“Family Guy”, “Bob’s Burgers” set to exit broadcast syndication

Local stations downgraded animated series to late-night, overnight time slots

Family Guy reruns head to Comedy Central

[Editor’s Note: This post was updated August 14.]

If you’re watching reruns of Family Guy and Bob’s Burgers on your local TV station, you’ll need a new platform to watch them on as both are being removed from broadcast syndication due to expiring contracts. 

Family Guy and Bob's Burgers are leaving broadcast syndication on August 18th and September 1st, respectively.

The Simpsons will remain the last cartoon in broadcast syndication.

— animatedplus (@animatedplus) August 11, 2024

This move will not affect their cable airings or new episodes on Fox and Hulu. Bob’s Burgers will continue to air on Adult Swim and FXX, while Family Guy will remain on FXX and Freeform. Family Guy ends its syndication run this Sunday; Bob’s Burgers does likewise on September 1. Family Guy’s early exit leaves a gap in local stations’ lineups for the next few weeks with most filling the time slots with extra runs of existing shows or paid programming. 

On August 14, Disney made a deal with Paramount’s Comedy Central to air reruns of the program in prime time starting September 3 following an all-day Labor Day marathon on September 2, putting Family Guy and archrival South Park on the same cable network. The deal essentially replaces the broadcast syndication run, and does not include Bob’s Burgers. 

Debuting on Fox in 1999, Family Guy entered syndication in 2007 via a deal with Tribune’s stations, including WGN-TV. Bob’s Burgers premiered on Fox in 2011, went into syndication as a weekend entry in 2015, and expanded to a strip in 2019. Both shows were originally produced and distributed by Twentieth Television. 

Family Guy started airing on WGN and WCIU in 2010 in an unusual syndication agreement, with WCIU taking over the show entirely in 2015. 

Ratings for both declined over the years, leading to numerous time-period downgrades. In Chicago, both programs air during overnight hours on WCIU, though Family Guy had a stacked Saturday night run from 10 p.m. to midnight. When Family Guy ran in prime access on WGN, the program’s ratings underperformed its Two And A Half Men lead-in and its late-night run didn’t draw much viewership either. Most Tribune stations dropped the show in 2015 when the third syndication cycle began. 

Another factor in their syndication fortunes was Twentieth being absorbed into Disney’s syndication operation after the company purchased most of 21st Century Fox’s operation in 2019, including the entire film and most of the television library, including The Simpsons. Another is the shift away from young demos in linear TV, as more viewers moved to streaming as all existing episodes of Bob’s Burgers and Family Guy are on Hulu, one of two Disney-owned streaming services. By comparison, Bob’s Burgers only has the show’s first nine seasons in broadcast syndication while Family Guy stopped at season eighteen. 

Stations are also committing fewer time periods to off-network sitcoms and airing more first-run, local, and news programming – something this space has discussed before, though new entries The Conners and Bob Hearts Abishola debut next month. Another long-running sitcom (The King Of Queens) is also exiting syndication but is relocating to diginet Cozi on September 9. 

The future of all three veteran animated series on Fox is uncertain as contracts expire in 2025. Recently, Simpsons producers revealed that they will be creating four episodes exclusively for Disney Plus this upcoming season, which means that Fox will only have 18 new segments. Meanwhile, Family Guy will have two exclusive Holiday episodes on Hulu, since the show won’t be back on Fox until midseason. Fox is producing its own animated shows for its Sunday Animation Domination block, including Krapopolis, Grimsburg, and the upcoming Universal Basic Guys, with fewer episode orders than Disney’s animated content, making their syndication paths much harder. In 2013 and 2014, Fox had a late-night Animation Domination HD block on late Saturday nights as an incubator of sorts for new animated shows but flopped with viewers and advertisers. 

The end of Family Guy and Bob’s leaves The Simpsons as the only off-network animated sitcom in syndication next season in all-cash deals. At one time, fellow contemporaries King Of The Hill, Futurama, South Park, American Dad!, and The Cleveland Show were all on local stations at one time or another but also fell into dreaded overnight time slots later in their syndication runs as stations no longer wanted them. Chalk up it to the changing economics of the television business.