“The Simpsons” became the longest-running scripted primetime TV series in the US on Sunday, and welcomed back some viewers to celebrate with.

Sunday (April 29)’s episode scored a 1.0/4 rating and 2.473 million viewers. In viewership, it was the most watched episode of the spring, and – of a non-football-boosted above-average – since last November 19’s “Singin’ in the Lane” (2.67m). 50% (lower than usual due to the above-average viewership) of its viewers were in the 18-49 demo; approximately 1.2m.

Both the demo rating – bar the share – and viewership were up from last week‘s 0.9/4 and 2.194m. Also, rather interestingly, “The Simpsons” had a 2% share in adults 50+; something no other Fox show on the night got and something “The Simpsons” hasn’t had all season (bar episodes with local or national NFL lead-ins), and will likely be due to the increased viewership, itself likely due to older viewers tuning in to ring in the milestone.

It looks as though “The Simpsons” was narrowly beaten “Family Guy” in the unrounded demo rating (the former was 0.05 below the latter in the prelims), but matched when rounded (1.0). The two shows were the only shows above two million viewers on Fox during Sunday primetime.

So far, this season is averaging a 1.52 demo rating and 3.67m viewers.

Opposition on the other three main networks was around 20-22 million, on par with usual.

See you next Tuesday!

Sources: TVBytheNumbers, SpottedRatings, ShowBuzzDaily