In alt.tv.futurama, on the "Re: Mooooooooore futurama!" thread, Rafal 'Raf256' Maj wrote:
As a network show, not really. For the brief period when it followed "The Simpsons," it did quite well. Then, Fox moved it to Tuesdays, and the ratings went bad. The network (which reportedly never liked the series) dumped it in the 7:00pm Sunday timeslot. Ratings were abysmal -- when the show was aired at all. Sporting events, mostly football, frequently pre-empted it.
As a cable syndicated show, "Futurama" is doing well again. However, "really good" for cable is still pretty low by broadcast network standards. I guess "Futurama" is destined to remain a cult classic in the forseeable future.
I guess we can only speculate whether it would have rated well on the Tuesday/Sunday timeslot had FOX given it a decent run, without all those interruptions. My guess is it would have had decent ratings - not quite up there with Simpsons, but good nevertheless.
Probably. Though using Family Guy as a precedent there is some hope from strong DVD sales - though admittedly about one in a hundred.