Fox has been the home of Family Guy for 19 seasons now, but if creator Seth MacFarlane has his way, that could change soon. MacFarlane took to Twitter on Sunday to voice his displeasure with host Tucker Carlson and speak out about the way politics has soured his relationship with the network.
“Tucker Carlson’s latest opinion piece once again makes me wish Family Guy was on any other network,” he wrote. “Look, Fox, we both know this marriage isn’t working anymore. The sex is only once a year, I don’t get along with your mother, and well…I’ve been having an affair with NBC.”
That “affair” he references is actually a $200 million, five-year overall deal with NBCUniversal that he signed last year. The network reportedly won a bidding war to sign MacFarlane that included offers from Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Warner Brothers, Sony, ViacomCBS and Disney.
But what does the future actually hold for Family Guy? The show received a two-season renewal from Fox last year, keeping it on the network through at least the 2022-2023 season. “Family Guy and Bob’s Burgers are key pillars of our network’s success. By taking the genre to new heights and driving pop culture in meaningful ways, they’ve laid the foundation for making Animation Domination one of the most powerful program blocks in all of television,” Fox Entertainment president Michael Thorn said at the time of the renewal. “Both of these two-season renewals affirm once again our commitment to animation and empower us to continue in our build as the leader in the space with distinct and fresh new comedies.”
It’s unclear what MacFarlane plans to do after the show’s 20th season, however. Given his big development deal with NBC and the fact that Family Guy has already been on the air for two decades, perhaps he’ll just pull the plug on it entirely and focus his energy on new projects. Until then, publicly calling out the network over its politics is likely the most he can do — or at least the most he’s willing to do as long as Fox’s money is still lining his pockets.
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