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Friday, April 25, 2025

Bob's Burgers and The Great North Moving to Thursdays For This Summer Only | Fandom Update

 

Just as I was somewhat enjoying a nice week's break from reviewing, especially with the playoffs for both the NHL and the NBA already taking place, let’s go Stars by the way, and just as if this season, when it comes to the lineup, hasn’t been sketchy enough, the folks over at FOX decided to shake the son of a gun of a schedule like it’s an Etch a Sketch ahead of the Summer 2025 lineup. I hope y’all have your summer plans settled, other than hoping you don’t get detained by officials and turning it into a dangerous and dehumanized game of tag, because it looks like you gotta make some room on Thursdays.



You read that right, Thursdays. This isn’t a trick. We’re past April Fool's Day. No Genjutsu activated. And I’m sure we aren’t living in a simulation, though with some people now making parlays on who the next Pope is going to be, this makes you question if we are living in one. But that’s beyond the point, we have a bit of a shakeup for the Animation Domination lineup starting at the end of May, ahead of the Summer season. Usually, May would be the month where the seasons for most shows, especially the two shows that I’m currently doing on this blog page, Bob’s Burgers and The Great North, would wrap up for the Summer break and wait for the Fall or Winter season to start a new season. Treating this like it’s a school year. But this current season of the Animation Domination, the 2024-25 season, has been... what’s the word? Oh yeah, Squiddly Diddly, which is my way of saying that this shit has been scattered as hell and it was nothing more than questions rather than answers. It’s the same thing that happened in the 2023-24 season, and it’s the same for the current 2024-25 season.

According to Deadline, and various sources, but primarily Deadline, starting on May 29, which is on a Thursday, Bob’s Burgers and The Great North, along with Grimsburg and Family Guy, will be moving there for the Summer lineup to burn the rest of the season before the start of the new Animation Domination come September. So, why? Why the sudden change to Thursday instead of Sunday as per usual? By now, y’all already know that when it comes to the Summer season, FOX and the Summer lineup, when it comes to shows, mainly animated shows, don’t go hand and hand like it’s RFK Jr and a handful of experts who don’t have brainworms in their heads, because of it can affect ratings. Take a look at what happened in the past few years with the remaining episodes of Bless the Harts, Housebroken, and Duncanville between 2021 and 2022.

People usually have plans for the summer because it’s the summer. What do you expect other than just staying there and being stuck inside? Kinda ironic saying this from yours truly, knowing how hot the South can be in the summer months. So, a summer block wouldn’t work because of past experiences, and thought it won’t happen again unless it’s a live action or reality competition show. But apparently, FOX earlier today decided to bank on the summer lineup once again with the news we got today for the upcoming Summer season.



Bob’s Burgers kicks off the Summer slate starting on May 29 at 8:00 PM, followed by Grimsburg at 8:30 PM, Family Guy at 9:00 PM, and capping off the lineup with The Great North in their blatant attempt to get rid of the show at 9:30 PM. Meaning that The Simpsons and Krapopolis are set to wrap up their seasons around the usual season finale date, with May 18 as the date where we would think that the 2024-25 season would end. But no, it looks like we’re going overtime into the summer months. One of the big questions when this lineup was released was about the expected return for Bob’s Burgers. 

We know that May would be the month for when new episodes would return since we’re only 10 episodes in since the end of 2024. Nearly six months since we last had an episode of Bob’s Burgers. There were rumors that it would make a return on May 18, according to the EDIR, and that the episode that would be airing would be the highly anticipated “Mr. Fischoeder’s Opus”. Whether that would be the return date or we have to wait until another few weeks until the May 29 date to arrive... it’s one, big friggin’ waiting game for the burger fandom. But at least we got a date for when new episodes return. Here’s what the Deadline article states regarding the news...


Fox’s Animation Block, which normally airs on Sundays, is opening a temporary summer block on Thursdays, kicking off May 29 with Bob’s Burgers at 8 pm, followed by Grimsburg at 8:30 pm, Family Guy at 9 pm and The Great North rounding out the night at 9:30 pm.


The move to Thursdays is for summer only, due to conflicts with sports programming on Sunday nights, according to the network. The block has shifted before. On May 31, 2021, the animation block temporarily expanded into Mondays with Duncanville and HouseBroken.


Animated series repeats of legacy shows will air on Sundays when there is no sports programming.

