Family Guy Makes Enormous Change After Almost 20 Years

Though Family Guy has had a secure 9:30 time slot on Sundays for the past several years, Fox wants to put a fresh spin on the lineup, and add the upcoming animated series, Grimsburg, to the mix. Grimsburg will see its series premiere on January 7, 2024, and has already been renewed for a second season ahead of its debut. Given that Family Guy is such a well-known property, this shift in scheduling likely won’t have any impact on the series’ staying power.

It’s also worth noting that Family Guy has been cancelled a number of times in the past, but each time this has happened, the series always came back with a vengeance. Though Family Guy had poor viewership during its first few seasons, DVD sales, as well as reruns on the Adult Swim network proved how popular the show actually was. Once the show was picked up for its fourth season in 2005, it has remained on the air.

And if you need more reassurance, you’ll be relieved to know that there is a Family Guy movie in the works. There have been rumors in the past suggesting that the upcoming movie would be live-action film starring Kevin James as Peter Griffin, but they have since been written off as a hoax that circulated around the internet. Aside from the fact that the upcoming movie will not be live-action, we don’t know much else about the project, as it’s still in the development phases.

In addition to a Family Guy movie, there have been some interesting video game tie-ins that indicate the series isn’t going anywhere any time soon. Not only will Peter Griffin be appearing as a boss character in Fortnight, characters from the series also appear in the Apple Arcade game, Warped Kart Racers. Though moving Family Guy to Wednesday nights marks the end of a 19-year streak, it’s really the mark of a new era if you think about it. For all we know, Grimsburg will be the next big thing. And if the upcoming series performs well, then we get to keep Family Guy, but also tune into a brand new animated sitcom that could potentially have a decades-long run of its own.

Family Guy‘s subversive and over-the-top humor has put us in stitches ever since its 1999 premiere, and there’s plenty more where that came from. Through the use of expertly placed (and rapidly paced) cutaway gags, elaborately scored musical numbers, and seasons-long running inside jokes, Family Guy gave series like The Simpsons and South Park a run for their money.

And let’s be real here for a second. Does a shift in broadcast scheduling really have influence on viewership these days now that streaming is ubiquitous? Sure, Family Guy is moving to Wednesdays, but a significant portion of its viewing audience will likely catch new episodes on Hulu anyway.