A fan favorite animated series is reportedly leaving Adult Swim very soon! Although the series initially began airing on Fox back in 1999, Family Guy arguably did not become the animated sitcom juggernaut that it is today until it premiere on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim programming block in 2003. Adult Swim now is more known for its original programming, and while that was just as true nearly two decades ago, part of what helped make the block successful in those early days was the syndication of shows that had been cancelled elsewhere such as Family Guy, Futurama, and more.
Family Guy‘s syndication has been a part of Adult Swim since it was first introduced in 2003, but that could be coming to an end very soon as noted by a reported change in schedule. As spotted by @swimpedia on Twitter, schedule listings for Adult Swim have marked Saturday, September 18th as the final night Family Guy will be airing with the network. This unfortunately has yet to be confirmed (or de-confirmed), but it could mean the end of an era for Adult Swim as a whole.
According to Zap2it, Family Guy’s final night on @adultswim will be Saturday, September 18th! The schedule is as follows:
10:00 Family Guy: Quagmire’s Mom
10:30 Family Guy: Encyclopedia Griffin
11:00 Family Guy: Stewie Is Enceinte pic.twitter.com/kXbq5O5T7V— [swimpedia] (@swimpedia) September 5, 2021
As for the reported reason why, this is due to Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox. Their current cable channels FXX and Freeform run syndicated episodes of the series, but don’t have complete access to all of the earlier seasons like Adult Swim has. If Family Guy indeed leaves the network (and presumably will be leaving TBS as well if Disney’s acquisition is the reason why), it will open up these broadcasting rights.
Although Family Guy is currently available to stream with services such as Hulu, cable syndication of the series makes up a ton of the Adult Swim programming block. It’s often used as the buffer series for the first hour or so of programming time following Cartoon Network, and before Adult Swim’s original programs kick in. There are several animated sitcoms that can replace it such as American Dad, but it will feel a lot different without Family Guy reruns considering that Adult Swim and DVD sales were basically the reason it came back and is still airing new seasons to this day.
But what do you think? If Family Guy leaves Adult Swim, will that mean much to you? Was Adult Swim your first introduction to the animated series overall? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!