The once-canceled primetime cartoon series Family Guy is now fetching around $2 million per episode in the latest round of syndication deals. According to Daily Variety, 20th Century Fox Television has pre-sold reruns of the show to TV stations reaching approximately 70% of U.S. viewers. The 93 episodes of Seth MacFarlane’s Emmy Award-winning show won’t be available to air until the fall of 2007.
This past July, Tribune Broadcasting inked a deal with 20th Century Fox Television to syndicate Family Guy on the Tribune Broadcasting station group in the fall of 2007. The off-netwok syndication deal will see the series premiere in 20 major markets covering just over 37% of the U.S.
Under terms of the most recent deals, the individual stations will pay cash license fees and reserve airtime for three 30-second spots from Fox’s national advertisers. The series will also continue to air on basic cable outlets TBS and the Cartoon Network, which have contracts that extend through 2008.
Now in its fifth season on FOX, Family Guy picked up Emmy awards for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance in 2000 and Outstanding Music and Lyrics in 2002. The irreverent comedy recently earned its third nomination for Outstanding Animated Program, which it lost to FOX’s The Simpsons.
