# The Simpsons vs Family Guy Rivalry: 37 Emmys vs 9, 13 Lists
> The Simpsons vs Family Guy on 13 rankings: TV dads, moms, neighbors, voices, creators and Emmys, as Treehouse of Horror XXXVII nears on Fox.
*By YPB Team · Published October 9, 2026 · https://youpick.best/articles/simpsons-vs-family-guy-ranked*
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The Simpsons and Family Guy, 13 rankings where they meet. Left: Springfield sign at Universal Orlando, photo by apasciuto (CC BY 2.0). Right: Seth MacFarlane at a Family Guy panel, Comic-Con, photo by vagueonthehow (CC BY 2.0).
The Simpsons and Family Guy have shared Fox's schedule, on and off, since January 1999, when the Griffins premiered straight after Super Bowl XXXIII. On October 25 Fox airs Treehouse of Horror XXXVII, the 37th Halloween special of a show that has run since December 1989.1 Family Guy is between seasons, so this month the older family has the network to itself.
The two shows have been compared since the first Griffin episode aired. They even fought it out on screen in "The Simpsons Guy," a 2014 crossover in which Peter and Homer brawl through Quahog and nobody wins.
> The Simpsons belong on lists about a whole town; Family Guy earns its place through a handful of scene-stealers, most of them voiced by one man.
## The 18 best adult animated shows: Springfield vs Quahog
This is the ranking that answers the search directly: eighteen animated series made for grown-ups, on Fox, Netflix, Adult Swim and FX. The Simpsons and Family Guy both sit in it, alongside their own descendants.
The Simpsons has the record. It is the longest-running American scripted primetime series, renewed through its 40th season.2 Shows like South Park, Futurama and King of the Hill exist partly because Fox proved an adult cartoon could survive in primetime.
Family Guy has a survival story of its own. Fox cancelled it in 2002, Adult Swim reruns and DVD sales built an audience anyway, and the network brought it back in 2005.
Elsewhere on the list, the competition is the stiffest either show faces anywhere. BoJack Horseman and Rick and Morty took the format somewhere darker, and Bob's Burgers took it somewhere kinder.
Eighteen shows for grown-ups, two of them on Fox since the last century. Play it →
## Best TV show ever: The Sopranos, The Wire and two cartoons
The widest list here holds 64 series of every genre. The Simpsons and Family Guy share it with Rick and Morty, South Park and Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Animation is outnumbered by prestige drama. The Sopranos, The Wire and Breaking Bad are the usual answers to this question, and none of them was ever asked to fill 800 episodes.
The Simpsons' case is volume plus influence: a sitcom that kept writing new jokes about the same ten-year-old for more than three decades. Family Guy's case is narrower. It made the cutaway gag its signature and kept a network cartoon raunchy enough to feel like cable.
Sixty-four shows, and the cartoons are a small minority. Play it →
## The best Fox show of all time: The Simpsons vs The X-Files
Fox launched as a network in 1986, and The Simpsons was one of its first lasting hits. Family Guy arrived a decade later, into a primetime cartoon market the older show had created.
Both cartoons share this ranking with The X-Files, Married... with Children, King of the Hill, Arrested Development and House. That is a list of shows the network either built itself on or cancelled too early, depending on which fan is asked.
The X-Files is the strongest rival to either cartoon. Mulder and Scully defined Fox's drama side in the 1990s the way the Simpson family defined its comedy side. Family Guy's claim is that it is still on Fox in 2026, alongside The Simpsons and Bob's Burgers.
One network, two cartoons, and an FBI agent in the way. Play it →
## Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin among TV's best dads
Homer and Peter are the two fathers every comparison of these shows starts with. Both work dead-end jobs, both drink at a neighborhood bar, and both are married to women smarter than they are.
The difference is what happens after the joke. Homer strangles Bart, yet he also went back to the power plant for Maggie and covered his desk in her photos; Peter's episodes rarely ask for that kind of repair.
Red Forman of That '70s Show and Uncle Phil of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air sit on the same list. They are stricter fathers than either cartoon dad, which is one reason people love them.
