All hail the new kings of the "Hill": Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger have been upped to executive producers and showrunners on animated 20th Century Fox TV laffer "King of the Hill," which also has been picked up for another year by Fox.
Meanwhile, Fox has ordered 18 segs of "Futurama" for next season, the animated series' fourth, bringing its grand episodic total to 72. Meanwhile, 20th Century Fox and Fox have begun discussions to bring back "The Simpsons" for at least another season.
"King of the Hill's" full-season order makes it the sixth for the series, which debuted in January 1997. Concurrent with the new season next fall, Aibel and Berger inherit the showrunner reins from Richard Appel, who will focus on an ABC series he's co-producing with "King of the Hill" co-creator Greg Daniels (
Daily Variety, Dec. 1).
"I think we're doing well this year, creatively and in the ratings," Daniels said. "I'm very pleased with how it's going. We're very excited about the renewal."
Aibel and Berger have worked on "King" since its first episode -- first as executive story editors and most recently as co-executive producers. The duo have won an Emmy for their work on the show, which won the animated series (one hour or less) trophy in 1999.
" 'King of the Hill' is a great show that year after year has maintained an extremely high level of quality and originality," 20th Century Fox TV co-president Gary Newman said. "There's no question that will continue with Jon and Glenn at the helm. They're extremely talented writers and producers who've been instrumental to the show's success."
Due to the long lag time it takes to produce animated series, work has already begun on "King's" sixth season.
"It's been a pretty seamless transition," Berger said. "That's a testament to Greg and Rich and how well the show has been run. Our job is to not screw it up."
As part of their new deal with 20th Century Fox Television, Aibel and Berger eventually will develop new projects for the studio.
"Right now we're focused on the show, which takes an incredible amount of time," Aibel said. "But we do have a shoebox filled with ideas written on scraps of paper."
Aibel and Berger first met while working for a consulting firm in Boston; they worked on series such as "The George Carlin Show" and "Can't Hurry Love" before landing the "King of the Hill" gig.
The full-season pickup for "King" represents another victory for the animated series, which has found new life on Sunday nights at 7:30 after a disastrous Tuesday run two years ago. "King" has given Fox a solid lead-in player for "The Simpsons." "King of the Hill" has averaged 10.3 million viewers and a 5.0 rating in adults 18-49 this season, up 16% from last year.
Daniels said he's not sure how long "King" will continue, but saw no reason the show couldn't go on for many years. "Hopefully we'll only be on one year past the point where we start to suck," he said.
Contact Michael Schneider at
mike.schneider@variety.com