‘Family Guy’ Joins Comedy Central

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Seth McFarlane’s long-running series to launch with all-day Labor Day marathon

'Family Guy' features the Griffin family, who, like creator Seth MacFarlane, hail from Rhode Island.
'Family Guy' features the Griffin family, who, like creator Seth MacFarlane, hail from Rhode Island. (Image credit: 20th Television Animation)

Family Guy is joining Comedy Central in an increasingly rare off-broadcast sale to a cable network. The off-Fox animated sitcom will launch on the network in an all-day marathon on Monday, September 2, which is Labor Day, and then join Comedy Central’s primetime lineup on Tuesday, September 3.

"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," Laurel Weir, executive VP and head of programming, Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios and Paramount Media Networks, said in a statement. “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.”

Family Guy on Comedy Central - YouTube Family Guy on Comedy Central - YouTube
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The licensing agreement with Disney Entertainment was negotiated by chief programming acquisitions officer Barbara Zaneri on behalf of Paramount.

Family Guy has a long and storied history on broadcast and cable television. The animated show, created and executive produced by Seth MacFarlane, first premiered on Fox in 1999 but did not achieve immediate success. The show was canceled not once, but twice, before making its way to Cartoon Network where it aired in the network’s late-night Adult Swim block. There, it found a cult following that grew big enough, through both on-air viewings and DVD sales, that Fox ordered new episodes and redebuted the show in 2005. It remained part of Fox’s Animation Domination Sunday-night block — along with The Simpsons, Bob’s Burgers and other animated series — until last March, when it was moved to Wednesday nights.  

The Emmy-winning Family Guy is produced by 20th Television Animation and distributed by Disney Entertainment. Besides having created and executive producing the show,  MacFarlane also voices several characters, including Peter, Stewie and Brian. Rich Appel and Alec Sulkin serve as executive producers and showrunners, while Steve Callaghan, Tom Devanney, Danny Smith, Kara Vallow, Mark Hentemann, Patrick Meighan and Alex Carter are executive producers.

Paige Albiniak
Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.