Two cartoon fathers, ten live-action ones who mostly behave better. Play it →
## Marge Simpson vs Lois Griffin: the best TV mom
Marge Simpson and Lois Griffin carry the households in both shows. Julie Kavner has voiced Marge since 1987; Alex Borstein has voiced Lois since 1999.
Marge is patience with blue hair. Lois teaches piano, has a temper, and gets more of the jokes herself.
Clair Huxtable, Lorelai Gilmore, Kitty Forman and Lucille Bluth complete the field, so neither cartoon mother is the obvious pick. Phylicia Rashad's lawyer-mom is the one most often held up as the sitcom ideal.
Fourteen mothers, two of them drawn. Play it →
## Ned Flanders and Glenn Quagmire, the neighbors next door
Each family has one neighbor who became a star. Ned Flanders, voiced by Harry Shearer on The Simpsons, is the cheerful churchgoer Homer cannot stand; Glenn Quagmire, voiced by Seth MacFarlane, is the airline pilot Peter cannot stop admiring.
They are opposites in almost every way, and that is why the pair works. Flanders' politeness is the joke in Springfield; Quagmire's lack of it is the joke on Spooner Street.
The live-action neighbors here are hard to beat. Kramer's entrances, Steve Urkel's catchphrase and Wilson-style fence talk from Mr. Feeny all come from shows people still quote.
Next door, across the hall, over the fence. Play it →
## Dan Castellaneta vs Seth MacFarlane: the greatest cartoon voice
The voice ranking puts the two shows' biggest performers in one field. Dan Castellaneta has voiced Homer Simpson since the Tracey Ullman shorts in 1987, along with Grampa, Krusty and Barney.
The Television Academy has given Castellaneta voice-over Emmys in 1992, 1993, 2004 and 2009.3 Seth MacFarlane won the same category in 2000 for Stewie, and again in 2017 and 2019.4
MacFarlane's case is range inside one show. He voices Peter, Stewie, Brian and Quagmire, so four of Family Guy's main characters share one throat.
Mel Blanc stands over both of them. Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig all came from one man, and his gravestone reads "That's All Folks."
Homer's voice against the man behind Bugs Bunny. Play it →
## Matt Groening vs Seth MacFarlane: the greatest animated series creator
Matt Groening named the Simpson family after his own: his parents were Homer and Margaret, his sisters Lisa and Maggie. He later created Futurama and Disenchantment.
Seth MacFarlane started Family Guy from The Life of Larry, his thesis film at the Rhode Island School of Design. He went on to co-create American Dad! and The Cleveland Show, then made The Orville and the Ted films in live action.
The field is deep. Trey Parker and Matt Stone, Mike Judge, Stephen Hillenburg and Hanna and Barbera are all here. Groening's advantage is that his first show is still running; MacFarlane's is that he performs the show he writes.
The two men behind Fox's longest-running cartoon families. Play it →
## Emmy winners: 37 for Springfield, 9 for Quahog
The Simpsons is on the ranking of the best Emmy-winning shows. Family Guy is not, and the Television Academy's own records explain why.
The Simpsons has 37 Emmys from 106 nominations, most of them for Outstanding Animated Program.3 Family Guy has 9 from 32.4
Family Guy did reach a place The Simpsons never did. In 2009 it was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series, the first animated show in that category since The Flintstones in 1961.5
Cheers, Frasier, The Sopranos and Breaking Bad fill the other places, so even The Simpsons is one cartoon among award-show giants.
The only cartoon among twenty Emmy-winning shows. Play it →
## Seth MacFarlane's best TV show: Family Guy vs American Dad!
This ranking belongs to Family Guy alone. The Simpsons has nothing to enter.
Family Guy is the obvious favorite, but American Dad! has a loyal following that rates its later seasons higher. It moved from Fox to TBS in 2014 and returned to Fox under the same 2025 deal that renewed The Simpsons and Family Guy.2
The Orville is the outlier, a live-action Star Trek homage that MacFarlane wrote and starred in. The Cleveland Show, the first Family Guy spinoff, ran four seasons from 2009.
