Anna Daniels
Seth MacFarlane has called 20th Century Fox Television and FOX his home for years, but now he’s moving over to NBCUniveral with a new overall deal. The creator of Family Guy, American Dad!, The Cleveland Show, and The Orville will see his Fuzzy Door Productions banner situated at NBC for five years where he will develop TV shows for the company’s various networks, including NBC and the upcoming streaming service Peacock.
Variety has news of the Seth MacFarlane NBC deal that the network struck for $200 million. That’s a hefty sum to pay for a creator who hasn’t been churning out a lot of hits in recent years. MacFarlane has mostly been riding the wave of success brought about by the revival of Family Guy, one of the first TV shows to be saved after being unceremoniously canceled. But the only recent show from MacFarlane to garner acclaim and attention is The Orville, though I suppose something could be said for the scientific educational series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, which has earned 13 Emmy nominations.
One has to wonder if this was a decision by Disney, who now owns 20th Century Television, or Seth MacFarlane, who maybe didn’t want to try to fit in under their new House of Mouse overlords. The previous overall deal that MacFarlane had at Fox expired back in June, and it’s not clear if there was any attempt to rekindle that relationship. MacFarlane certainly hasn’t been pleased with the overall News Corp. banner, mostly because of Fox News, so maybe he just wanted a change for his own peace of mind. For Disney’s part, Dana Walden, the chairwoman of Disney TV Studios and ABC Entertainment, said this:
“One of my oldest memories from Fox is of a young Seth MacFarlane hanging out in the halls of the studio. He entertained all of us with his incredible wit and hilarious observations. He is a brilliant artist and a great friend; and, there is no one we root for more than him. As a fan, I look forward to whatever he creates next, and as his studio partner on ‘Family Guy,’ ‘American Dad’ and ‘The Orville,’ I feel lucky to be continuing an extraordinary partnership.”
So even though Seth MacFarlane will be making new TV shows over at NBCUniversal, along with Fuzzy Door’s company head Erica Huggins, Fox will still be keeping Family Guy, American Dad! and The Orville around for the time being, the the latter two shows are located at TBS and Hulu respectively.
As for what MacFarlane has coming up next, Cosmos: Possible Worlds debuts on Fox starting on March 9, 2020.
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