dreadful 0.19 on premiere night, and it has only strengthened its case for renewal. Doc began as a shaky Likely Renewal in January, but its live ratings have grown enough that it is now closer to Certain Renewal status.
Animal Control: Speaking of shows rising to new highs, Animal Control jumped to a 0.25 for its latest installment. This is the program's best rating since 2023, meaning it bested every season two episode in this showing. Animal Control appears to be in fine shape and retains its Likely Renewal status.
Going Dutch: Though there was once a time when Going Dutch built on Animal Control, its latest performance shows no such promise. Dutch delivered a mere 0.16 on February 13th, retaining just 64% of Animal Control's audience. A renewal is never completely out of the question for a struggling Fox newcomer, but Dutch has made it clear that it is no Doc. It is still Likely to be Canceled.
Below are the Week 25 renew/cancel predictions for the Fox network in the 2023-24 television season. The numbers listed in the table mark the Nielsen rating low, average, and high for each respective program in the Adults 18-49 demographic. The "Y2Y (year-to-year) Change" column denotes how much the series has grown or declined when compared to its average from the previous season. Scripted and reality are represented in their own separate charts.
Scripted
Reality
The 22nd season of Family Guy wrapped up on Wednesday, April 17th with a meager 0.17 rating in the Adults 18-49 demographic. The long-running animated series has clearly struggled since moving away from Sunday night, even if live ratings barely matter when it comes to deciding whether this series gets renewed or not. Family Guy is clearly here to stay, but it's possible that it may not be on Fox forever. In fact, the recent announcement that Huluwill be the show's exclusive home for two upcoming holiday specials makes a move to streaming seem inevitable.
When looking back at this season, there was clearly a way to keep this series from having to switch nights. If Fox had something else to air in the 9:30 slot on Wednesdays, Family Guy could have easily aired the 6 Wednesday episodes on Sunday. Below is a breakdown of this fantasy scheduling scenario.
09/24/23: On this evening, Krapopolis debuted in the 8 p.m. time slot with an hour-long premiere that was inflated by football. Instead of airing a rerun of The Masked Singer at 9, Fox could have placed two episodes of Family Guy here. This would have served as the show's own one-hour season premiere. Family Guy would have had a decent amount of NFL help, enough to bring it up to a 0.4 rating at the very least. This takes care of 2 episodes.
10/29/23: Fox aired a rerun of Family Guy on October 29th and it managed a 0.24, a rating higher than any of its Wednesday episodes. If an original episode had aired here instead, it would have done the same or better. That takes care of 1 more episode.
12/24/23: A massive NFL lead-in on Christmas Eve catapulted The Simpsons to a 1.8 rating. Family Guy aired as a rerun on this night and managed a 0.43, a rating higher than most of its originals from this season. Had a new Family Guy aired directly after The Simpsons at 8:30, it could have possibly managed a rating in the 0.9-1.2 range. That takes cares of 1 episode.
01/14/24: The 2 remaining episodes could have aired as part of a one-hour season finale on January 14th. On this evening, an episode of We Are Family managed a football-boosted 1.17 rating. Instead of cartoon repeats taking up the 9 p.m. hour, Family Guy could have closed out its season in this slot.
Fox Renew/Cancel March Madness Concludes!
Our NCAA-style "March Madness" bracket tournament for Fox is now officially over. In the final match-up, Bob's Burgers beat out Family Guy and took home the gold. Congratulations to the Belcher family on their victory!
