Because of King of the Hill’s long-term success, it was all the more bizarre when FOX abruptly chose to end the program in 2008, before the premiere of season 13 had even been prepared.
Now that rumors of a King of the Hill revival are circulating, let’s discuss why the series was cancelled.
Why did King of the Hill get canceled?
Poor or declining ratings are typically the main factor in the network’s decision to discontinue a televised TV show.
The usefulness of the program is questioned if enough viewers in the advertiser-prized 18-49 audience demographic aren’t watching.
The ratings for King of the Hill’s final seasons were somewhat stable but also significantly lower than in previous seasons, which didn’t look well when other programs, like Seth MacFarlane’s Family Guy, were performing much better on the same night.
The cancellation of King of the Hill isn’t entirely due to low ratings, though.
The Cleveland Show, MacFarlane’s Family Guy spinoff featuring Cleveland Brown and his family, was also vying for a spot on FOX’s Animation Domination schedule.
With American Dad still going hot at the time, MacFarlane now had three animated series on FOX at once.
One could say that was a poor choice because, despite running for a good 4 seasons, The Cleveland Show isn’t very well-remembered today and had significantly less of an impact than King of the Hill. In the end, FOX disappointed audiences by only airing a small portion of King of the Hill season 13 and instead sending those episodes directly to syndication.
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