‘Animal Control’ Season 2 Fate Revealed at Fox

The Animal Control team in Seattle will keep their jobs. Fox renewed Joel McHale’s latest comedy for a second season on Wednesday. Animal Control is notable as the first wholly-owned comedy from Fox Entertainment Studios, the production company Fox launched after Disney acquired 20th Century Studios.

Animal Control was created by Bob Fisher, Rob Greenberg, and Dan Sterling. The series focuses on the lives of an animal control team led by McHale’s disillusioned Senior Animal Control Officer Frank Shaw. Vella Lowell, Michael Rowland, Ravi V. Patel, Grace Palmer, Gerry Dee, Kelli Ogmundson, and Alvina Agusut round out the main cast.

“We are thrilled our viewers have responded to Animal Control as much as we did,” Michael Thorn, President of Scripted Programming of Fox Entertainment, said in a statement. “The incredibly talented ensemble cast, led by Joel McHale, along with our creative team, Bob Fisher, Rob Greenberg, Dan Sterling, and Tad Quill – not to mention a menagerie of wild animal method actors — have delivered a hilarious series that is sharp, witty, and warm, week after week.”

Animal Control debuted in February, and the Season 1 finale aired last week. All 12 episodes are available to stream on Hulu and Fox.com. The series premiere was the most-streamed debut in Fox’s history. Animal Control averaged 4.7 million multi-platform viewers.

The workplace comedy is produced by Fox Entertainment with Roughouse Productions, Middletown News, and Wow a Fox. McHale, Fisher, Greenberg, and Sterling are executive producers with Jake Fuller, Tony Hernandez, Brooke Posch and Tad Quill.

While Fox renewed Animal Control, the network’s other comedy Call Me Kat was not so lucky. The Mayim Bialick-starring single-camera sitcom was canceled after three seasons. Fox has not made a decision on Welcome to Flatch, a mockumentary series that wrapped its second season in early February.

Animal Control earned mostly positive reviews from critics, but it did stir up some controversy with PETA. The group called out the show for using live animals in its premiere instead of CGI. McHale “either doesn’t know or doesn’t care that it’s 2023 and that CGI, VFX, and other humane forms of technology should be used, instead of dragging abused animals onto TV and film sets,” the group said in February. Fox did not respond to PETA’s statement.