Fox gives Seth MacFarlane’s ‘Dads’ a full season
Do you believe that Fox’s “Dads” is a scourge upon scripted television everywhere? Well, regardless of what you may think about the subject, you are going to see so much more of the show, anyway. In a statement today, Fox confirmed that the comedy from executive producer Seth MacFarlane has been picked up for a full season of 22 episodes. Thanks to this, it means that the network is going to have a full roster of scripted programming on Tuesday nights for the rest of the season, as “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” was already picked up.
In a statement confirming the news, Fox’s programming head Kevin Reilly had the following to say about the decision (which may be surprising at least to some):
“FOX has been looking to break into the multi-camera format for some time. With DADS, we have an asset that we can grow, and we’re looking forward to seeing where the fantastic cast and the creative minds of [our producers] take us the rest of the season.”
In addressing the statement, we totally agree that there is value in Fox having a multi-camera sitcom. They are very traditional, and they are the sort of thing that tends to do well in repeats and syndication. Plus, this show has a cast that on paper should be very funny. It’s just not happening yet and there has been all sorts of criticism about racial humor and sexism so far. But while we can sit here and complain about this, at the same time, isn’t this the sort of thing that used to help make “Married … with Children” into a success? It’s all a difference about timing and TV watching audiences changing what their tastes are. It also helps that the latter show tended to really make people laugh regularly.
While we are clearly not the biggest fans of “Dads”, we are still fans of networks giving an opportunity to actually allow shows to find their audience and grow their ratings. If “Dads” stays low in the ratings come May, then just go ahead and cancel it then. For now, they don’t really have that much else to really plug into that spot.
If you want to read the entire midseason schedule on Fox, be sure to click here. We’ll have more news on the subject as it becomes available.
Photo: Fox