What do [takes a deep breath] The War at Home, American Dad, The Winner, King of the Hill, The Cleveland Show, Bob’s Burgers, Allen Gregory, Napoleon Dynamite, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Cooper Barrett’s Guide to Surviving Life, Son of Zorn, Making History, Ghosted, Bless the Harts, Duncanville, and The Great North have in common? All of those shows, many of which have been long forgotten, aired in the 8:30 p.m. EST timeslot between The Simpsons at 8 p.m. and Family Guy at 9 p.m. (or in recent years, 9:30 p.m.).
Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin have been Sunday night fixtures on Fox for nearly 20 years, but that streak is about to end. The Simpsons isn’t going anywhere (it never will), but Family Guy has been shuffled to Wednesday night with a midseason debut scheduled for 2025.
For the first time since Family Guy was brought back from cancellation by Fox 19 years ago, Seth MacFarlane’s animated hit, which just celebrated its 25th anniversary, won’t be on the network’s fall schedule. It is one of eight new and returning scripted series held for midseason — including Animal Control, The Cleaning Lady, and Alert — which is as many as there are on Fox’s fall schedule. The network likely is plotting a major midseason rollout using its Super Bowl broadcast as a promotional platform.
Family Guy is still popular, especially on social media. So why the change?
“We talk a lot about looking at the schedule in a more modern way and rather than looking simply at the traditional time slots of shows, we look at our entire portfolio,” Fox CEO Rob Wade explained, according to Deadline. “We also think [about] Hulu and how it would work best for them. Scheduling has changed significantly over the years and we approach it in a different way now.”
People are still watching Family Guy on broadcast (although, like with every show, not as much as they used to), so the thinking from Fox appears to be using the show as a building block for another night of the week.
At least Family Guy can lampoon the new timeslot: “You think that’s bad? At least you didn’t get moved from Sunday to Wednesday [cut-away joke to Brian Griffin hitting on Jenna Ortega].”
(Via Deadline)
