Mission to one hundred is accomplished; syndication riches to follow. Maybe.
Bob’s Burgers, the underrated show that’s become a utility player for Fox in the last few years, has been renewed for a sixth season, pushing it past the one-hundred episode mark and guarantees itself a syndication afterlife. The show is produced by Twentieth Television.
The Emmy-winning animated series lives in the shadows of fellow programs The Simpsons and Family Guy, but continues to pull in decent numbers. Since airing out of Family Guy and replacing sitcom dud Mulaney, Bob’s has improved the time-slot rating and share in adults 18-49 and other key demos.
Since 2013, Bob’s reruns has aired on Adult Swim and has also pulled in strong numbers, often beating one of the Big 3 networks in the key demo on Sunday nights.
Premiering on January 9, 2011 (four years ago today), Bob’s Burgers was created by Loren Bouchard and is an executive producer along with Jim Dauterive. Both are veterans of long-running animated sitcom King of the Hill.
With the show now crossing the one-hundred episode mark, Bob’s Burgers appears to be ready for a broadcast syndication sale. The field is wide open – no off-network sitcoms have been announced for 2016 as of yet. However, with the availably of time periods scarce and Twentieth Television already having two shows yet to be sold in broadcast syndication (New Girl and Last Man Standing), Bob’s Burgers could be kept on the sidelines for a while.
Just this week, Twentieth renewed Dish Nation through 2017, taking away even more potential time periods.
A glimmer of hope for open time periods came Thursday when Tribune and Debmar-Mercury announced it wasn’t going forward with a proposed prime access talk show starring Craig Ferguson. Already, several stations had removed Ferguson’s Celebrity Name Game from access (6-7 p.m. CT), but Debmar-Mercury still picked up the show for a second season.
But if you want your Bob’s Burgers rerun fix, adult swim would have to do for now.