Yearly Archives: 2017

‘Simpsons’ barely recovers, but still tops broadcast night

Episodes
“You better do what I say, otherwise I’ll plummet you to a new all-time low again.”

Broadcast TV had a somewhat horrific night on Sunday, with only five shows, and just three scripted shows, making it above the 1.0 barrier – two being on FOX. NBC self-indulged, ABC plonked on a film, and CBS had the crazy idea that previewing an online-only show skewing heavily towards an older audience would bring in a young crowd. FOX was steadfast and familiar, and it, as well as the poor performances by other networks, seemed to help, as all their shows were up on last week, however, it seems not enough for “Son of Zorn”.

Sunday (Feb 19)’s green-with-guilt episode pulled in 2.443 million viewers, scoring a 1.1/4 18-49 demo rating, up slightly on the second-lowest-ever viewership of previous episode “Fatzcarraldo” with 2.399 million and the lowest-ever 18-49 rating it had with 1.02/3. Sunday’s episode, “The Cad and the Hat”, was also behind the equivalent episode last season, “Gal of Constant Sorrow“, which had a 1.4/4 rating and 3.10 million viewers.

Despite the negative aspect of this story, it tied with “NCIS: Los Angeles” for the highest 18-49 viewership of the night in broadcast shows, with both shows at 1.1/4, and the CBS show topping the night in overall viewership among scripted shows with 8.606 million; plus, “The Simpsons” was FOX’s top show on Sunday night.

Another bonus point for the show came with FOX’s shows having the highest 18-49 skews of the night, with 57% for all shows except a 60% for “Bob’s Burgers”, and is good news considering “Son of Zorn”, “Family Guy” and “Bob’s Burgers” had, as well as “The Simpsons”, mediocre figures, with the former finishing at cancellation-level 0.7/2 (1.58m) and the latter two at 1.0/4 (2.257m) and 0.9/3 (1.97m).

So far, the season average is 2.08/7 and 4.84 million viewers. At this point last season, it was slightly behind this season’s average, at 2.06/6 and 4.74 million viewers.

FOX saw sense after the all-time low in 18-49 viewership the show suffered against the Grammys and aren’t putting a new episode against the Oscars – an event likely to receive up to double the ratings of the Grammys (who knows what a new episode would’ve received in terms of viewership against that, considering how weak “The Simpsons” is at the moment.). See you again March 7th!

P.S. Apologies for the post being published a day later than usual; final ratings were delayed by a day due to the Presidents’ Day weekend.

Sources: TVByTheNumbers, SpottedRatings, ShowBuzzDaily

25th anniversary of ‘Homer at the Bat’ honored at the Baseball Hall of Fame in May

Episodes, Guest stars

At the National Baseball Hall of Fame, in may, “The Simpsons” will be honored, 25 years after the airing of the baseball-themed episode from Season 3, “Homer at the Bat”.

In the episode, where the MLB superstars Wade Boggs, José Canseco, Roger Clemens, Ken Griffey, Jr., Don Mattingly, Steve Sax, Mike Scioscia, Ozzie Smith, and Darryl Strawberry made a guest appearance, Homer won the championship softball game for the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant with a walk-off hit-by-pitch.

Part of the Simpsons-themed exibhit display
Part of the Simpsons-themed exibhit display

In the press release, Jeff Idelson, president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, said: “In Cooperstown, we salute baseball’s greatest contributors, preserve its vast history and salute the cultural side of the sport. We are honored to pay tribute to the 25th anniversary of ‘Homer at the Bat’, “‘The Simpsons’ has left an impressive imprint on our culture as the longest-running American sitcom, and ‘Homer at the Bat’ remains as popular today as when the episode aired in 1992. Baseball is recognized as our National Pastime due to its wide intersection with American culture over the last two centuries, evident in literature, theater, language, art, music, film and television. ‘The Simpsons’ is a perfect example of that connection to America.”

A signed copy of the script and tape of the episode are preserved at the collection.
A signed copy of the script and tape of the episode are preserved at the collection.

A roundtable with Boggs, Smith, and the staff of the show (executive producers Al Jean and Mike Reiss, director Jim Reardon, executive story editor Jeff Martin and casting director Bonnie Pietila) will happen at the show from 9.30am to 11am May 27th outside the Library Entrance to the Hall of Fame in Cooper Park, followed by the inauguration, with a ribbon-cut, for the Simpsons-themed display exhibit in the museum.

Sources: NY Daily News, Baseball Hall

Simpsons Comics Knockout – Review

Book reviews

This book was provided to me by HarperCollins.

