Hardly a surprise based on the ratings, and given the longer production times for animated shows, the timing of the announcement isn’t surprising either.
Via FOX press release:
HOT FROM FOX…
FOX SAYS “YES WE CAN” TO “AMERICAN DAD”
FOX has ordered a sixth season of AMERICAN DAD, the animated series featuring security-obsessed CIA agent and devoted family man STAN SMITH (Seth MacFarlane). Recently honored with an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Animated Program, AMERICAN DAD airs Sundays (9:30-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.
The series continues to follow the twisted trials and tribulations of die-hard Republican and card-carrying NRA member Stan Smith and his hilariously odd family in Langley Falls, VA. Stan’s not-so-smart wife FRANCINE (Wendy Schaal) has an unfaltering loyalty that allows her to turn a blind eye toward Stan’s unabashed arrogance. Stan constantly butts heads with his 18-year-old daughter HAYLEY (Rachael MacFarlane), who knows just how to push her father’s buttons by being liberal in both her beliefs and in the number of hippie boyfriends she chooses to date. Hayley’s 14-year-old brother is the geeky yet cocky STEVE (Scott Grimes), a kid who seems to be on the constant verge of puberty but can’t quite make sense of the opposite sex. The Smith household is rounded out by two rather unconventional members: ROGER (Seth MacFarlane), the selfish and sarcastic space alien who lives in the attic and drinks like it’s always happy hour, and KLAUS (Dee Bradley Baker), an attention-starved goldfish with the brain of a German guy who is always willing to vocalize his opinions even if no one is listening.
AMERICAN DAD ranks in the Top 10 programs of the season among Teens, Male Teens, Men 18-34, Persons 12-34, Adults 18-34 and Men 18-49.
AMERICAN DAD is a 20th Century Fox Television production co-created by Seth MacFarlane, Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman. MacFarlane, Barker and Weitzman serve as executive producers alongside Rick Wiener and Kenny Schwartz.
Great news
well deserved renewal!
Awesome !
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!! American Dad is amazing right now!
Nice! now I hope they get crackin’ on Mind Quad, that part in American Dad’s season opener was hilarious.
Although it’s the lowest rated of the Animation Domination, It pulls in the demos and I imagine it does well on Adult Swim, internationally and DVD, has it reached 100 episodes yet?
Considering that FOX has animated projects in development, I wonder whether FOX has plans to replace American Dad eventually or maybe have another night of animated sitcoms since the live action ones are doing very badly.
Great news for Seth.
American Dad pulls in good enough ratings to keep it in the lineup. It takes a while to build a following, and AD’s ratings have kept steady or on the uptick from previous seasons.
Fox frankly learned its lesson from Futurama. Futurama took a little while to get off the ground, too, and Fox whacked it after a few seasons. The show goes over to Comedy Central where it got such great ratings it was resurrected, first as four movies (i.e. 16 episodes) and now as two 13-episode seasons.
This is what most of us thought was going to happen. These past few weeks, I’ve just rolled my eyes when people were freaking out because American Dad had been put on 7:30, thinking it was going to get cancelled. FOX loves Seth, and wants to be with him for a long, long time. Seth’s stuff is safe until he starts to kill FOX’s Sunday ratings. That is definately NOT going to happen for a long time.
HATE CARTOONS
Really not surprising, American Dad was given a fifth season early November last year so the timing is right. Id expect a seventh at this time next year.
I am glad. Out of all the animation shows I enjoy this one the most.
@ ryan, up yours
@ jon, it will hit 100 at the end of the season
YES! My fave show in animation domination!
I wonder if FOX will try and get rerun rights for Futurama or it is exclusive to Comedy Central? One of the problems that Family Guy has had is due to production problems and events like The Writer’s Strike, they have been more repeats than new episodes and I don’t think there has been 22 episodes for about two seasons.
@Bodyslam911, that’d be cool, but they have yet to continue where they left off on the golden turd saga.
@jon, Family Guy hasn’t had a 22 episode season since Season 3 (before the second cancellation). Season 4 was like 30, 5 was 18, 6 was 12 and 7 was 16. I don’t know how many they have planned for season 8.
Jonthemon, thanks it just seems that American Dad managed to produce more episodes per season than Family Guy for some reason and I imagine it takes a similar amount of time to produce.
@jon, yea I’ve wondered about that as well. It might be that they’re trying to get American Dad to syndication (which as I said before will be by the end of the season) whereas Family Guy is already in syndication. Just a guess.
Jon- Not going to happen with Futurama. When they brought it back, it just didn’t have the viewers for network. Plus with FOX craving the Seth-meat, there’s no room for it. However, Comedy Central should be a great place for it, with viewership that will hopefully keep the show alive.
