It's time for a journey through the Fox Sunday schedule in 2025-26...
fall
| Year | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | Avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | The Simpsons | Universal Basic Guys | Bob's Burgers | Krapopolis | 112 |
| 151 | 143 | 94 | 61 | ||
| 147 | 77 | ||||
| 2025-26 | The Simpsons | Universal Basic Guys | Krapopolis | Bob's Burgers | 116 (+3%) |
| 171 (+14%) | 140 (-2%) | 73 (-23%) | 78 (+30%) | ||
| 156 (+6%) | 76 (-2%) | ||||
| VsAvg | +16% | -29% | -4% | ||
| Rank | 4/27 | 26/27 | 18/27 | ||
Fox's Sunday animation lineup was slightly improved in the fall, driven by a bounce-back season for The Simpsons, which looked better both in the NFL and non-NFL weeks. The 9/8c hour saw a flip between Krapopolis and Bob's Burgers, hurting Bob's ratings and helping Krapopolis but doing nothing meaningful for the hour as a whole.
winter
| Year | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | Avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | Family Guy | Grimsburg | The Great North | Krapopolis | 48 |
| 63 | 48 | 43 | 37 | ||
| 56 | 40 | ||||
| 2025-26 | Family Guy | Universal Basic Guys | American Dad! | Family Guy | 66 (+38%) |
| 80 (+27%) | 48 (+0%) | 60 (+40%) | 76 (+106%) | ||
| 64 (+16%) | 68 (+70%) | ||||
| VsAvg | -36% | -27% | -31% | ||
| Rank | 22/27 | 23/27 | 23/27 | ||
The winter animation got a much bigger jolt across the board, with Family Guy looking significantly improved both as an 8/7c anchor and in some special 9:30 airings. Another big factor was the return of American Dad! after a decade-plus on cable. It was no Family Guy but it still significantly outshone the chaff on this night in recent years. Meanwhile, after airing only in the fall last year, Universal Basic Guys had to brave the winter and looked quite poor.
spring
| Year | 8:00 | 8:30 | 9:00 | 9:30 | Avg |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | The Simpsons | Family Guy | The Great North | Krapopolis | 47 |
| 48 | 59 | 42 | 40 | ||
| 54 | 41 | ||||
| 2025-26 | Family Guy | Bob's Burgers | American Dad! | Family Guy | 71 (+49%) |
| 68 (+42%) | 78 (+31%) | 60 (+41%) | 77 (+93%) | ||
| 73 (+36%) | 68 (+66%) | ||||
| VsAvg | -15% | -21% | -18% | ||
| Rank | 20/27 | 21/27 | 20/27 | ||
Bob's rejoined the lineup starting in late April, giving the network even more growth. (Though the double Family Guy weeks were done by the time Bob's returned, so this foursome never aired all together.)
Rating the Ratings (about grades)
| Name | Lo | Avg | Hi | y2y | Plus | Label | Plusy2y | Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Simpsons* | 0.2 | 0.46 | 1.1 | +31% | 153 | big hit | +38% | detail |
| Family Guy* | 0.1 | 0.22 | 0.3 | +23% | 73 | marginal | +31% | detail |
| Universal Basic Guys | 0.1 | 0.34 | 1.3 | -30% | 114 | solid | -25% | detail |
| Krapopolis | 0.1 | 0.20 | 0.3 | +32% | 68 | flop | +40% | detail |
| American Dad!* | 0.1 | 0.17 | 0.2 | 56 | flop | detail | ||
| Bob's Burgers* | 0.1 | 0.23 | 0.3 | 0% | 78 | marginal | +6% | detail |
The Simpsons: A lot of the growth here is because it only aired three episodes after the new year, which is a far cry from unloading seven eps at sub-50 Plus in the late spring as it did last year. This scheduling helped to create its highest Plus average since 2000-01, which is kind of ridiculous because it's not nearly as Truly strong as it was in the early aughts. That said, in the fall and even in its finale in February it looked pretty clearly improved from last year. I wish we had the spring comparisons because I always consider those the most reliable barometer but I still don't think I can go lower than a Grade: A-.
Family Guy: This is the one that has probably the most apples-to-apples comparisons out of all the veterans, and it looked extremely good in those comparisons, blowing away its winter ratings from last year and then demolishing the year-ago Simpsons in the spring. The seasonal average doesn't stack up well historically since it never aired in the fall, but you really have to go back to the late-2010s to find the last time the show did this well in the winter/spring. So this is the one where I will say Grade: A.
Universal Basic Guys: It was very weak when it had to air in the winter. That's not a surprise, and it wasn't even much lower than its non-NFL fall episodes, but seeing it only tie Grimsburg when its lead-in and lead-out were both up 25%+ is pretty rough. Grade: D+.
Krapopolis: Tanked the 9/8c hour in the fall, but it didn't have to deal with winter/spring, so it's +40% year-to-year!! The hour as a whole was kind of a wash, so it's not the end of the world, but the Animal Control timeslot upgrade means it won't get to run up those big fall numbers anymore. Grade: C-.
American Dad!: Obviously the animated anchors were in a completely different era the last time we saw American Dad! on Fox. Its last Fox run in 2014 was at 7:30 alongside Bob's in the spring, where it got a Plus (67) that wasn't that much different from this season, but like Family Guy its historical season averages are way higher because it got to air in the fall. Anyway, it came back and clearly set itself apart as a stronger option than the UBG/Krapopolis/Grimsburgs of the world, but it also didn't make anything resembling the splash of Family Guy and Bob's in the winter/spring. We'll just say Grade: B and see where it goes from here.
Bob's Burgers: You could maybe make the case for an A here just like Family Guy, as it looked just as legit when it returned in the spring, but it's not quite enough of a sample size, and the comparisons with last year are not as clean as it aired a ton of episodes on Thursdays in the summer last year. Grade: A-.
The names in this last table link to the shows' War of 18-49 pages. Links with an asterisk(*) have been updated with the new info. Updates to younger shows will come later in the summer.
Previous Breakdowns for Fox Sunday: 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25
Here's the now updated Schedules Plus for Fox Sunday.
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