Family Guy’s Fate on FOX

Home of the nation’s number one show, 20th Century Fox will soon be paying one of their writer/producers one of the biggest salaries in TV. Here’s the twist: that person doesn’t work on American Idol.

Seth MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy and American Dad, will become the best-paid writer/producer on TV thanks to his new contract. The agreement ensures that Family Guy will remain on the air until 2012, but it also covers a few other projects still in the till. Under the terms of the contract, MacFarlane will continue to pen episodes of American Dad as well as The Cleveland Show (a planned Family Guy spinoff). “I get a lot of pleasure out of making show,” said MacFarlane to the press. “It’s a bonus to get getting paid well for it, and it’s a double bonus to be getting paid exorbitantly for it.” The amount in question remains undisclosed, though it is expected to soar above the $60 million, five-year contract offered to J.J. Abrams (Lost) in 2006.

The story of this animated underdog (Family Guy has the trouble of being on the same network as ridiculously long-running cartoon hit The Simpsons) is the stuff of TV legend. It first hit the air in 1999 and was promptly canceled in 2000. Fans led a revolt and the show was renewed for two more seasons until cancellation again in 2002. Syndicated episodes of the show made it to Cartoon Network, and suddenly Family Guy became a hot commodity again. DVD sales soared and FOX, a network which never misses a single money-making trick, brought the show back in 2004. And on FOX the show will remain - at least until 2012. MacFarlane has never worked a network other than FOX in his career.