- Source: Deadline (April 24, 2025) 


The Thursday slot seems to be a decent choice to move the block for the summer because the weekend is filled with live spotting events that could stand in the way. We know Saturdays are for MLB coverage, about two or three games, and having to show in certain areas of coverage. Sundays are up in the air during the summer because that’s usually reruns with some sporting events that could take over the time slot. Either for the UFL with the championship game, or the CONCACAF Gold Cup, and doesn’t want to push any of the four shows that need to have their seasons wrapped up. So Thursday would be the way to go rather than putting on a Sunday as per usual during the AniDom season, or Monday like with the past few years back when Duncanville and Housebroken were on the air, or Wednesday like last year with Family Guy, or starting next week with Krapopolis and Grimsburg. Whether it’s a good idea or not all depends on... well, if we’re gonna have a lot of eyes to watch for the Summer on Thursday nights starting in May, though most of y’all would rather wait for the next day for when Hulu drops the episode that aired the night before.



Aside from the lineup shakeup that we got when it comes to the time slots, we got some information, some stuff on what to expect, for what I guess it’s the second half of the season and we start with Bob’s Burgers and some interesting stuff mixed with some that sounded like it would feel mid as fuck. In one future episode that is a part of the latter half of the season, you have Linda forcing the family to go on a walk. What’s that? Linda being unhinged in an episode, and is only doing this because she loves her family? Noooo... It’s not like that ever happened a few times in the show as of late, where they brought the worst out of Linda, other than them thinking that they “feel like it”. No way they would do that.



The second information that we got is that Louise, Tina, and Gene are running an illegal snack business. And one or two options that I can imagine what the episode might hold, for being the trigger for the Belcher kids to run an underground business, turning it into the black market at school, like it’s the days of prohibition in the 1920s. The episode is titled “Snackface,” and I can think of both options for them for the Belcher kids, primarily Louise, because, of course, she would do that, would be one, it’s regarding a favorite snack that everyone likes getting replaced or banned and everyone, including the Belchers, doesn’t like the idea. Or two, it’s every snack that will be getting banned. Probably by Frond, either by him or at the behest of Spoors or the school district, to get rid of it because they want to go for a healthier approach, and because sugar is bad and the chemicals that are mixed in it. Almost feels like a response to the recent news that Red 40 might be getting banned here in the US. It’s already confirmed that Red 3 is being shown the door. And the episode was made before the announcement and the ban about to be put into place.



Then we got the third information on what to expect later in the season, the Belchers having a time at a casino. This is for the upcoming episode “The Lost City of Atlantic City,” and we know that Atlantic City, much like Las Vegas and various cities along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and Louisiana, is filled with casinos. A gambler’s playground, and that is where the family is heading for a vacation. Either by them or probably being paid for by the Fischoeders or someone as a wild card. All we know is that their trip to Atlantic City might as well be treated as a night in Vegas. Treating it as if it’s the Hangover movies, which I doubt could happen, but who knows? I could see this being a Bob issue or a Linda issue, or maybe either of the kids being responsible if they do something drastic that could turn it into a wild weekend in Atlantic City. But the closest that I can think of would be something coming out of “Legends of the Mall” from Season 10 and “Gift Card or Card Trying” from Season 13, with each Belcher having their own plot.



But this should be an interesting one for this last one for Bob’s Burgers, and it’s regarding Linda and her family. We know that Season 12 was a lackluster season. It’s not that bad, but it’s not that great either, because that was the season that led up to the release of the movie in 2022, having to end the season with the two-parter. But Season 12 was an interesting case because it had some stuff that was brought out when it comes to the lore of the show, and that revolves around Linda. From having to visit her hometown in “The Pumpkinening” to finding out her maiden name and a family rivalry over a stolen recipe in “Sauce Side Story”, it felt like we’re learning some stuff about Linda’s side of the family. And it looks like we might be getting that later this season, as it appears that there’s a future episode coming up where she learns about her grandfather, Burt. If you remember Burt... Grandpa Potato. And Linda wants to know about her grandfather, and out of the four pieces of information that we got, this should be the one to watch alongside “Mr. Fischoeder’s Opus”. As long as they don’t half-ass it, then it should be an interesting episode to watch.



