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Joel McHale’s ‘Animal Control’ and Denis Leary’s ‘Going Dutch’ Renewed at Fox for Next Season – Variety
May
By Michael Schneider
Variety Editor at Large
Fox has renewed both of its live-action comedy series: “Animal Control,” starring Joel McHale, will return for a Season 4, while newcomer “Going Dutch,” starring Denis Leary, will be back for a sophomore slate during the 2025-2026 TV season. News was announced Wednesday on stage at the Variety FYC TV Fest by both McHale and Leary.
The news also comes from Fox TV network prexy Michael Thorn. “’Animal Control’ and ‘Going Dutch’ are proven winners thanks to signature Fox characters brought to life by Joel and Denis — two of the funniest comedic voices on TV today, giving us an ideal foundation for building our new comedy block,” Thorn said in a statement. “With a focus on creating irreverent, fun workplace humor that’s both outrageous and unpredictable, Joel, Denis, their castmates and production teams deliver reliably laugh-out-loud moments week-after-week that will keep fans coming back season-after-season.”
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Both shows are fully owned in-house by Fox Entertainment. The network noted that “Animal Control” more than doubles its live+same day viewing when season-to-date multi-platform viewing is included, while “Going Dutch” is the network’s most-streamed new comedy.
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Fox has already renewed its drama “Doc,” the medical series starring Molly Parker that was a critical and commercial hit this season for 22 episodes next season. Also already picked up for next year: “Murder in a Small Town.” Animated series back next year include “Bob’s Burgers,” “Family Guy,” “The Simpsons” (all of which received four-season renewals, as did the return of “American Dad”), while “Krapopolis” and “Universal Basic Guys” are already set to return.
Scripted series still on the bubble include “The Cleaning Lady,” “Alert: Missing Persons Unit,” “Accused,” “Grimsburg” and “The Great North,” while “Rescue HI-Surf” and “9-1-1: Lone Star” have been canceled. Fox is set to announce its 2025-2026 schedule next week.
“Animal Control” stars McHale as Frank Shaw, described by the logline as “an over-qualified, over-opinionated Animal Control officer who has an almost superhuman ability to understand animals. But humans… not so much.”
Michael Rowland, Vella Lovell, Ravi Patel and Grace Palmer also star in the show, which was created by Bob Fisher, Rob Greenberg and Dan Sterling. Fox Entertainment Studios is the studio, with production services provided by JAX Media; Fisher, Greenberg, Sterling, Tad Quill and Joel McHale are executive producers, and Quill is the showrunner.
“Going Dutch” stars Leary as U.S. Army Col. Patrick Quinn, described as an “arrogant, loudmouth who who — after an epically unfiltered rant — is reassigned to the Netherlands, where he is punished with a command position at the least strategic army base in the world, notable for its Michelin Star-commissary, top-notch bowling alley, lavender-infused laundry and the best (and only) fromagerie in the U.S. Armed Forces.”
Taylor Misiak, Danny Pudi, Laci Mosley and Hal Cumpston also star in the single-camera comedy, which is produced by Fox Entertainment Studios. “Going Dutch” was created by executive producer Joel Church-Cooper (“Brockmire”); Denis Leary and Jack Leary are executive producers through their production company Amoeba.
Both “Animal Control” and “Going Dutch” are distributed by Fox Entertainment Global; “Animal Control” has been sold in more than 70 territories, including Channel 4 in the U.K., Foxtel’s FOX8 and Binge in Australia, CBC and CBC Gem in Canada and TVNZ in New Zealand.
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