While The Simpsons has been releasing some episodes direct to streaming for a few years now, the show’s latest change points to a divisive future for the series. It is no exaggeration to say that The Simpsons is one of the most important TV shows of all time. Not only has The Simpsons been on the air for almost 38 years, but the show is also now officially the longest-running US sitcom ever, the longest-running US scripted prime-time TV series of all time, and the longest-running US animated series.
However, the fact that The Simpsons Movie 2 is arriving next year shouldn’t lead viewers to assume that the show’s future is entirely rosy. While the critical reception of The Simpsons has improved substantially since season 32, its ratings have not necessarily reflected this. For years, The Simpsons has garnered an average of a million or less viewers per episode, and the 15-episode season 37 largely failed to change this trend outside of its perennially popular annual Treehouse of Horror Halloween anthology special. Thus, a future shift to streaming seems newly plausible.
The Simpsons Could Become A Streaming Series In The Future
When Disney+ was first launched, The Simpsons produced a handful of exclusive shorts to promote the streaming service. However, the series fundamentally changed the release schedule that The Simpsons had previously maintained for over 30 years in 2024’s season 36. Four of this season’s 18 episodes were released as streaming-only exclusives, with the two-part Christmas special “O C’mon All Ye Faithful, “The Past and the Furious,” and “Yellow Planet” all debuting on the streaming service.
While the first of these was an extra-long special, the rest were ordinary episodes of the new season that were only released on Disney+. The show’s next outing kept this two-tier release approach alive as the first 15 episodes of The Simpsons season 37 aired on Fox, but the remaining three were set to be released on Disney+ later in 2026. Show runner Matt Selman’s comments to the fan podcast Four Finger Discount prove this issue is likely only set to get more noticable in the future.
The Recent Ratings Of The Simpsons Justify A Move To Streaming
When addressing the fact that The Simpsons has dropped couch gags to make the most of its limited screen time, Selman said he’d ideally love to have exclusive extra couch gags included in the longer, streaming-only versions of the episodes. This, along with the streaming specials, hints at the possibility that The Simpsons could eventually make a full tradition to streaming, which would not be a shock when the show’s traditional network TV ratings have been so low for so long.
Although The Simpsons is one of the biggest brands that Disney owns, the show isn’t raking in millions on millions of viewers with every new episode. Its critical improvements since season 32 haven’t resulted in much higher ratings, meaning the decision to release some episodes via Disney+ rather than traditional network TV could become an increasingly common approach with ensuing seasons. Thus, The Simpsons could turn into a streaming-only series so gradually that viewers won’t even notice.