Picture Credit: FOX
In another strategic late-summer licensing pickup, Netflix US is set to receive the complete fourth season of the hit FOX sitcom Animal Control shortly ahead of its season 5 return on cable television. The Joel McHale-led comedy’s latest batch of episodes will drop on the service at the end of the month.
If you feel like you’ve been seeing a lot of FOX shows hitting Netflix lately, you aren’t wrong.
In a move that continues to mirror recent sharing deals between broadcasters and Netflix, the show is once again making the jump to the world’s largest streamer to expand its audience, albeit only in the United States. FOX has been strategically licensing its recent hits to the streamer in recent years in hopes of capitalizing on the highly coveted “Netflix bump” to boost viewership ahead of their upcoming seasons on linear television. FOX also recently licensed Best Medicine to Netflix and the hit medical procedural series Doc.
We saw this exact same strategy play out late last year when earlier seasons of Animal Control hit Netflix just after Christmas, days before season 4 aired. Now, Netflix has secured the rights to the newest batch of episodes. We can confirm that all episodes of Animal Control season 4 will be available starting Monday, August 31st, 2026.
This licensing deal currently applies only to Netflix in the United States. While Hulu remains the primary next-day streaming home for FOX shows as they air, this streaming window means you’ll now be able to binge seasons 1 through 4 all in one place on Netflix just before season 5 drops on network television.
Season 5 of the show is due to air on FOX beginning September 27th, 2026, giving you ample time to catch up. It’s a little too early to know whether Netflix will license that season, but if they do, you can probably expect it to drop sometime in 2027.
The show hasn’t been a particularly big performer on Netflix since it landed, with the show having only pulled in 23.9M viewing hours since its addition, equating to 8.6M views.
The release comes just in time for fans to binge the latest shenanigans before season 5, slated to premiere next month on FOX following its swift renewal earlier this year.
What is Animal Control about?
Premiering in early 2023, Animal Control is a single-camera workplace comedy set in Seattle. It follows a group of local Animal Control workers whose lives are complicated by the fact that animals are simple, but humans are not.
Leading the cast is Joel McHale (Community), who plays Frank Shaw, an opinionated, eccentric Animal Control officer. A former cop who was fired for trying to expose corruption in his department, Frank is cynical and curmudgeonly but has an almost superhuman ability to understand animals. He is paired with Fred “Shred” Taylor (played by Michael Rowland), an optimistic rookie who serves as the perfect foil to Frank’s grumpiness. The series also stars Vella Lovell (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) as Emily Price, Ravi V. Patel as Amit Patel, and Grace Palmer as Victoria Sands.
Are you looking forward to rewatching or catching up on Animal Control season 4 on Netflix? Let us know in the comments below. For more on What’s coming to Netflix throughout August 2026, keep it locked here on What’s on Netflix.
