Fox decided last season to ignore the live+same day ratings (those who watched a show on the day of original broadcast) and to focus on the ratings that came from viewers watching on catch-up (which explains why flop Scream Queens eked its way to a second season). The Simpsons has only appeared in the top 25 broadcast show lists for live+3 catchup when the episodes have been NFL boosted so far this season.

The first NFL-boosted episode of the season, “Friends and Family” had 2.6 on its original airing, and after three days of catch-up, gained 0.3 and 12% versus its Live + Same Day rating, to 2.9, ranking 13th of the top 25 broadcast shows in Live+3 18-49s of the week ending October 2nd. “Treehouse of Horror XVIII” was boosted also, gaining 0.4 and 13% versus its live+same day rating to 3.4, ranking 8th in the broadcast shows of the week; this episode seemed to have had the “Treehouse of Horror” aspect work its way into the higher viewership as well, and to a lesser extent the fact it was the 600th episode (although the 500th did see an increase due to its landmark status).

In both cases, they were the second most-watched shows of the week in 18-49 ratings for FOX, behind Empire, which had 5.1 and 4.6 respectively. Outside of football-inflated episodes, The Simpsons usually is a non-appearance in the list, and probably only gains a tenth or two in catch-up, since Family Guy usually sneaks into the list with a similar live+same day rating.

The next football-aided episode isn’t for another three weeks, so we probably won’t be seeing The Simpsons in the list again until the episode in which they take Grampa to Cuba – are they sure that’s a good idea?

Source: TVByTheNumbers

Halloween isn’t for two weeks, yet The Simpsons decided to broadcast their annual Treehouse of Horror episode, which coincidentally was also the show’s 600th episode. And if that wasn’t enough to get people watching, 15 million viewers were tuned into FOX beforehand, half the number watching the spooky celebration.

“Treehouse of Horror XVIII” entertained 7.442 million viewers on Sunday night (October 16), up 1.4 million from “Friends and Family”, this season’s only other NFL-inflated episode so far, over double last week’s non-NFL-boosted episode, and was the highest audience for the show since January’s “Teenage Mutant Milk-Caused Hurdles” with 8.33 million viewers; the episode also had a 3.045/10 in the 18-49 demographic, 0.4/1 higher than “Friends and Family”, double the rating last week’s episode had (1.5/5) and was the show’s highest 18-49 rating also since “Hurdles”, which had a 3.6/10.

Sunday’s episode ranked six in the most-watched broadcast shows in adults 18-49 for October 10-16, 2016 with 3.907 million of its viewers in that demographic.

The episode adjusted down slightly from 3.1/10 and 7.514 million viewers in the preliminaries, but was still the top non-sport show of the night by 1.4/5, a difference both “Family Guy” (2nd most-watched non-sport show of the night; 1.634/5, 3.677) and “Son of Zorn” (3rd; 1.525/5, 3.775) edged over, despite both being down 0.1 from their last episodes.

The “Treehouse of Horror” ep was higher than the rating for last year’s, which had 2.8/8 and 6.75 million viewers, which also had the joy of having an NFL lead-in. Sunday’s ep was the highest “THOH” episode since season 26’s “Treehouse of Horror XXV“, which had 3.6/10 and 7.76 million viewers. The equivalent episode last season was, however, “Halloween of Horror“, which had 1.7/5 and 3.69 million, just over half and under, respectively, what Sunday’s ep received. The 600th episode also achieved a higher audience than the 500th, which had a 2.6 and 5.77 million watching.

After Sunday’s episode, the first four eps are up just under 15% year-on-year with a 2.13 average in 18-49 ratings, and up 23% in total viewers with a 5.006 million average.

The highest rated show on the night was, inevitably, football, with an overrun on Fox attracting 20.102 million and a 7.0 rating. As always, the FOX audience may have been deflated by NBC football, which averaged 4.9/16 and 13.6 million from “Zorn” onwards, with around nearly 9-11 million tuned into NBC during Simpsons.

This coming Sunday’s episode doesn’t have football for a lead-in, so the 601st episode should see figures back in the mid-1s and 3/4 million viewers.

Sources: TVByTheNumbers, ShowBuzzDaily, SpottedRatings

UPDATED 29th December 2016 to include previously excluded unrounded final numbers.

As you may have seen, Sunday’s preliminaries were all over the place thanks to many areas of the country cocking up their schedules with airing repeats (“Halloween of Horror“/”Friends and Family“) at the wrong times. In any case, The Simpsons was down from last week, but it’s unfair to compare against an NFL-boosted episode, so let’s compare it with the season premiere – which it’s up from.

Sunday’s Boston-bashing outing didn’t stray from the prelims with 1.487/5 but fell to 3.221 million viewers, a lower viewer count than both episodes so far this season.

Elsewhere, only Bob’s Burgers was new on Fox’s truncated schedule, with a solid 1.202/4 and 2.793 million viewers. At 9pm, the debate took hold of the schedules with a total 8.6/24 and 33.54 million viewers across the three broadcast networks that showed it (this was 66.5 million with ALL the networks, such as on cable, having their figures added), while NBC showed football with an average of 5.9/16 and 16.62 million viewers.