I personally was never a fan, but I respect the cast and crew of the show. They’ve been through a lot, and the fact that they are all still in this shows great dedication in this day & age.
Seth is a great writer and performer but I feel that with him concentrating on three different shows, the quality of Family Guy has gone down whereas American Dad is still good. Perhaps they should do what they do on CSI and have different showrunners so Seth can be on Family Guy, the co-creators of American Dad on American Dad and someone for Cleveland.
The Animation Domination is doing great but I worry that The Simpsons may be pushed off in favour of another Seth show although that won’t happen for a long time.
Jon, “The new episodes will be available in mid 2010 to be shown on COMEDY CENTRAL. Twentieth Century Fox Television retains the option to license the original runs of the new episodes to a broadcast network.”
http://www.comedycentral.com/press/press_releases/2009/061009_futurama_returns.jhtml
Maybe if FOX turns Friday into another animation night.
Glad to see. American Dad is really hitting its stride this season. Family Guy isn’t as good as year’s past but its still better than The Simpsons. Feels like we’re watching The Simpson’s slow death. The Cleveland Show has had some great laugh out loud moments. Gonna be interesting to watch its ratings in comparison to previous ratings for its time period.
Did they order 22 episodes?
I have to disagree about American Dad hitting its stride. I’ve been pretty disappointed this season, except for when they go into Roger’s brain it’s been pretty bland.
I think Season 4 was the show’s peak.
Was ‘The Simpsons’ renewed for 2 years last year?
Yes, Jeff, in February: 44 eps, for a total of 493 by May 2011.
http://tv.ign.com/articles/957/957468p1.html
@Jon – I don’t see Seth giving up that much control on any of his shows. But to his credit, Cleveland seems to be Mike Henry’s baby.
@gbd – “Simpsons slow death” for sure. I don’t even get the feeling that Groening is into it anymore, he seems like he really wanted to end it with the movie.
Mike – FOX ordered 22 more episodes for a total of 131 episodes total. 19 (Season 1), 24 (Season 2), 22 (Season 3), 22 (Season 4), 22 (Season 5), 22 (Season 6). FOX ordered 2 years of The Simpsons last year and another Cleveland Season. When was the last time FOX renewed Family Guy. The series is obviously not going anywhere, however I havent heard of a renewal in a while.
@Dan – Good point, I don’t really remember seeing any “renewal announcements” for Family Guy in a couple of years. I guess they feel they don’t need to announce that one. I remember many years where they didn’t bother announcing The Simpsons’ renewal either. I guess they announced The Simpsons this time because people wondered if the movie was going to be the swan song.
Catie – On May 5, 2008 it was announced Seth Macfarlane landed a deal that put Family Guy on the air through 2012, one could only assume this included a ninth season. While the series is in its eighth year Family Guy just started airing its 7th production season and will have an eight production season in HD beginning fall 2010. With so many episodes in the can FOX could wait a bit to officially announce a 9th production season however its all but a certainty.
How quickly you forgot Seth’s $100 million deal. It runs through 2012.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24458901/
@Catie… what are you talking about? Groening has been touting Simpsons all year, same with Al Jean celebrating the 20th anniversary. They’ve said over and over again how they want it to keep going. Of course you know better.
And the whining about the Simpsons is about as old as the show. Give it a rest. I know it’s hard to please everyone and when anything is around this long it becomes the establishment even though it started anti-establishment but it’s still terrific.
In fact Simpsons-whine is so old that IT has become part of the establishment too. It’s time to start whinging about FG and Seth… now that’s really hit the skids. AD is cute. Cleveland is horrible. FG has been bad for a few seasons.
From what I can tell Seth is getting tired of doing FG and barely talks about it anymore and is probably looking to wind it down. He doesn’t run AD anyway. He just rakes in the money.
I’ve always liked American Dad, but the season four finale was the funniest, laugh out loud episode ever. I am glad it’s staying on.
I love American Dad and am happy, but definitely not surprised, that it’s sticking around. Roger is the best character ever.
Good news. AD is easily the best show in Fox Sunday lineup.
Good to hear, American dad is the only part of Animation Domination that I still watch on a weekly basis. Family guy is loosing it’s stride, Cleveland never reeled me in and the Simpsons has been nothing but a preechy snooze fest for the past 3 seasons at least.
And if people haven’t heard, it was announced that Seth is stepping down as Show runner for FG as of the next production season and two of the younger writers are taking over, can’t remember which ones though, which should hopefully kick start things again.