An executive producer of “Family Guy” has confirmed that Ernie, the giant chicken who has engaged in comically long and epic fist fights with Peter across multiple seasons, is officially dead and not coming back.
The character was killed off last season in an episode that aired earlier this year. In the episode “The Chicken or the Meg,” Ernie gave Meg an ultimatum – cut ties with Peter or stop dating his son Nugget.
Meg responded by decapitating him, leaving his headless body to run around the front yard for a few seconds before slumping over. Scepticism, however, remained as Ernie had died before.
Now, executive producer Alec Sulkin has now finally confirmed to TVLine the character’s time is officially done:
“I think that the chicken has gone the way of all flesh. Honestly, I feel like we got so many great set pieces out of the giant chicken fighting with Peter that they became hard to top. It’s a lot to ask of our production crew, and we may have just gotten the best out of that character.”
“Family Guy” has only ever killed off a handful of characters, most notably Stewie’s classroom nemesis Doug (Chris Parnell) who died off-screen in a plane crash.
A Halloween special of the series premieres tonight ahead of the new season airing in 2026.