With a football lead-in, it being the 600th episode and the usual ratings-booster “Treehouse of Horror” episode next week, we could be having some large numbers on our hand next Monday (but by Sod’s Law, will adjust down on the Tuesday).

Sources: TVByTheNumbers and ShowBuzzDaily

UPDATED 29th December 2016 to include previously excluded unrounded final numbers.

Updated post here: ‘Simpsons’ top for Fox, rules the roost outside of sports and debate. Didn’t want to delete in case anyone had bookmarked this page.

Original post:

*At present, last night’s new The Simpsons is sitting at 1.5/5 in the 18-49 ratings (down from last week, as is expected for a non-NFL-boosted episode) as is a repeat an hour before – however, Fox decided to label that 7pm repeat (“Halloween of Horror“) as new, and in some areas, local NFL overruns completely cocked up the schedule (at least one Fox affiliate in Los Angeles ran the repeat during the broadcast of the new ep to the West Coast), leaving the repeat with 4.326 million viewers… and the new ep with 3.386. So the new ep got beaten by a 7pm repeat which rated better than when it did last year.

Yeah, I’m waiting for the final numbers.

One thing I can tell you is that the presidential debate definitely ruled the roost last night all in, yet the biggest individual telecast was Sunday Night Football which peaked at over 6.6 and 20 million viewers.

Tomorrow, expect a proper ratings post.

Thanks to NFL overrun (7.7/30, 22.7m) and The OT (4.6/16, 12.49m) in the Bob’s Burgers slot, The Simpsons reached its highest 18-49 rating and total viewer rating since last season’s NFL-inflated episode, “Teenage Mutant Milk-Caused Hurdles“, with a 2.649/9 and 5.997 million viewers (adjusted up slightly from 5.964 million viewers) on Sunday (October 2) night, making it the top show excluding sports by 0.9. This means last night’s episode was up 1.2 (a boost which actually is higher than the ratings a few episodes got last season; nearly 86%) and 2.6 million viewers (again, a boost higher than the actual ratings for some shows last season; just over 78%) from last week, the season premiere. However, The Simpsons was down from last year‘s second episode, 2.7/8 and 6.016m.

The Simpsons came 11th in the week in adults 18-49 (for the main five networks’ shows), with 3.399 million of its viewers in that demographic.

Elsewhere, Fox’s evening was also boosted, with Son of Zorn up 0.5 and Family Guy up 0.4 to get a 1.637/5 and 1.655/5 respectively (FG up from 1.621 unrounded), and 3.638m and 3.468m in total viewers respectively (Zorn adjusted up from prelims, FG had a miniscule drop). The Last Man on Earth barely budged to a 1.005/3 (up 0.1) and 2.496m.

The largest rating of the night was FOX’s NFL overrun from 7-7:47pm with 7.7/30 and 22.697 million viewers, but it is worth mentioning all Fox shows were against football on NBC, which averaged 6.689/22 and 18.057m, which may have deflated their, still great, ratings. Due to NBC’s football, Fox came second on the night, ahead of CBS by 2.3/8.

Sources: TVByTheNumbers, SpottedRatings and ShowBuzzDaily

UPDATED 29th December 2016 to include previously excluded unrounded final numbers.

You may have come across many saying The Simpsons isn’t as popular as it once was – that’s a given, but the importance of it to Fox’s Sunday night schedule is clear to see.

Sunday night (September 25) saw the beginning of the predominance of this season’s Sunday lineup on US TV, with The Simpsons coming top for Fox and coming second outside of sports amongst the coveted 18-49 demographic. The season premiere, in the final ratings, had a 1.4 rating, down 0.1 from last year’s season premiere (and down from the preliminary ratings with a 1.552 in unrounded), but had 3.364 million viewers (adjusted down from prelims with 3.672 million viewers), up from last year’s 3.279 million viewers; in terms of viewers, the show came seventh on the night excluding sports. The show also had a 5% share in 18-49 viewers, and was the top show on FOX all night, being the only show over the 3 million barrier on the network.

Elsewhere, Fox’s lineup with veteran animated shows Family Guy and Bob’s Burgers was solid, with a 1.3/4 rating and 2.796 million viewers and a 1.1/4 with 2.601 million viewers respectively. New show Son of Zorn more than halved from its pre-season premiere to 1.1 and had just over a third of the premiere’s total viewers, with 2.821 million viewers. Zorn also had 4% of 18-49 viewers.

Ratings elsewhere were also deflated, with CBS and ABC especially suffering from strong opposition from NBC’s Sunday Night Football which peaked at over 7.6 and 21 million viewers, which won the night in both 18-49 and total viewers. CBS’ night was uplifted slightly by earlier football. FOX came third overall on the night.

FOX’s shows (at least which ones did) declined so much from preliminary ratings as NFL football ran late in 4% of the country and delayed the lineup in those areas, and so football ratings were included in the other shows, which were unscrambled in the final ratings.

Sources: TVByTheNumbers, SpottedRatings and ShowBuzzDaily