“The Simpsons” is the name, four all-time ratings lows in one season’s the game.

Last season there was “The Burns Cage“, which scored a then new all-time low of a 1.044 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 2.315 million viewers.

First this season was “Fatzcarraldo“, with a 1.02 rating.

Then came along “A Father’s Watch“, with a 1.00 rating.

Next arrived “The Caper Chase“, last Sunday night’s episode, with an all-time low 18-49 rating and a new low in viewership, with 0.90 and 2.128 million viewers Sunday’s episode also garnered a 3% audience share – not the lowest ever, probably the only thing about Sunday’s episode that wasn’t!

Three all-time lows in 18-49s and one all-time low in total viewership, all in one season. That’s not good, especially with the last new low being fractional (under a 1.0 rating).

The season average so far is 1.89/5.8 and 4.443 million viewers. By this point last season, it was 1.79/5.8 and 4.401 million viewers.

“The Simpsons” managed to stave off going fractional with its last episode, but the American Music Awards (which caused “The Burns Cage”‘s low ratings last year, which at that point were the lowest ever ratings in 18-49s and total viewership for the show) struck it again, and “The Simpsons” lost.

Nevertheless, irrespective of the low ratings, “The Simpsons” was actually first in scripted shows on broadcast TV (the main four networks), among the 18-49 demographic, on Sunday night, tying with “Chicago Justice”, and in all shows on broadcast, tied fourth!

The show officially (to one decimal place) went fractional in the preliminary ratings (it was fractional to third-decimal places last episode), and was at just 0.896 to three decimal places.

The equivalent episode last year was “The Burns Cage” – a bit of a coincidence that for the same Sunday two years running “The Simpsons” drew a new low for total viewership.

Despite the “American Music Awards”‘ large 18-49 rating, it only skewed 25% to that audience, with “The Simpsons”‘ 56% skew tying with “Family Guy” for the third largest skew of the broadcast TV night.

The audience against “The Simpsons” in its timeslot, on broadcast TV, added up to around 23 million viewers.

Why must FOX keep putting the Simpsons against shows they know are going to attract huge audiences and therefore knock their own shows (which they’ve already experienced by putting “Fatzcarraldo” against the Grammys and it pulling in the show’s lowest 18-49 rating ever)? Who knows why they didn’t air a repeat like “Family Guy” did. And usual powerhouse “Little Big Shots” was knocked by 0.5 down to 1.2 – very low for its standards. FOX was even fractional (below a 1.0 rating) for all of its night!

See you on May 2nd for analysis of the next episode’s ratings!

The title of the third episode of the 29th production season (XABF03) has been revealed. It is titled “Haw-Haw Land“!

The episode will air during the 29th broadcast season (2017/18 TV season).

Stay tuned for more new titles!

Don’t forget to visit our pages on Season 28 and Season 29, as we always try to keep them up-to-date!

It’s interesting. Over the weekend I was wondering whether “The Simpsons” would go fractional first or dip below two million viewers first, or at the same time. It appears the former is more likely, based on how it DID go fractional in preliminary ratings on Sunday but managed to creep above a 1.0 in final ratings, and the show has only been within 300,000 viewers or so of the 2m barrier, of which only “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy” crossed on FOX’s Sunday night.

Sunday’s trophy-laden episode attracted 2.402 million viewers (the third-lowest viewership ever) and also scored exactly a 1.00 rating in the 18-49 demo – the lowest ever rating in the demo. The audience share was also 3%. The show tied “Bob’s Burgers” with a 53% 18-49 skew, the second-best skew of the night.

Once again, “Family Guy” beat “The Simpsons”, but this time it was only in 18-49 ratings, having scored a 1.10, and was below “The Simpsons” in viewership with 2.34 million watching – both shows were the only ones on FOX on Sunday over two million viewers, as aforementioned.

The equivalent episode last season, “The Burns Cage”, was just above Sunday’s at 1.04/4 and below in viewership, at 2.315 million – the 1.04 the all-time low in 18-49 viewership until “Fatzcarraldo” with 1.02 earlier this season, and it’s 2.315 million still remains the all-time low in overall viewership.
The season average so far is now 1.95/5.9 and 4.571 million viewers, above that of this point last season with 1.79/5.8 and 4.401 million viewers.

There was a viewership of around 21-23 million opposite “The Simpsons”, on par with the last episode.

As of right now, it’s unclear whether the 1.00 rating “The Simpsons” achieved is rounded up or rounded down. The episode was at a 0.985 in preliminary ratings – and no unrounded data for final ratings has been released to determine whether the show DID go fractional, in ratings to three decimal places. As of now, though, “The Simpsons” has narrowly avoided taking a trip to fractional-land. And with this fact, who knows, considering how we’ve got two more months of post-DST and spring decline left, whether it’ll manage to complete the trip later on in the season. The show’s just above the 1.0 barrier now; who knows where it’ll be this time in May? For a show to be above a 3.0 rating and also be below a 1.0 rating in the same season sure is something – especially in a season that’s also recorded two all-time lows.

See you April 4th.

Apologies for the lateness in this post; this time it WAS my fault, I was waiting to see if unrounded data would be made available – it wasn’t, really. Apologies also if there are errors in the article; while composing this post my concentration was drawn to the breaking news in the UK.

Sources: TVBytheNumbers, SpottedRatings, ShowBuzzDaily, TVSeriesFinale