It's become common for networks to cancel a TV series that has a devoted following but low ratings, only for that show later to be revived by a different network. This practice has become easier due to social media campaigns, allowing fans to voice their passion for a series. While not every show gets the same levels of love, fan favorites such as Lucifer, The Expanse and One Day at a Time have received second chances after getting axed.
One of the earliest examples of a show being brought back from the dead was Seth McFarlane's Family Guy, doing so not once but twice.
Family Guy's Time-Slot Change Led to Its First Cancelation
Family Guy debuted on January 31, 1999, after Fox's broadcast of Super Bowl XXXIII, a coveted time slot for any show, before returning on April 11, 1999. In addition to positive reviews, the first season garnered strong ratings when it aired on Sundays at 8:30 p.m., sandwiched between The Simpsons and The X-Files. Unfortunately, however, that success didn't last long. Fox moved Family Guy's time slot numerous times, seemingly setting up the animated sitcom for failure.
The show's second season premiered in September 1999 in a new time slot: Thursdays at 9 p.m., against NBC's Frasier. During the 1990s and early 2000s, NBC owned Thursday nights with its "Must See TV" programming block, consisting of popular shows like Frasier, ER and Seinfeld. Scheduling a relatively new show like Family Guy against a critical darling and cultural juggernaut like Frasier led to a massive decline in ratings. Fox eventually moved Family Guy's time slot at mid-season to Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m., where it also suffered, this time against ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. At the end of the season, Fox officially announced that Family Guy had been canceled. However, the network reversed that decision two months later and renewed Family Guy for a third season.
Competition Caused Family Guy to Be Canceled a Second Time
Family Guy Season 3 premiered in July 2001 with its worst time slot yet, Thursdays at 8 p.m. That placed the show in the fall opposite NBC's Friends, which was the most-watched show during the 2001 TV season. Family Guy suffered an even sharper rating decline due to Friends and the breakout success of CBS's reality-competition series Survivor, which aired at the same time. The ratings drop was too much for Fox, which canceled the series once again in 2002.
Because social media wasn't as big in the early 2000s as it is today, Family Guy's second revival was driven by a much different force: reruns and DVD sales. Cartoon Network bought the syndication rights to the show and started airing reruns in April 2003. Family Guy quickly became the top-rated program on the network's Adult Swim block and developed a cult following.
Family Guy only grew in popularity when the first and second seasons were released on DVD, around the same time Adult Swim began airing reruns. When DVD sales reached three million copies, Fox took notice and announced the series would return once again for a fourth season. In May 2005, three years after its second cancelation, Family Guy's fourth season premiered to strong ratings in a much safer time slot (Sundays, after The Simpsons), and the rest is television history.
As of February 2023, Fox has recommissioned Family Guy for Season 22 and 23.