The season premiere of The Simpsons last September was a pretend finale for the entire series, “wrapping up” everyone’s storylines to the astonishment of a panicked Bart, the only one who could perceive how much was changing. It was a surprise classic out of nowhere, with jokes that were truly funny and actual emotional heft. And it made viewers wonder if the show was finally coming back creatively after decades of running on autopilot.
There’s one problem. however. Part of the reason The Simpsons created a fake finale was because at this point, it felt ludicrous that the show would ever actually be cancelled. BUT…we’re actually closer than we’ve been in a while. Very few have noticed this, but The Simpsons is still awaiting renewal for the 2025-26 season. Animation takes time and if Fox wants the show around next year, they would need to order the episodes NOW.
It gets worse. Neither Family Guy nor Bob’s Burgers have episodes in production for the 2025-26 season either. They’re all still awaiting renewal and so far, there’s been silence. The only Fox toons that are guaranteed to be around next season are the newcomers: Krapopolis has been renewed through Season Four and Universal Basic Guys received a Season 2 renewal before Season 1 started airing.
What those two shows have in common is that they’re produced directly by the Fox network through their Bento Box animation studio. The Simpsons, Family Guy and Bob’s Burgers are all owned by 20th Century Studios, aka Disney. Fox might be thinking they want the Animation Domination block to favor things they own outright, or possibly consist of nothing but those things.
Or it could be even worse….Fox could be thinking, after 20 years, of shutting down the Animation Domination block entirely and continuing the blandification of network television by putting another older-skewing procedural about a medical response team in its place. If all this comes to pass, we find it unlikely such strong animated IPs wouldn’t be rescued on Hulu or Disney+, but then you’re talking ten episodes a year instead of 22, which sucks. We need cartoons on linear TV.
If you’re thinking “there’s always American Dad on cable,” yeeeeeeah….what’s running now is the last ordered season and there is no word on any more.
