While The Simpsons shows no signs of ending its legendary run anytime soon, the animated comedy show will never be the same after a recent change. One of the best American sitcoms of all time, The Simpsons is nothing short of a pop culture institution. The show holds all manner of impressive records, including being the longest-running sitcom in American TV history, the longest-running US scripted prime-time TV series, and the longest-running animated comedy ever.
Not only that, but the critical success and cultural influence of The Simpsons is almost immeasurable in 2026. As the show that made adult animation a mainstream sensation in the early ‘90s, The Simpsons paved the way for everything from South Park and Family Guy to Bob’s Burgers and King of the Hill. Without the success of The Simpsons, viewers would likely never have gotten Adult Swim’s nine-season hit Rick and Morty, and this rundown hasn’t even mentioned the show’s many unforgettable episodes.
There are dozens of episodes of The Simpsons that are considered masterpieces, which is owed at least in part to the sheer longevity of the series. Although The Simpsons season 1 featured a mere 13 episodes, the show made up for lost time in the decades that followed, never releasing a season with fewer than 20 episodes from 1990 through to 2024. Sadly, after a major change made in seasons 35–37, it’s clear we’re never getting a 20+ episode fully broadcast season again.
From season 2 all the way through to season 34, the season length of The Simpsons ranged from highs of 25 to lows of 20. The shortest season in this era, 2007’s season 19, was 20 episodes long only because The Simpsons Movie was released in the summer of the same year. A massive box office hit and critical success, the long-awaited theatrical spinoff slowed down the show’s usual production process. However, The Simpsons made up for this with multiple earlier extra-long seasons.
During the ‘90s, when it was the norm for shows to have around 22 episodes per season, The Simpsons produced 25 episodes in season 6, 7, 8, and 9, as well as 23 episodes in season 10. The show maintained a consistent 20-22 episode standard in the years that followed, with 2009’s season 21 and 2018’s season 30 both including 23 episodes. This all changed in 2024, when season 35 included a mere 18 episodes.
Since season 35 included modern classics like “A Mid-Childhood Night’s Dream,” “It's a Blunderful Life,” and “Clan of the Cave Mom,” it was easy to ignore the show’s shorter run. After all, the previous year’s industry-wide strikes affected the production process of every show, meaning The Simpsons wasn’t the only series producing a notably shorter season in 2024. However, the next year told a tale.
Including its four Disney+ exclusive episodes, season 36 had a mere 18 episodes, and that number dwindles to only 14 episodes when only traditionally broadcast episodes are included in the tally. While not an outright disaster, this was a surprising change considering the show’s long run of 20+ episode seasons throughout the preceding decades. Meanwhile, 2025’s season 37 included 18 episodes once more, but again, only 14 of these were traditional broadcasts, with the other four being Disney+ exclusives.
That’s almost a third of a season missing, and the long-running series shows no sign of reversing this change. For fans of the series who have not yet shelled out for a monthly subscription to Disney’s streaming service, a large chunk of the show’s new episodes are now out of reach and the seasons that do make it to TV are substantially shorter than they used to be.
There is another issue with the show’s gradual transition toward Disney+, and it is one that has plagued The Simpsons for some time now. The show has been able to book incredible guest stars since its early years thanks to the popularity of The Simpsons, and this has remained true even as the show’s fan base has grown smaller over the decades. However, the series is now incentivized to keep its biggest guest stars and most exciting storylines for its streaming exclusive outings.
Whether it is the show parodying Black Mirror with season 37’s upcoming special “Yellow Mirror” or casting Joseph Gordon Levitt as a young Mr. Burns in the time-twisting season 36 outing “The Past and the Furious,” The Simpsons’ Disney+ specials represent some of the show’s most exciting and original new stories. Meanwhile, traditional TV viewers are served bland, pedestrian outings where Superintendent Chalmers starts a skincare company or Bart and Homer attend a masculinity boot camp.
Considering South Park’s historic success for Paramount+, The Simpsons’ consistently worsening ratings, and the superior reviewers received by its recent Disney+ specials, it doesn’t seem far-fetched to assume that the show is working its way toward a streaming-only future in the coming years. While Treehouse of Horror Halloween specials still regularly earn over 3 million viewers, the average episode of the show’s last three seasons has struggled to break the 1 million viewer mark.
The Simpsons has been a cultural phenomenon for nearly four decades, but a recent change has some fans questioning the iconic show's new direction.
If The Simpsons has a hard time reaching even a reasonably sized audience on traditional TV but commands critical attention with its comparatively exciting Disney+ exclusives, then following South Park to a streaming-focused release schedule would make sense for the show. Sadly, the dwindling number of episodes in new seasons of The Simpsons indicates that this is the bargain the show is preparing to take.