Simpsons Comics Knockout is the latest Simpsons Comics compilation book from HarperCollins. It’s comprised of five different Simpsons Comics stories; Mall or Nothing, Sandwiches Are Forever, The Flunky!, Homer Drops the Ball! and The “X” Men.

Stories

Mall or Nothing


Mall or Nothing was originally released in Simpsons Comics #116 in March 2006. It is written by Chuck Dixon and Elma Blackburn. The story involves a company buying out all the land on Evergreen Terrace to build a mall. Homer refuses to sell his house and the mall is built around their house.

Homer and Bart think living inside a mall is the best thing ever, meanwhile Marge and Lisa dislike it. Whilst Homer and Bart are out having fun, Lisa tries to figure out a way to revert what happened and to get their neighborhood back. She eventually finds out that the land belonged to the Woppakanomie Tribe of which Lenny is the last surviving member of. The mall is sold off and Lenny builds an Indian casino in its place.

The story is funny, although a bit unrealistic. But it’s The Simpsons so that’s to be expected.

Sandwiches Are Forever


Sandwiches Are Forever was originally released in Simpsons Comics #117 in April 2006. It is written by Ty Templeton.

The story sees the return of popular Simpsons character Hank Scorpio, who has been in a prison in Turkey for three years. Homer gets put in the same cell as Scorpio for trying to smuggle sandwiches out of the country. After the prison guards get poisoned from the sandwiches, Hank and Homer escape and take the Simpson family with them to escape from the police.

They eventually get to an old Soviet base where they offer to repair the soldiers weapons and technology in return for using the rocket to get to Hank Scorpio’s satellite death ray so Hank can take over Europe. Upon arriving, they find the death ray only destroys cheese now. Hank uses this as leverage to take over France, who don’t want to live in a world without cheese.

Hank Scorpio is a great Simpsons character so it’s great to see him back in Simpsons media. Overall, I enjoyed the story, although some parts did seem a bit long and unnecessary.

The Flunky!


The Flunky! was originally released in Simpsons Comics #119 in June 2006. It is written by Scott M. Gimple. After Mr. Burns goes on vacation, Homer causes a meltdown at the Power Plant. The town then decides to boycott the Power Plant. To win the town back, Mr. Burns starts a reality TV show called The Flunky, the winner of which becomes his successor. The show becomes very popular and Mr. Burns is liked for his meanness in the show.

Eventually, Homer wins the contest but instead of becoming Burns’ successor, he is put in a vault in Shelbyville where he can do no harm. Homer leaves the vault, goes back to the power plant and caused a core breach microwaving a burrito.

I feel this story is the weakest in the book. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense and didn’t really deliver any laughs to me.

Homer Drops the Ball!


Homer Drops the Ball! was originally released in Simpsons Comics #120 in July 2006. It is written by James W. Bates. In this story, Homer catches a baseball during a game and becomes a celebrity. He uses his newfound status to get free food and TV interviews. Eventually, Marge gets annoyed at Homer for the way he is treating Bart and gives Bart the ball instead.

Many rich people start trying to buy the ball off Homer and Bart but eventually a bird steals it off them. It took it back to the baseball stadium and eventually dropped back at the feet of Danny Dings, the player who hit the ball into Homer’s nachos. Homer and Bart are then thanked for returning the ball.

Overall, I enjoyed this story. It showed off the typical relationship between Homer and Bart quite nicely.

The “X” Men


The “X” Men was originally released in Simpsons Comics #118 in May 2006. It is written by Ian Boothby. In this story, Skinner joins a support group for lonely people who can’t find dates. They eventually find they all enjoy activities that raise their adrenaline and start doing high risk activities.

Homer gets jealous of everyone in the club having fun and wants to join too. Eventually, the whole town gets in on it and decides to hold a mass skydiving event to br broadcast across the whole world. Everyone in the club gets dates who are attracted to their extremeness and lose focus on the skydive, forgetting their parachutes. They all fall to the ground and die. It then turns out this was all a story being told by Grampa.

I rather enjoyed this story as its focus wasn’t on the Simpson family for most of it, but on other side characters. The story was also packed with nerdy references from Star Wars to The Flash and Marvel Comics.

Conclusion

Overall, I enjoyed the book. There was a good selection of stories with interesting storylines with only one story I would call average. Thank you again to HarperCollins for providing me with the book to review.

Simpsons Comics Knockout comes out on February 21st and will cost US$15.99/CA$19.99. I’d suggest picking it up if you’re a fan of The Simpsons.

Season 28 News: The second “Robot Chicken” couch-gag has been revealed!

Episodes, Sneak Peeks

The Cocuh-Gag for the upcoming 15th episode of season 28, titled “The Cad and the Hat“, has been released by FOX. The episode airs on February 19, 2017. The couch gag is the announced second Robot Chicken-style couch-gag, after the one in The Fabulous Faker Boy.

