- Snyder: Mr. Hutz we've been in here for four hours. Do you have any evidence at all?
- Hutz: Well, Your Honor. We've plenty of hearsay and conjecture. Those are, kinds of evidence.
My last blog has 18 comments, that's actually quite funny. Anyway...
In a recent interview, Supreme Leader Jean ruined my day by confirming there is no end in sight for the show. Now, let me stress, I want the show to end, but I know a lot of you don't. I'm not trying to tell you why it sucks (in this post) merely why the evidence Jean gives is illogical.
Let's take a look:
- Q: How much are you and the other producers discussing an endgame for The Simpsons? Are you planning a big blowout finale for when the time does come and how many more seasons are you planning on running for?
- Al Jean: To be totally honest, we have not discussed plans for ending The Simpsons. The show is still doing great in the ratings, was nominated for four emmys (plus a fifth for Morgan Spurlock's documentary), and as of now, we are not looking to take it down.
The first thing to point out is the last bit: "we are not looking to take it down." I guarentee that unless an episode is watched by literally zero people (and maybe not even then) it won't be cancelled. If this show goes it will be on Jean's terms and why would he or anybody else on the show want to abandon stable jobs with large incomes? The Simpsons as a franchise still makes Fox enough money in a normal year for them now to start wondering how much they could make for "Final Year Limited Edition Commemorative Retouched Re-release Thing" just yet...
So what is Jean's evidence? Answer: Nielsen ratings and Emmys. Is that good evidence? No. Can the evidence even be considered accurate? Not really.
"The show is still doing great in the ratings" is quite frankly, not true. Last season supplied 7 of the 10 least watched episodes in the history of the show. Sure, "Once Upon a Time in Springfield" got good ratings of over 20 million, the highest in five years. But when you consider that that was the heavily promoted 450th episode, with Morgan Spurlock's documentary following it, and it aired right after the National Football League playoffs, it isn't really that special. Especially when you see that "Million Dollar Maybe", the following episode, was watched by just 5.11 million viewers, thus making it the least watched episode in the show's history. It aired against the Grammys and some American football. But still. The big Fox endorsed American Idol crossover horror show season finale "Judge Me Tender" generated a pathetic 5.7 million viewers.
As pointed out over at Rubbercat, that rating (and indeed the average rating for a whole season if the trend continues) is lower than the fourth season of Futurama a.k.a. the season when it was cancelled. To put that into context: Futurama was cursed by constant timeslot changes and pre-emption which meant it never really found an audience. The Simpsons has been in the same timeslot for sixteen straight seasons.
As for those Emmys, it's of course true that the show was nominated for four Emmys this year, winning two, and has in the past enjoyed great success there. But the blanket phrase 'Emmy-winning' is misleading. If a show wins an Emmy for its editing and nothing else it can legally be described as 'Emmy-winning', regardless of its actual quality. The two Emmy wins this year were also no proof of the show's quality: one was for the background designs of "Postcards From the Wedge" and the other was for Anne Hathaway's guest role in "Once Upon a Time in Springfield". The show failed to win the big prize of Outstanding Animated Program (for the second year in a row); the other two nominations Jean mentions were for Dan and Hank in the same category as Anne Hathaway. Oh and Al even mentions the unrelated Morgan Spurlock documentary nomination.
The Simpsons is a comedy show anyway, so winning Outstanding Animated Program is not proof that your animated show is funny, just that it's animated.
But regardless of whether they are true or not is irrelevant. Emmys and Nielsen ratings don't matter for whether your show is actually good. The Simpsons itself used to be the biggest exponent of this as both things used to be targets of humour. In "Deep Space Homer", NASA are portrayed as caring more about the Nielsen ratings of their show rather than the safety of their astronauts. And the Emmys are the most mocked award on the show (bar the Grammys) and rightly so. The fact that Harry Shearer hasn't won the Outstanding Voice Over performance award and yet Anne Hathaway has is pretty terrible. The fact that history will show Family Guy was nominated for Outstanding Comedy series and The Simpsons never was is equally terrible.
- Lisa: This award show is the biggest farce I ever saw!
- Bart: What about the Emmys?
- Lisa: I stand corrected.