Summary

• Family Guy faced multiple cancelation attempts prompted by time-slot changes and tough competition that hindered the show's ratings.
• Unprecedented DVD sales and a boost in viewership during Family Guy's reruns on Adult Swim helped the show secure a loyal cult following.
• Family Guy is now one of the longest-running scripted series, has earned multiple Emmy nominations, and has released several tie-in media as well as a spin-off series.

Family Guy is currently one of the longest-running scripted American primetime television series, only behind The Simpsons, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and the original Law & Order. However, Family Guy had a rocky run, facing the possible end of the series more than once. It's become common for networks to cancel a TV series with a devoted following but low ratings, only for that show later to be revived by a different network. One of the earliest examples of a show being brought back from the dead was Seth McFarlane's Family Guy.

Social media campaigns have made bringing a show back from cancelation easier by allowing fans to voice their passion for a series. While not every show gets the same levels of love, fan favorites such as Lucifer, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and One Day at a Time have received second chances on different networks after getting axed. Yet Family Guy never changed networks, and it was only through fandom power and unprecedented DVD sales that the show was able to return. Fox has brought back Family Guy more than once, but exactly how many times was Family Guy canceled?

Updated on May 18, 2024, by Florencia Aberastury: Family Guy is one of the few shows that survived multiple cancelations to become one of the longest-running American series. The animated sitcom has also earned multiple accolades since its return, prompting fans to wonder why Family Guy was canceled in the first place. This article has been updated to include more information about Family Guy's unique history of cancelations and revivals and to bring the article up to current CBR standards.

Family Guy's Time-Slot Change Led to Its First Cancelation

In Only Two Seasons, Family Guy Saw Multiple Time-Slot Changes

• Family Guy's premiere garnered 22 million viewers and received positive reviews, but due to its adult content, it caused several controversies.
• The first season of Family Guy finished 33rd in the Nielsen ratings but quickly dropped after the time slot change for Season 2, ending at No. 114 in the Nielsen ratings.

Family Guy debuted with "Death Has a Shadow" on January 31, 1999, after Fox's broadcast of Super Bowl XXXIII, a coveted time slot for any show. After its debut, Family Guy returned on April 11, 1999, with the episode "I Never Met the Dead Man." In addition to positive reviews, the first season garnered strong ratings when it aired on Sundays at 8:30 p.m., sandwiched between The Simpsons and The X-Files. However, that success didn't last long. After its first season, Fox moved Family Guy's time slot numerous times, seemingly setting up the animated sitcom for failure.

The show's second season premiered in September 1999 in a new time slot: Thursdays at 9 p.m., against NBC's Frasier. During the 1990s and early 2000s, NBC owned Thursday nights with its "Must See TV" programming block, consisting of popular shows like Frasier, ER and Seinfeld. Scheduling a relatively new show like Family Guy against a critical darling and cultural juggernaut like Frasier led to a massive decline in ratings. Fox eventually moved Family Guy's time slot once more, this time to mid-season, on Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m., where it also suffered, this time against ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. At the end of Season 2, Fox officially announced that Family Guy had been canceled. However, the network reversed that decision only two months later and renewed Family Guy for a third season.

Competition Caused Family Guy to Be Canceled a Second Time

Season 3 of Family Guy Also Had Multiple Time-Slot Changes On Top of the Tough Competition

• Family Guy's competition with Friends during their shared time slot is later referenced in the direct-to-video film Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story.
• Fox made the changes in time slots and days with little to no notice, making it harder for fans of the show to watch Family Guy on TV.

Family Guy Season 3 premiered in July 2001 with its worst time slot yet, Thursdays at 8 p.m. That placed the show in the fall opposite one of the most iconic sitcoms of all time, Friends, the most-watched show during the 2001 TV season. Family Guy suffered an even sharper rating decline due to Friends and the breakout success of CBS's reality competition series Survivor, which aired simultaneously. The ratings drop was too much for Fox, which canceled the series again in 2002, leaving an unaired episode that would eventually air on Adult Swim.

Because social media wasn't as big in the early 2000s as it is today, Family Guy's second revival was driven by a much different force: reruns and DVD sales. Fox tried to sell the rights for reruns of the show but was met with little to no interest until a network finally acquired the rights "almost for free," according to what the president of 20th Century Fox Television said. Cartoon Network bought the syndication rights to the show and started airing reruns in April 2003. Family Guy quickly became the top-rated program on the network's Adult Swim block and developed a strong cult following.

The animated series even boosted the Adult Swim block's viewership by 239%. The DVDs for the first and second seasons were released at the same time as Adult Swim began airing the reruns, and the public's interest became obvious. This eventually led to Family Guy's revival again, with the first episode of Season 4 earning its highest ratings since "Brian: Portrait of a Dog" from the first season.

Family Guy Survived to Become Most Popular Animated Series

Family Guy Has Released Multiple Tie-In Media and Has Received Several Accolades

• Family Guy's DVDs sold 400,000 within one month and became the best-selling television DVD of 2003 and the second-highest-selling television DVD ever.
• Family Guy was the first show that earned a revival based on DVD sales.

Family Guy only grew in popularity when the first and second seasons were released on DVD, around the same time Adult Swim began airing reruns. When DVD sales reached three million copies, Fox took notice and announced the series would return once again for a fourth season. In May 2005, three years after its second cancelation, Family Guy's fourth season premiered to strong ratings in a much safer time slot (Sundays, after The Simpsons), and the rest is television history.

In 2009, Family Guy was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series, which wasn't common for an animated sitcom. Before Family Guy, the last time an animated series was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series was The Flintstones in 1961. So far, Family Guy has received 27 Emmy Awards nominations, winning 8. It has also released many tie-in media, including Family Guy: Live in Vegas, a soundtrack-DVD combo, and Laugh It Up, Fuzzball: The Family Guy Trilogy, which is a collection of three episodes that parodies the original Star Wars trilogy. Family Guy also prompted a spin-off series revolving around the character Cleveland Brown, titled The Cleveland Show.

In January 2023, Fox renewed Family Guy for seasons 22 and 23. Season 22 aired between October 2023 and April 2024, and Season 23 is expected to debut in 2025.