Fox Animated Shows to Return; Weber Shuffled

ByABC News
January 7, 2001, 6:24 PM

January 5 -- Life's looking better for grown-up cartoons. Fox has renewed its Southwestern-flavored animated comedy King of the Hill for next season and has begun negotiating for another year of its lovable classic, The Simpsons.

Variety reports that the network has also ordered 18 episodes of Simpsons creator Matt Groening's other animated Fox show, Futurama, for next season, the show's fourth.

The full-season, 22-episode order for King of the Hill, which explores the tumultuous life and times of a group of neighbors in a small Texan community, makes it the sixth season for the series, which debuted in January 1997.

"I think we're doing well this year, creatively and in the ratings," said King co-creator Greg Daniels. "I'm very pleased with how it's going. We're very excited about the renewal."

The full-season pickup for King represents another victory for the animated series, which has found new life on Sunday nights at 7:30 after a disastrous Tuesday run two years ago. King has given Fox a solid lead-in player for The Simpsons, averaging 10.3 million viewers this season.

Cursed From the StartIn a move that surprised few TV watchdogs, NBC is temporarily removing the flailing rookie comedy The Weber Show (formerly known as Cursed) from its roster before February sweeps where it likely would've been slaughtered by some very serious competition.

That means that the second half hour of CBS's Survivor: The Australian Outback will get to meet more capable competition than originally planned, although an NBC spokeswoman refused to tell Variety the network's specific lineup shuffle.

There has been speculation that NBC will insert episodes of one of its powerhouse laffers, possibly Friends or Frasier. As for The Weber Show, it'll be back; NBC has picked up the series for the entire next season.

Survivor: The Australian Outback debuts Jan. 28 after the Super Bowl.

Reuters contributed to this story.