The chalkboard gag in The Simpsons last night read “I Will Stop Losing 50% of My NFL Lead-In”. Well, technically, it did and didn’t.

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.

The Plots for the upcoming 600th and 601st episode of The Simpsons, 4th and 5th episode of season 28, titled “Treehouse of Horror XXVII” and “Trust But Clarify“, have been released by FOX. The episodes air October 16 and 23, 2016.

Treehouse of Horror XXVII

In the midst of a major drought, Mr. Burns introduces a Hunger Games-style contest in which Springfield’s children fight each other for a day in Burns’ personal reservoir. Meanwhile, Lisa‘s imaginary best friend, Rachel, is jealous of Lisa’s real best friends and starts killing them. Moe tells Bart that the barflies are actually covert agents and that he wants Bart join their team in Homer‘s place.

Source: FOX.com

Trust But Clarify

Lisa and Bart investigate Krusty‘s suspicious new “Krustaceans” candy. Meanwhile, Homer wants a promotion at the nuclear plant and asks Marge to help him dress the part, and news anchor Kent Brockman struggles to find his feet in the changing media world.

Dan Rather will guest star as Himself.

Source: The Futon Critic

Stay tuned for more!

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