Fox Cartoons

TV By the Numbers tells us:

Our Renew / Cancel Index predicts potential renewal or cancellation for scripted broadcast primetime shows by the end of the 2013-14 season in May, 2014.

Bob's Burgers -- Renewal

American Dad -- Moving to TBS

The Simpsons -- Renewal

Family Guy -- Slam-Dunk Renewal

Dads -- Toast ...

What's happening with the Fox animated block?

With Bob's Burgers, artistic staff has been returning to production studio over the last few weeks for the new season.

Family Guy will be back as sure as the sun rises in the east. (With all his other endeavors, will Seth do 22 episodes? Guess we'll find out.)

American Dad is moving to the Turner Broadcasting System for its next season. Word is that there will be a smaller season order on TBS.

The consensus seems to be that the live-action MacFarlane show Dads is a certainty for the chopping block. At the same time, the new MacFarlane show Bordertown has started production at Bento Box, the Valley studio selected to do the show. (It won't be done at Fox Animation on Wilshire. But you knew that, right?)

And then The Simpsons.

The Lady Gaga episode has (apparently) been voted the least liked Simpson-half hour. (Who would have guessed?). And the blogosphere maintains that the show is declining in quality and popularity, even though I've no idea how you graph quality.

I was through Film Roman last week and there have been staff shiftings and changes for the new season of Homer, Marge et famille, which has only recently commenced. Word on the studio floor is that Fox continues to look for ways to trim budgets, and that the crew, while not thrilled, is adapting to the ongoing belt-tightening as best it can. I continue to believe the show will go beyond its current episodic ofer, but I'm not a psychic, so who knows? Somebody down at Gracie Films or an executive down on the Fox lot, maybe.