The Orville's Seth MacFarlane: "It is an absolute thrill to not be on the Fox network"

Seth MacFarlane celebrated his sci-fi series The Orville making the jump to a new home for its latest season next week—moving to Hulu for The Orville: New Horizons, set to debut on June 2—as one does in these situations: By trash talking the shit out of its old home, the Fox network.

This is per THR, which reports that MacFarlane pulled no punches in his assessment of the network that aired the first two seasons of his Star Trek pastiche: “I want to say, it is an absolute thrill to not be on the Fox network,” MacFarlane told the audience at a premiere screening, “We never really belonged there.”

But that did not conclude MacFarlane’s buffet treatment of a hand that has fed him a lot of TV shows over the years; he also made sure to mock both Fox’s programming strategy and its rating, noting that, “Between Beat Shazam, Name That Tune and Don’t Forget the Lyrics!, Fox has really captured the demo of people who have no idea what song they’re listening to,” and declaring “It takes a special talent to pander to the lowest common denominator without actually getting them as an audience.”

The wildest thing about this commentary, of course, is the fact that MacFarlane is still very much in the Fox business; although his flagship series Family Guy is now owned by Disney (through its acquisition of former Fox studio 20th Television/20th Television Animation), it still airs on Fox, where it just ran its 20th season finale. The series is on the books for a 21st season, too, after a two-season renewal back in 2020, so it’s not like MacFarlane was waiting until the series was over to start making big swings at his long-time broadcasting partner. Who, we can’t help noting, previously aired basically his entire TV output: Family Guy, American Dad, The Cleveland Show, and The Orville all got their start there—even if MacFarlane did have to field a pesky multi-year cancellation along the way.