“American Dad!” could soon be airing on Fox — again.
Variety has confirmed that 20th Television Animation and Fox Entertainment are nearing a deal to bring the long-running animated sitcom back to the broadcast network on which it launched in 2005. The deal would most likely be a multi-season pickup. The show has aired for nearly 400 episodes to date.
News of the Fox deal comes as “American Dad!” is preparing to air its last original episodes on TBS, which has been the show’s home since 2014. Reruns of “American Dad!” will continue to air on TBS and fellow Warner Bros. Discovery networks Adult Swim and TruTV until at least 2030. The show was last picked up for two seasons at TBS in 2021, prior the completion of the Warner Bros. Discovery merger.
With the end of “American Dad!” on TBS, the network will now truly have no more scripted original programming. Scripted originals were largely axed at TBS and other TNets under the David Zaslav regime at WBD.
“American Dad!” was created by Seth MacFarlane, Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman, and is run by co-showrunners Weitzman and Brian Boyle. It is produced by 20th Television Animation.
This will now be the second MacFarlane series to return to Fox. Previously, “Family Guy” aired on the network before being cancelled, but strong DVD sales and reruns on Adult Swim drove Fox to bring the show back. “American Dad!” will no doubt return to Fox’s “Animation Domination” block on Sunday night, where it will join fellow animated stalwarts “Family Guy,” “The Simpsons,” and “Bob’s Burgers.”
“American Dad!” centers on super-patriotic CIA agent Stan Smith (voiced by MacFarlane) and the misadventures of his unconventional family in Langley Falls, VA. The family includes mom Francine (Wendy Schaal), left-wing activist daughter Hayley (Rachael MacFarlane), geeky-yet-confident son Steve (Scott Grimes), as well as Roger (MacFarlane), a sassy, sarcastic and routinely inappropriate space alien, and Klaus (Dee Bradley Baker), an attention-starved goldfish with the brain of a German Olympic skier.
Deadline first reported the potential Fox deal.
