Peace In The Cartoon Wars: Comedy Central Picks Up 'Family Guy' Reruns
For the first time in the United States, Rhode Island and Colorado are forming a border
You think that’s bad? Comedy Central has picked up reruns of Family Guy as part of an adult animation block it will form with reruns of South Park, Futurama, and Beavis and Butt-Head after the Paramount-owned network made a licensing deal with Disney.
It all begins with an all-Labor Day marathon on September 2 before becoming part of the regular primetime lineup the next night. It marks the first time in nearly 3 years after departing Adult Swim and TBS that Family Guy will air on a non-Disney cable network. Primarily on FXX, Family Guy Fridays still happen on Freeform and thus doesn’t air on FXX on Fridays at all. There was also a period where while Freeform didn’t have Family Guy Fridays, they aired 12 hours on FX instead. It’s been pointed out how much of a rarity licensing deals for network shows on cable have become in the streaming age, but it’s not an extinct practice. Family Guy isn’t all that unfamiliar to Comedy Central either, airing there internationally in Germany, Spain, Hungary, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Romania.
Family Guy joins a daily lineup occupied by very few shows. In addition to the animated shows already mentioned, the lineup is dominated by reruns of The Office and Seinfeld, while The Daily Show airs new episodes that are repeated once a couple of hours later. When The Daily Show is off, it doesn’t air at all. Family Guy seems to be Comedy Central‘a first major syndication acquisition since the long-running Fox/NBC live action comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine already two and a half years ago, and seemed to be dropped pretty quickly. Do you remember when Archer and Bojack Horseman were on the network? Yeah seems to be a pattern. In truth, the long-running Fox series being on Comedy Central isn’t weird on paper. After all, Futurama was revived here the first time (and sticks around while still airing on Adult Swim and FXX) and The Cleveland Show, Family Guy’s own spinoff had a significant stint here. King of the Hill maybe not so much.
What actually makes Family Guy on Comedy Central so weird is airing alongside South Park even so many years after the infamous two-parter from season 10 “Cartoon Wars”, which saw South Park absolutely eviscerating Family Guy, a very angry seethefest from Matt Stone and Trey Parker being played out onscreen. Hatred, jealousy and blatant disrespect (all their words from the episode commentary) pointed at the writers being put out in the open while the latter show was finishing airing its fourth season, its first back on the air since being revived. Now all these years later, they’re airing together.
“We are excited to welcome Family Guy to Comedy Central joining the best in adult animation alongside South Park, Futurama, and Beavis and Butt-Head, among others,” said Laurel Weir, the Executive Vice President and Head of Programming at Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks. “Delivering bold, irreverent and culturally impactful content to our fans is our top priority which makes Family Guy the perfect complement to our robust adult animation slate.” The agreement with Disney Entertainment was negotiated on behalf of Paramount Global by Barbara Zaneri, their Chief Programming Acquisitions Officer. Weir’s statement about the robust adult animation slate also involves the rebuilding of their slate of originals. In addition to South Park, the network has Digman! starring Andy Samberg awaiting its second season, a Golden Axe series, the animated Everybody Hates Chris reboot Everybody Still Hates Chris, and the Beavis and Butt-Head revival has made the network its actual home despite being in second-window mode because when season 3 premieres in 2025, it’ll be there instead of Paramount+. There is a promo hyping Family Guy’s arrival, but its most legitimate source is Twitter, so this upload is getting embedded instead.
Source: Deadline, International Broadcast Wiki