Animation Domination (also called AniDom, Fox AD, and AD) is an American animatedprogramming block which has aired in two iterations on the Fox broadcast network, featuring a lineup solely made up of prime-time animation and adult animation carried as a majority of, or the whole of, the network's Sunday evening schedule (outside of sports pre-emptions and early hour programming burn offs).[2] It originally ran from May 1, 2005, until September 21, 2014, before returning on September 29, 2019.[3]
History
Original run
Animation Domination debuted on Fox on May 1, 2005, in time for the last sweeps period of the 2004–05 television season. The first program to originate on the block was American Dad!, although its "pilot" aired as a Super Bowllead-out program on February 6, 2005. Rounding out the Animation Domination lineup alongside American Dad! were The Simpsons (the longest-running cartoon on Fox and the network's first primetime animated series, which predated the lineup by 16 years), King of the Hill (which predated the lineup by eight years) and Family Guy (which predated the lineup by six years, and was revived as a series three years after its 2002 cancellation as a result of newfound popularity through reruns on Fox lineup and sales of the first, second, and third-season episodes on DVD).[4][5]
Until spring 2010, when Animation Domination only reprised of animated series, live-action programming would commonly occur within the block, including shows like Malcolm in the Middle and The War at Home. King of the Hill later ended on September 13, 2009 on Fox, and was replaced by the Family Guy spin-off The Cleveland Show for the 2009–10 television season, with the former’s time slot of 8:30 PM.[6] Four episodes of the series remained, but Fox opted not to air them, later being burn-offed in syndication from May 3–6, 2010. Fox would later premiere Bob's Burgers on January 9, 2011.
Beginning in the fall of 2014, the Animation Domination block was replaced by the Sunday Funday block, with the addition of live-action comedies Brooklyn Nine-Nine (which moved to Sunday night for its second season), freshman series Mulaney (which was canceled in early 2015), and, as of March 2015, the Will Forte sitcom, The Last Man on Earth. This marks the first time that the network has regularly aired live-action comedies on Sundays (outside of burn-offs of failed weeknight series) since 2005.
In April 2020, Fox Entertainment announced their partnership with Caffeine to produce the AniDom Beyond Show, a recap show hosted by Andy Richter.[7] The show aired its finale on May 18, 2020 and it is unknown whether it will return in the future.
On January 18, 2022, Fox announced they would be eyeing a two-hour Monday block in May 2023.[12]
Bless the Harts ended after two seasons on June 20, 2021. A year later, on June 30, 2022, Fox cancelled Duncanville after three seasons,[13] and the series concluded on October 18, 2022 with its final six episodes on Hulu.[14]
The Simpsons, Family Guy and Bob's Burgers were each renewed for two more seasons through 2025 on January 26, 2023.[15]
Krapopolis premiered on September 24, 2023.[16]Grimsburg premiered on January 7, 2024,[17] while Universal Basic Guys/The Hoagie Bros. is slated to premiere in the same year.[18]
The 7 p.m. hour was preempted on the following Sundays by the network's coverage of Fox NFL and The OT:
September 10, 2023
September 24, 2023
October 1, 2023
October 15, 2023
November 5, 2023
November 12, 2023
December 3, 2023
December 17, 2023
December 24, 2023
January 7, 2024
Krapopolis aired a one-hour series premiere simultaneously in all time zones on September 24, 2023 at 8 p.m. ET (an encore aired at 8 p.m. PT in western time zones), before moving to its regular time slot on October 1.
On January 8, 2013, Fox announced that it would launch an adult animation spin-off to its Sunday evening block called Animation Domination High-Def (ADHD).[25] It originally broadcast on Saturday evenings for 90 minutes from 11:00 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. local time in most markets. It was later reduced to 11:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. on September 7, 2013, with the 12:00 a.m. half-hour being given back to its owned-and-operated stations and affiliates to carry other programming. Some of its affiliates delayed the block by 30 minutes to an hour to run late evening newscasts (sports overruns occasionally caused further delays).
