The new Nielsen ratings are out and the streaming numbers are in and guess what? Adult animation is by far the most-watched sector of television watched with a combined total of 100 billion minutes streamed. The numbers account from all streaming TV watched from the entirety of the 2024 year here in America and here’s the three biggest adult animated series ranked:
1. Family Guy (Hulu) — 42.44
2. Bob’s Burgers (Hulu) — 36.80
3. Futurama (Hulu) — 11.75
A couple of takeaways here,
1) Adult animated sitcoms are still the biggest franchises in the world and 20th Television makes all of them.
2) Family Guy’s staying power might be forever, consider the fact that FOX only aired brand-new episodes in the first-half of 2024 and then Hulu had two-exclusive holiday specials the second half of the year, and STILL had a substantial lead over Bob’s Burgers which similarly had an odd premieres schedule due to the WGA strikes.
3) The fact that Futurama is in the top-three and is exclusive to Hulu is impressive, but the fact that Solar Opposites is nowhere near the list is a bit of a letdown and I wonder if this may be a similar trend to what we saw from Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty in that fans aren’t watching the episodes that do not have show co-creator Justin Roiland as it’s lead. In essence, Adult Swim and Disney have Bud-Lighted two animation franchises by listening to cancel culture social justice warriors instead of having the legal system play out which having done so would’ve kept Justin’s post at both jobs and viewership strong at both franchises. The Futurama news is ALSO good because it hopefully means the new King of the Hill episodes will get a similar response leading to additional seasons.
4) Back to Family Guy, the show is one of the strongest, if not THE strongest, adult animated sitcoms on social media. Tiktok, X.com, Facebook, you really can go anywhere and be fed a heaping helping of clips usually derived from the cutaway gags that are perfect portions for the much more ADD-tendencies of a social video crowd. Then add in the fact that Family Guy reruns can often be seen on FOX, Freeform, FX/FXX, Adult Swim, Comedy Central, and various affiliates, and you have yourself a series that has officially supplanted The Simpsons as one of the most important.
Family Guy returns with all-new episodes on FOX next month, get more details here.