Then comes The Great North. We have at least five pieces of information on what to expect ahead of the latter half of the season, aside from the stuff we got from the Molyneux’s interview leading up to the start of the season. With the first item on the list, and remember in my review of “It’s Compli-skated Adventure” with that scene of Wolf talking to Judy about how siblings drift apart following the issues that spiraled between her (Judy) and Moon? And how Wolf brought up that he and Judy never hung out and have never seen any of those two interact, and just the two of them alone? Yeah, that might change in the second half of the season because the first piece of information on what to expect has Wolf tracking down Judy before they miss dinner at a fancy restaurant. It’s unclear why Judy would run off to avoid a family dinner for the upcoming episode. Whether it’s because of past experience there or something happened in her personal life, either at school or in the romance department, it’s the duo that we have never seen on the show for the past five seasons, and I guess we might get that going into the summer.



But we’re not done with the info dump because we've got a lot with Beef going into the summer months. Two, to be exact, regarding the parental breadwinner of the family. We have the first piece of information for incoming Beef episodes, including him wanting to try out stunt fishing. I didn’t know that until I had to Google what it was, and it turned out that it was like fishing, but the fisherman would have to use unusual methods to catch fish. So, I can guess that Beef doesn't want to do the thing at first before falling to the temptation and tries it out for himself, which he’ll love it at first, before he ends up enjoying it a little too much, which could get him killed. Let’s say, a giant ass fish that it would be out of Beef’s control but survives.



We also have another snippet of information regarding one of Beef’s upcoming episodes, and that would be the one with him and Walt. Interesting to know from the information we got regarding Beef and Walt’s relationship in them having a “best friendship”, which is them implying that they’re best friends, and out of nowhere, to be exact, when stating this. Though interesting enough that Beef and Walt are a couple of best buddies in similar ways to their respective daughters, Judy and Kima are. This is for the upcoming episode “Men in Belts Adventure,” and the information we got for this episode is that Beef and Walt’s friendship is being put to the test. What kind of event that is putting their friendship on edge? No clue other than one of those episodes where you see where the main and side characters have a pretty good friendship, and one event, whether it’s an item or anything else in mind, has them put in the spotlight and pretty much work out to see how good and strong their relationship is. And I’m guessing that will happen with Beef and Walt once that episode airs.



Then comes the next piece of information, with Wolf and Honeybee having to redo the guest cabin. This is the episode “Super Smash Lovers Adventure,” and this can go one or two ways with this when playing the guessing game. It’s either Wolf and Honeybee arguing over what they like or don’t like during the remodeling process or they want to remodel the cabin their way, only for mishap after mishap to take place with some portions of the walls falling and an exposed pipe to burst out water as examples and finding out that they can’t do it by themselves and would need help with the process. That’s the only two options that I can think of from having to guess what the episode should be about until we get a synopsis for the episode going into the summer months.



And then, you have the final piece of information from the press release regarding the summer lineup, where you have Ham, Judy, and Moon getting a whole new outlook on life. Which should be an interesting episode to say the least though we don’t know about the episode is about other than what we got coming from the information that we got from the press release. The best possible options I can think of would be the students getting an assembly and imagining themselves what they would do in the future, and having to act like what they would be like with one or two people, whether it’s a Tobin or some random student, in complete panic because they either don’t have their plans settled or worried that they might end up in a dead-end job and have to do something so that won’t be a reality. Either that or a near-death experience that caused them to rethink their life decisions. It’s a long way out before we find out what that episode is truly about, so until then... might as well take it as it is unless y’all have your own theories about the information we got for each of the upcoming episodes for the upcoming second half of the season.



But that’s my thoughts on the matter of the situation regarding the news that was dropped, and yeah, mark your calendars for May 29 and the entire Thursday slot, because even though it’s pretty much the ratings game and Bob’s Burgers already got its renewal that last all the way to 2029, for the love of God, at least give The Great North a shot so we can at least get a Season 6. Just one season. Just one. Do me a favor and do that. And also binge-watch, legally, Seasons 1-5 on Hulu here in the states (Disney+ across the globe).

Follow me on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, Mastodon, BlueSky, and Threads for updates and behind-the-scenes stuff. The 2025 Battle of the Week Voting Tournament is already underway with another set of double matches for this week, with Group C between Willow Park (The Owl House) and Hailey Banks (Hailey’s On It), as well as Bender (Futurama) and Benson Dunwoody (Regular Show) in Group D.. The poll for these two matches closes on Saturday. And y’all should know the drill by now with the reviews now back and running...



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