Season 28 News: Bart Goes from Slacker to Star in March!

Episodes

Information about the plot for the episode “22 for 30“, which will air on March 12, 2017; has been released by FOX. The episode will be the 17th episode of Season 28.

In the episode …
“In this parody of a cable sports show, Bart goes from delinquent with detention to the star basketball player at Springfield Elementary. Lisa covers Bart’s success for the school paper, and Homer becomes the team’s coach. Things go awry when Bart gets involved with the mafia.“

For further information…
If you want to read the original listing from FOX, visit this page.

If you want to know further info about the episode, check our Wiki article on it. We’re always keeping it up-to-date.

If you want to know more about Season 28, visit our page for it in our Wiki!

Stay tuned for more!

Season 28 News: A new “Robot Chicken” couch-gag this Sunday!

Episodes, Sneak Peeks

A sneak peek at the Cocuh-Gag for the upcoming 15th episode of season 28, titled “The Cad and the Hat“, has been released by FOX. The episode airs on February 19, 2017. The sneak peek announces it will be the announced Robot Chicken-style second couch-gag, after the one in The Fabulous Faker Boy.

‘Grammy’ power knocks ‘Simpsons’ return to all-time low

Episodes
Homer’s being petty.

New episodes of ‘The Simpsons’ returned to US TV on Sunday night (February 12), and you couldn’t say it didn’t have a difficult time to remind viewers of that, as someone at FOX thought it would be a good idea to put new episodes of their Sunday shows against one of the biggest programmes on US television. And they suffered. Immensely.

2.399m tuned in to watch Homer take a trip down his gourmandising past on Sunday, with the episode scoring a 1.0/3 rating, down both on the last episode with a football lead-in (“The Great Phatsby“, down 1.8) and the last episode without (November’s “Dad Behavior“; down 0.3).

UPDATE: An unrounded 18-49 figure for this episode has been revealed, 1.02. This means that “Fatzcarraldo” is the least-watched episode in 18-49s, ever; “The Burns Cage” had 1.044 in unrounded figures.

This is the second time the show’s hit a 1.0 rating before, with the first being “The Burns Cage“, which was broadcast against the American Music Awards in May; however, it didn’t go as low as “Cage” in terms of overall viewership (2.31m). Currently, “The Burns Cage” has the show’s lowest ever viewership, and now ties Sunday’s “Fatzcarraldo” in the show’s lowest ever 18-49 rating (“To Courier with Love” holds the show’s lowest ever audience share at 2%, however.)

The equivalent episode last season was at 1.3/4 and 2.89 million viewers, and so Sunday’s episode declined in both 18-49 viewership and total viewership.

The last episode to air against the Grammys was “Walking Big & Tall” on February 8, 2015, and garnered a higher figure of 1.2/3 and 2.78 million.

Sunday’s episode was a season low both in viewership and in the 18-49s. It’s likely FOX will look at Sunday’s ratings and put on repeats whenever there’s a big event on another network; “The Simpsons” is at the back-end of the season, where it’s usually in the low 1s and 2 millions straight through until the finale – FOX won’t want to make the show shed any more viewers if possible, considering “The Simpsons” was the only show holding up the network on Sunday night.

Sunday’s episode was popular among younger viewers with a 60% 18-49 skew, but was outmuscled in that regard by “Bob’s Burgers” with 61% and “Family Guy” with 62%.

The season average is currently at 2.14/7, and 5.03 million viewers. By the equivalent episode last year, last season’s average was at 2.11/6 and 4.87 million. It seems this season’s average is slowly taking over last season’s after being below it for the autumn episodes.

Patty and Selma didn’t make the cut to perform at the Grammys.

FOX suffered elsewhere as well, with “The Simpsons” their only show over the 1.0 barrier. For the first time, “Family Guy” went fractional and under two million viewers, to 0.9/3 and 1.859m. “Son of Zorn”, which followed “Simpsons”, crashed to 0.6/2 and 1.4m. “Bob’s Burgers” dropped to a 0.8/3 and 1.67m.

CBS’ broadcast of a technically-plagued Grammys made other networks’ show’s shed some viewers, but with both ABC and NBC showing movies, there wasn’t much more added competition for Simpsons on broadcast TV. Including the Grammys, the viewership against The Simpsons’ broadcast comes to around 31-34 million.

There’s been a lot of catching-up on the latest episodes, and these figures will be detailed in a post compiling all Live+3 and Live+7 data soon.

See you next Tuesday!

Sources: TVBytheNumbers, SpottedRatings, ShowBuzzDaily