10 Shameless Attempts By TV Shows To Boost Their Ratings

If there's one thing animated shows are known for its never really changing. The characters in animated shows normally don't age, and they're never in any real danger of dying or being significantly harmed. Which is why the sixth episode of Family Guy's twelfth season titled Life Of Brian caused an enormous amount of fan outrage, when main character Brian the dog was seemingly killed off after being hit by a car.

Afterwards, the show's writers seemed sincere when stating Brian was gone for good, replacing him with a new dog named Vinny (Vinny even appeared in the intro of the show's next episode).

In actuality, the whole thing was nothing more than a ratings hoax. Two weeks later, in the episode titled Christmas Guy, Stewie alters the past and makes it so Brian never actually died. Even though the stunt generated a lot of media attention it was largely criticised by audiences, who saw the whole thing as a transparent attempt to boost ratings.