Image: The Simpsons, FOX
The Simpsons, one of the longest running television shows currently on the air and the number one longest running animation program in history, is a staple of American culture. With 35 seasons and counting, The Simpsons has truly become a touchstone in television. While it has been through its ups and downs, the show still remains extremely popular, and not just in America. Demand data from Parrot Analytics shows that over the last 90 days (August 7 - November 4), The Simpsons has generated the fourth most demand of any tv show in The United States, coming in at 58.9 times the average title in the market. Within the top 10 shows over the last 90 days, The Simpsons is the third longest running, behind Saturday Night Live and Sesame Street, yet it still ranks ahead of both of them in demand.
What makes this even more astonishing is that The Simpsons is an adult animation series, a genre that serves a more niche market than family oriented programs like Sesame Street and Spongebob Squarepants. When compared to other adult animation series, it truly becomes apparent how big The Simpsons is. Television programs that many consider stalwarts, such as Family Guy, South Park, and even Futurama, which shares the same creator as The Simpsons, lag behind their predecessor in the demand rankings over the last 90 days. This shows that not only did The Simpsons pioneer and trail blaze the adult animation space into what it is today, but it has remained the market leader of the genre 35 seasons later.
And it isn’t just the last 90 days either. In fact, the popularity of The Simpsons has only increased as time has gone on. Below is a chart showing demand for The Simpsons over the last seven and a half years, as far back as Parrot’s demand data goes. The chart clearly shows an uptrend in the show’s demand multiple, beginning at around 8x in 2015 and ending with where it is today, at around 60x. That’s an increase of almost 650% in just seven years.
And, while other shows’ demand tends to spike when new seasons are released, The Simpsons demand remains steady even through downturns in ratings. For instance, this chart shows three of the most in-demand shows over the same time period, 2015 to present. There are noticeable spikes in demand around the time when new seasons of the show were released. April of 2019 saw demand for Game of Thrones rise to 250x due to the premiere of its final season, for example. But then, it fell back to more modest levels after the season wrapped.
Thanks to an almost never-ending stream of reruns on the FX and FXX linear networks, as well as 34 seasons of the show having been made available to Disney + subscribers, The Simpsons sees a steady stream of demand year-round, unaffected by seasonal trends. This is in part due to the show’s endless rewatchability. Although it sometimes deals with current events, it’s often the case that a season 8 episode will be just as enjoyable, if not more enjoyable, to a modern audience than a season 35 episode. In fact, the data below shows that 19.8% of The Simpsons audience belongs to Gen Z (13 - 22 year olds) and an incredible 76% of the audience is under 40 years old. This means that when season 1 was released in 1990, 76% of the current audience either wasn’t born yet, or was at most seven years old.
A lot of this interest in The Simpsons from a younger audience likely comes from its presence on the Disney + streaming service. Disney + has the second largest Gen Z audience by percentage of subscribers than any other streaming platform, as evidenced below. Having the show on streaming allows these younger audiences, who aren’t as tuned in to cable TV, to find it easier and also parse through old seasons that may not be running on the linear networks.
The Simpsons is a remarkable case of longevity in the television industry, an industry where there is often high turnover when it comes to series being renewed. Its proven track record of success across 35 seasons, various age demographics, multiple teams of writers, and several different outlets for its episodes is highly unique. Today, 33 years after its initial release, The Simpsons still competes for demand with top trending shows that are brand new to the world, like Loki or The Last of Us, and its popularity is likely only going to increase from here.
