Why Fox Canceled The Great North After Five Seasons

Creators Wendy and Lizzie Molyneux and Minty Lewis's animation series, "The Great North," aired on Fox for five seasons between 2021 and 2025. It had a decent run that sadly came to an end, after 97 episodes, on September 14 with its Season 5 finale.

The cancellation was announced (via Variety) in early October without a specific reason other than Fox Television's president, Michael Thorn, saying that "It's difficult to say goodbye, but we're thankful for the five hilarious seasons 'The Great North' brought to the iconic Animation Domination lineup." TVLine, however, reported that "In its fifth season, "The Great North" averaged 532,000 total viewers (with delayed playback), down just 8% from last year. Out of the nine comedies that Fox aired in the 2024-2025 TV season, it ranked dead last. In fact, it was Fox's least-watched scripted anything," which likely was the main factor in why the network chose to axe the series after a near-five-year run.

Following in the footsteps of similar animation style programs like Fox's "Bob's Burgers" (of which we ranked the 30 best episodes) and Apple TV+'s excellent "Central Park" — often referred to as the "Bouchardverse," after Loren Bouchard, who had a creative hand either as creator, writer, or producer in all the aforementioned shows — "The Great North" had a dedicated fan base that unfortunately had to say goodbye to the quirky Alaskan family this year. It's in good company as we say farewell to it and over a dozen other shows canceled this year.

"The Great North" followed the lives of single father Beef Tobin (Nick Offerman, who's built a steady career since his theatre days) and his four children of various ages in the aptly named small town of Lone Moose in snowy Alaska. Focusing largely on family-oriented themes with a characteristically awkward and exaggerated sense of humor, the series was received positively by critics and viewers as a sweet, innocent, and warm comedy that occasionally got a little too weird.

Besides Offerman's perfectly-cast patriarch, the series also featured such accomplished actors as Jenny Slate, Will Forte, Paul Rust, Jane Lynch, and Tim Bagley, among others — as well as Canadian-American singer Alanis Morrisette, who voiced herself as the imaginary friend of Slate's Judy Tobin. In an interview with Hulu, Offerman talked with pride about his co-stars and explained why working with "The Great North" cast was a total blast for him. He said, "The great thing about animation is you can line up an absolute roster of all-stars. We can be the wrong age, the wrong size, the wrong shape ... because nobody ever sees them." Sadly, nobody will ever hear them anymore, either, in "The Great North."