Seth MacFarlane Ponders Family Guy’s Fate: ‘I Don’t Know That There’s Any Reason to Stop’

Nick Caruso
·2 min read
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Family Guy may have a whopping 25 years (and 22 seasons) under its belt, but according to creator Seth MacFarlane, the animated comedy isn’t going anywhere any time soon.

In a recent interview with L.A. Times, MacFarlane gave his two cents about the show’s potential future. When asked if the show could last another 25 years, the executive producer (who also voices many of the show’s main characters including Peter, Brian and Stewie Griffin) seemed open to it. As long as the audience doesn’t “get sick of it.”

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“At this point, I don’t see a good reason to stop,” he said. “People still love it. It makes people happy and it funds some good causes. It’s a lot of extraneous cash that you can donate to Rainforest Trust and you can still go out to dinner that night. There was a time when I thought, ‘it’s time to wrap it up.’ At this point, we’ve reached escape velocity. I don’t know that there’s any reason to stop at this point unless people get sick of it. Unless the numbers show that people just are, “Eh, we don’t care about Family Guy anymore. But that hasn’t happened yet.”

To MacFarlane’s point, Family Guy is still a reliable performer for Fox. Season-to-date, the series — which moved to Wednesdays at midseason — is averaging 1.21 million total viewers and a 0.32 demo rating (with Live+7 playback), down 27% in audience from last season and also down sharply in the demo. But out of the six ‘toons that Fox has aired this TV season, it is the most-watched and trails only Bob’s Burgers in the demo. (The show is already renewed for Season 23.)

Added Alex Borstein, who voices Lois Griffin: “I feel like every time we have a table read or recording, I’m laughing. For me, that’s my litmus test, if I’m still laughing at the scripts, if there’s three out-loud laughs.”

Will you keep watching Family Guy for another couple decades? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.

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