Second cancellation of Futurama

As of July, 2009, the status of Futurama remains stable. Futurama, being renewed for a sixth production season can now be considered an active TV show.

However, after the upcoming 26 episodes, will there be more?

Original run
Due to Fox's first discontent with Futurama, attempts were made to satisfy them, but already by "I, Roommate", the show runners decided that they wanted to do the show they wanted, and not what their producers wanted.

Fans often cite claims that Fox's original handling of the show is eventually what caused the show to be cancelled by 2003. Not only did they move it out of the popular line up – only "Space Pilot 3000" and "The Series Has Landed" was in the Sunday line up – they'd often fail to air it on schedule and it was often hard for viewers to figure out when the next episode would be up. Eventually, low ratings caused the Fox network to cancel the show by season 4, simply by not calling.

After cancellation
When Fox sold off the show to Cartoon Network's Adult Swim by 2003, the show saw a more stable airing. In general, fans are content that Adult Swim handled the show with more grace and gave it the support it deserved. Fans who came to like the show after the cancellation often cite Adult Swim as the place they first saw Futurama.

But good viewer numbers and more fans could not handle it alone. The fans were still content that the amount of available ideas for Futurama had not been exhausted. And focused purchases of DVDs eventually caused 20th Century Fox in 2006 to order four Direct-to-DVD films.

Despite the good news, fans were a still at disagreement whether this was really the direction they wanted the shows in. But they were content that strong purchase of the DVDs had given the show another chance, and this meant it was yet another chance to bring the show back as a TV show.

Pushing for a sixth season
Despite general disagreement among fans for which of the films were the best, they could easily agree that purchasing the films would increase the show's chances greatly. And sure enough, by 9 June, 2009, Comedy Central together with 20th Century Fox announced an order of 26 episodes for the upcoming mid-2010 season.

Future
With the recasting ploy coming to an end, considerations about what the future may hold for Futurama seems solid. Though, there is still the speculation of Futurama's return to FOX.

The earliest clues for this were foremost the original Comic-Con panel description.

"Futurama: Life or Death?!— Be a part of sci-fi history! Join executive producers Matt Groening and David X. Cohen, and stars Billy West, Katey Sagal, John DiMaggio, and Maurice LaMarche for high-stakes thrills as a top-ranking FOX executive decides live, on stage, whether Futurama will make yet another triumphant return or whether it is gone forever! The very fate of Futurama hangs in the balance! Paramedics will be standing by in case the intense excitement causes any panelists to collapse. Raucous celebration or abject despair to follow the news."

Another clue is in the contract with Comedy Central itself from 20th Century Fox Television, which allows Fox a "broadcast window", so they can air the episodes themselves before they go on cable, if they want to. This seems to indicate that FOX is serious about attempting to bring back the show. The whole recasting ploy event simply delayed this announcement.