Renewed?

The media says:

Fox's fall tally [has] nine returning programs in all. Rounding out the list are "Bones," "The Simpsons" "Family Guy" "American Dad" "The Cleveland Show" and "The X Factor." ...

Funny thing. All the shows above have episodes in various stages of preparation.

All except the one in bold face. American Dad is now laying off artists who've been with the show for seasons and seasons because (it's reported to me) there is no official pickup for newer half-hours.

Today I talked to an artist working on the show; he told me:

"They were supposed to let us know last week whether American Dad would be doing new episodes. But no word. So we're all just finishing up our assignments and getting laid off. I've got three more weeks. Management has said that they'll start hiring for The Flintstones in late May, so people will be trying to swing over to that ..."

Another AD artist, recently laid off, informed me that there's a new Fox development exec who doesn't get any money for keeping the show on the air, so he's real motivated in trying to find a replacement for Dad. (No luck yet.)

Plus Seth M. doesn't want to do Stan Smith's voice anymore, plus AD isn't his show in the way Family Guy and Cleveland are. [I have no idea if the foregoing is true. I just report what ex-staffers say ...]

And there are a lot of episodes stockpiled, almost enough for a full new season.

So. Will American Dad be coming back beyond its current allotment of completed and nearly-completed episodes? I can tell you with total certainty that I don't know.