It’s the last stop in our series of questions about every major night of the new Fall TV line-up.
For this last day, we look to Sunday, where football messes with a few schedules, midseason brings some changes, and cable brings some competition.
KSiteTV’s Craig Byrne and Shilo Adams are back for this last piece, asking six questions that surely a lot of people interested in TV are also asking.
Is this the final year of FOX’s Animation Domination being two hours?
SHILO: I’m going to say no, though I could see something live-action infiltrating the lineup next season. We already know that American Dad will be leaving the network for TBS next year, so there’ll be at least one spot up for grabs. Will Murder Police fill it? I’m leaning toward not, because Family Guy has gotten noticeably weaker in the last two seasons and non-Seth MacFarlane animation hasn’t had the easier time in surviving Animation Domination. Plus, not having seen any footage, there’s the chance that it could be incompatible enough to drive the Family Guy audience away.
But the greatest variable out there is The Simpsons, as the venerable animated comedy heads into its 25th season without a renewal for any future seasons. Should the show work out the difficult financials that were publicly drawn out during the last negotiations, I think it’s successful enough, and should see a bump thanks to off-network syndication, to hold on for another few seasons and keep the framework of Animation Domination in place. However, if no such deal can be formulated, there’s a chance that the network will push Bob’s Burgers and Family Guy into one hour on Sundays and use the other hour for live-action male skewing comedy.
CRAIG: As long as Seth McFarlane’s live-action output looks like Dads… sorry, I had to go there… I think Animation Domination should stay as it is for as long as they can. Granted, some of that is up to seeing if anything new and animated “pops,” but ultimately, it does so well with the young male demos, do you really want to mess with it?
I say that and realize that if TV execs have the same attitude as I have, we’ll be seeing Episode 1000 of The Simpsons and something around 45 seasons. Oh well. But if it works…!
