Family Guy takes on Game of Thrones in Emmy campaign
Family Guy wants an Emmy. And it’s willing to go to Westeros to claim it.
Family Guy will air its season finale Sunday at 9 p.m. ET/PT, and once again will face the daunting challenge of airing opposite one of the final episodes of Game of Thrones. And while Thrones will surely emerge wildly victorious in the night’s ratings battle, Peter Griffin is hoping to hitch a ride on the pop culture giant in another way, instead of flinging stones.
The cover of this year’s Emmy mailer shows the Griffin patriarch (voiced by creator Seth MacFarlane) dressed as Jon Snow, sitting proudly on the Iron Throne, with Brian imagined as the direwolf Ghost. Above the pair are these instructions: “Due to a printing error, if you wish to vote for Game of Thrones, please check the Family Guy box on the animation ballot.” (Of course, these two series are only time-slot competitors, not awards-category competitors, but hey, Tyrion would approve of this mischievous misdirection.)
Fox’s long-running animated series has made it an annual ritual to grab headlines with its outrageous for-your-consideration mailer to Emmy voters. It has gone after Donald Trump (calling him a “dumb loudmouth”), Kellyanne Conway and her “alternative facts,” and Hollywood’s #MeToo scandal. In 2010, the mailer featured Peter as the title character from Precious, which offered the slogan “Vote for us or you’re racist.”
Game of Thrones has won three Outstanding Drama Series Emmys, while Family Guy has yet to nab Outstanding Animated Program Emmy. The Griffins have been nominated several times in two different categories (for programming less than one hour and for programming one hour or more), most recently in 2008. Family Guy scored an Outstanding Comedy Series nomination in 2009, which was the first time that an animated show landed a nomination in that category since The Flintstones in 1961.
HBO will air the series finale of Game of Thrones on May 19.
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