"American Dad", "Christine" headed to syndication?

The answer is yes for one, maybe for the other.

A decision will be made soon on when Warner Bros. The New Adventures of Old Christine and Twentieth Century Fox’s American Dad. This comes as the recession practically froze the market to sell anything in syndication for the last few months.

Christine is currently in trouble – the Julia-Louis Dreyfus vehicle may not be back on CBS this fall, but could move to ABC instead. As of right now, Christine would need another season of episodes to have enough for off-network syndication.

Meanwhile, the future is much clearer for American Dad. With 84 episodes already in the can and with the series renewed for another season, a sales pitch to stations may be coming soon. And it may be paired with Twentieth’s other animated comedies in syndication, including The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Family Guy, and South Park (barter ad sales only.)

Dad was created by Seth McFarlane, who also created Family Guy and its upcoming spin-off, The Cleveland Show.

While American Dad’s performance has been solid – it drew more 18-49 viewers on April 19th than the premiere of Sit Down, Shut Up (a program unlikely to see 16 episodes produced let alone 100), Christine has been moved around the schedule a lot due to its often mediocre performance. And if the ratings are mediocre, guess how well it’ll do in syndication?

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