Seven shows, one creator, and the cartoon that started it all. Play it →
## Homer Simpson vs Joey Tribbiani: the most lovable idiot
Here the asymmetry is total. The Simpsons places two characters on the most-lovable-idiot list, Homer and Ralph Wiggum. Family Guy places none.
Peter Griffin is no smarter than Homer. What keeps him off is the word "lovable": Peter's stupidity is usually aimed at someone, while Homer's mostly hurts Homer.
Joey Tribbiani, Kevin Malone and Kelso from That '70s Show are the live-action competition. Patrick Star is the only other cartoon.
Two Springfield residents qualify, no one from Quahog. Play it →
## The Simpsons vs Parks and Recreation: better after a weak first season
The Simpsons' first season, 13 episodes in 1989 and 1990, looks rough next to what followed. The drawing is unsteady and Homer still sounds like Castellaneta's early Walter Matthau impression.
Parks and Recreation, The Office and Seinfeld all improved the same way, which is why they share the list. Family Guy is missing here: its first season already had the cutaway style, and its rough patch came later, with the cancellation.
Slow starters that turned into classics. Play it →
## Family Guy vs Grey's Anatomy: the shows that should have ended
The unflattering list holds both shows, and it is the one place where their longevity counts against them. Grey's Anatomy, Supernatural and The Walking Dead keep them company.
The Simpsons has passed 800 episodes, and many fans date its decline to the early 2000s. Family Guy is well into its third decade too.
The defense is commercial. In April 2025 Fox renewed both shows for four more seasons, taking The Simpsons through season 40.2 The Simpsons Movie took $536.4 million worldwide in 2007,6 and nobody has made a Family Guy film.
Long runs, long arguments about when to stop. Play it →
## Two families, one Sunday, no verdict
Across these 13 rankings The Simpsons shows up through its whole town: a father, a mother, a neighbor, a second idiot, a creator who named them after his family. Family Guy shows up through MacFarlane, who wrote it, voices four of its leads and is about to give Stewie a show of his own.7
Each ranking is settled [one head-to-head pick at a time](/articles/what-is-pairwise-comparison), so the order changes with every player. If your cartoon family is missing from these lists, start a ranking with it and see who argues back.
## More rankings, more angles
- [Is The Simpsons the Best Cartoon Ever? 800 Episodes, 17 Lists](/articles/the-simpsons-ranked-many-ways) — Springfield on its own, from theme songs to villains
- [Friends vs Seinfeld: Which Sitcom Is Better? 13 Lists](/articles/friends-vs-seinfeld-ranked) — NBC's two 1990s comedies, Kramer included
- [The Office vs Parks and Rec: Which Is Better? 15 Lists](/articles/the-office-vs-parks-and-rec-ranked) — Michael Scott, Leslie Knope and a shared camera crew
Sources
Dread Central — Treehouse of Horror XXXVII airs Sunday, October 25, on Fox: dreadcentral.com (checked 2026-10-09)
Reuters via GDN Online — Fox renews The Simpsons, Family Guy, Bob's Burgers and American Dad for four seasons, April 2025: gdnonline.com (checked 2026-10-09)
Television Academy — The Simpsons awards page (106 nominations, 37 Emmys, Outstanding Animated Program wins, Dan Castellaneta voice-over wins): televisionacademy.com (checked 2026-10-09)
Television Academy — Family Guy awards page (32 nominations, 9 Emmys, 2009 Outstanding Comedy Series nomination, Seth MacFarlane voice-over wins): televisionacademy.com (checked 2026-10-09)
Animated Views — Family Guy's 2009 Outstanding Comedy Series nomination, the first for animation since The Flintstones in 1961: animatedviews.com (checked 2026-10-09)
Box Office Mojo — The Simpsons Movie worldwide gross: boxofficemojo.com (checked 2026-10-09)
Variety — Fox orders the Family Guy spinoff Stewie for two seasons, 13 March 2026: variety.com (checked 2026-10-09)
