Whether you can watch Family Guy online via Disney Plus depends on what part of the world you call home. Simply put, Family Guy is available on Disney Plus in some areas, but not all. Why? Well, not all streaming services possess the rights to the popular animated comedy, but that’s all changing as we speak.
In short, Family Guy is only available on Disney Plus if you live in one of the countries where Star is included in your Disney Plus subscription. That means countries like the U.K., Australia, and Canada have Family Guy on Disney Plus, but the U.S. misses out.
It seems unfair not to have access to one of the funniest animated series since the longtime comedy powerhouse The Simpsons. But that’s the way Star works. It replaces Hulu for those nations, meaning it gives a very similar experience to the Disney Bundle subscribers but with a twist — they get Star content bundled in with their standard Disney Plus subscription, while users in the U.S. need to sign up for The Disney Bundle or Hulu to get the extra content. The Star channel adds shows like 24, Atlanta, Scrubs, and — of course — Family Guy.
If you’re keen to see the adventures of the Griffin family via Disney Plus, you need to live somewhere other than the U.S., or you need to know how to use a VPN to get around geo-restrictions so you can pretend you’re in one of the countries that have Family Guy on Disney Plus. This method doesn’t offer a guaranteed chance of success, however, and it’s technically against Disney’s terms and conditions.
Your third and final option is to sign up for the Disney Bundle where you get Disney Plus, Hulu, and ESPN Plus for $14 per month for all three services. It’s a pretty sweet deal if you’re eager to get even more content via Disney Plus and you would prefer to pay the same monthly fee all wrapped up neatly every month.
Internationally, Family Guy is available to stream across the U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and many European countries. Not all countries have all episodes of the show. For instance, some countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, only have a season or two of the show. In the U.K., almost all episodes are available. One episode from season 8 titled Partial Terms of Endearment has not been available on the service after it was banned in the U.S. It has been replaced with the two-part special, Something, Something, Something Dark Side which is a Star Wars parody.
Family Guy has never been available solely through Disney Plus in the U.S. and we can’t see that changing any time soon due to Hulu being the home of the show here. Perhaps that’s not too surprising, given the fairly mature content of Peter Griffin and company. But there are other ways to watch Family Guy here in the States.
Other ways to watch ‘Family Guy’ online
If you are in the U.S., the best way to watch Family Guy online is to sign up for Hulu
Alternatively, Hulu + Live TV is $70 per month but gives you the cord-cutter dream of being able to watch live TV from over 75 channels with no cable required. If you want to be able to watch Family Guy online the moment it airs, this is the package you need, expensive as it is. For many users, it’s a better value to wait a day and watch the latest episode then. Another option is to sign up for YouTube TV. That works out to $65 per month and means you can watch the latest episode of Family Guy live, but again, it ain’t cheap.
Alas, the best value way of watching all of Family Guy is to sign up for the Disney Bundle, which costs $14 per month. In exchange, you get access to Disney Plus, Hulu (ad-supported), and ESPN+. Alternatively, you can pay $20 per month to get Hulu (No Ads).
Whatever you choose, The Disney Bundle is a fantastic value, as it gives you all things Disney+, Hulu, and a ton of sports and sports documentaries courtesy of ESPN+. There should be something for everyone here. The only way that streaming Family Guy online gets any cheaper is if you have a cable subscription that includes Fox. If you do, you can create a Fox Now account and watch Family Guy within seconds. It’s not free, of course, but it might feel that way if you already have cable.
Finally, if you want to own Family Guy online, it’s always possible to purchase episodes via iTunes or Google Play. These are not free and they often aren’t the latest episodes, but if you are keen to collect a library of past Family Guy episodes and don’t want to rely on a streaming subscription, it’s a good option. You will own these digital copies for as long as the services exist, which seems like a really long time when it comes to Apple and Google.
That time when ‘Family Guy’ came back from the (TV) dead
It’s hard to believe since it seems to have been on TV forever, but at one point in its run, Family Guy was actually canceled and was off the air for three years before coming back from oblivion.
According to Screenrant, Family Guy, which first aired after the Super Bowl in January 1999, aired three seasons until Fox canceled the show in 2002, thanks to low ratings, which was due in large part to the show airing on Thursdays against Friends. For most shows, that would be it, they would never be seen again.
But that’s not what happened to Family Guy, it came back thanks to millions of devoted fans … and Cartoon Network.
After Family Guy was dropped by Fox, Cartoon Network picked up the rights to air reruns of the show during its Adult Swim block. That’s where the show caught fire, becoming the highest-rated program on the network, and spurring DVD sales that saw millions of Family Guy DVDs sold to devoted fans.
This success went on for three years, and in a move that almost never happens on television, Fox decided to give the show another chance, renewing it for a fourth season in 2005. The show garnered huge ratings for Fox right out of the gate, and Family Guy has never looked back as it goes into its 22nd season.
It’s safe to say that the only way Family Guy will go off the air now is when creator Seth MacFarlane decides he’s had enough. Fox isn’t going to cancel it and make the same mistake twice.
