After 38 Years, The Simpsons’ New Era Is Finally Here

Image courtesy of MovieStillsDb Published Sep 1, 2026, 2:27 PM EDT Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020. Sign in to your ScreenRant account Although it took the long-running series almost 40 years to iron out this longstanding shortcoming, the new era of The Simpsons sees the show finally fix one issue with its release schedule. Few TV shows in the medium’s history have been through as many distinct eras as The Simpsons, mostly because few other series have lasted as long as the iconic animated comedy show. As of August 2026, The Simpsons holds the world records for the longest-running US scripted prime-time TV series, the longest-running sitcom in American TV history, and the longest-running animated comedy ever, and the series shows no signs of stopping any time soon. That said, it would not quite be accurate to say that the show is still producing new episodes at the same rate as the Golden Age of The Simpsons. At the height of its critical popularity, The Simpsons released seasons with between 20 and 25 episodes. Even as the series fell out of favor with reviewers and fans after the new millennium, its output rate never flagged, with each new season of the show still including a minimum of 20 episodes. That all changed in 2023, when industry strikes led the show’s creators to release an 18-episode season. Since then, seasons 36 and 37 included only 18 and 15 new episodes on Fox, respectively, along with four Disney+ streaming exclusives apiece. The Simpsons’ Streaming Specials Got Rid Of Its Summer Hiatus Image courtesy of MovieStillsDb This new era of The Simpsons was met with some controversy as longtime fans of the series who didn’t already subscribe to Disney+ weren’t thrilled about the prospect of missing out on new episodes. Until 2024, new episodes of The Simpsons always aired on Fox first, and the show’s small handful of Disney+ streaming exclusives consisted of brief vignettes and animated shorts featuring celebrity guest stars. However, since season 35, a significant portion of each new season of The Simpsons is released straight to streaming. While not everyone is happy with this arrangement, it does mean that the show has resolved an issue that has quietly held back the series for decades. Like most traditional network sitcoms, The Simpsons typically took a break from around May until September every year, going on hiatus for the summer months after each season's finale. By releasing specials like the Ripley spoof "Simpsley" and the Black Mirror parody "Yellow Mirror" during the summer months, The Simpsons season 37 has ended this four-decade tradition. While the sheer longevity of The Simpsons meant the show had already beaten classics sitcoms like Cheers and Friends to many industry records, this clever change now makes The Simpsons one of the first shows to ever solve the summer hiatus. The Simpsons Released New Episodes Year-Round In 2026 Traditionally, network TV shows don’t air new episodes in summer, meaning there is a long gap between the end of a sitcom’s season and the start of its next outing. For a lot of live-action sitcoms, this can be a good thing, as it allows the shows to make each season finale a cliffhanger that forces viewers to return a few months later. Anyone familiar with sitcoms that feature classic “Will they, won’t they” romances, like Friends, The Office, The Mindy Project, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, How I Met Your Mother, or The Big Bang Theory, can likely recall these shows ending a season with an unlikely hookup or a shocking relationship revelation, before entering a three-month hiatus. The problem is that The Simpsons is an animated family sitcom, and its absurd humor means it doesn’t share the stakes of its live-action competitors. The Simpsons pioneered the floating timeline, wherein characters don’t age between seasons and remain in the same life stage for decades on end as a result. In the years since, everything from Bob’s Burgers to Family Guy has borrowed this approach. However, this rigid enforcement of the status quo means that it’s tougher for The Simpsons to get viewers invested in each new season of the series, as nothing ever really changes in Springfield. One of the show’s earliest competitors, the uproarious R-rated satire South Park, got around this problem by making its episodes extremely topical. This ensured that viewers needed to watch them as soon as they were released, as their comedy was almost as time sensitive as an episode of Saturday Night Live. In contrast, The Simpsons didn’t share this approach. As a result, The Simpsons has consistently lost viewers with each new season for over a decade now, and the show has fallen incredibly far from its historic highs in the ‘90s. Although no show could be expected to hold onto its original peak audience share for over 25 years, it is still ingenious that The Simpsons has opted to release new streaming specials during the summer months to hold onto the show’s most loyal viewers year-round. The Simpsons’ New Era Has Drawbacks and Benefits The Simpsons season 37 saw the show successfully release new episodes from September to September. This is doubly impressive since, at only 18 outings, season 37 is still one of the show’s shortest in terms of sheer output. It is a fun treat for fans to get an episode a month in summer instead of nothing, and a clever way to ensure the franchise isn’t left on hiatus for as long as it used to be between seasons. That said, it is still unfortunate that these new outings are exclusive streaming specials. Like HBO’s new The Big Bang Theory spinoff Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, these specials aren’t available to viewers who don’t subscribe to streaming services. This means traditonal TV viewers get the short end of the proverbial stick when it comes to this new approach. Releasing specials during the summer could also come back to bite the show’s creators surprisingly soon. After all, dropping the summer hiatus will mean that next year’s The Simpsons Movie 2 won’t have any time to build up hype with its September release, whereas there was a three-month hiatus before The Simpsons Movie’s September 2007 release. If The Simpsons keeps releasing new episodes and specials regularly from September 2026 straight through to the sequel’s release, its arrival is apt to feel less like a cultural event and more like business as usual for the franchise. Release Date December 17, 1989 Network FOX Showrunner Al Jean Cast Homer Simpson / Abe Simpson / Barney Gumble / Krusty (voice) Marge Simpson / Patty Bouvier / Selma Bouvier (voice) Directors Steven Dean Moore, Mark Kirkland, Rob Oliver, Michael Polcino, Mike B. Anderson, Chris Clements, Wes Archer, Timothy Bailey, Lance Kramer, Nancy Kruse, Matthew Faughnan, Chuck Sheetz, Rich Moore, Jeffrey Lynch, Pete Michels, Susie Dietter, Raymond S. Persi, Carlos Baeza, Dominic Polcino, Lauren MacMullan, Michael Marcantel, Neil Affleck, Swinton O. Scott III, Jennifer Moeller Writers J. Stewart Burns, Michael Price, Brian Kelley, Bill Odenkirk, Dan Vebber, Kevin Curran, Stephanie Gillis, Dan Castellaneta, Deb Lacusta, Billy Kimball, Jessica Conrad, Cesar Mazariegos, Daniel Chun, Jennifer Crittenden, Conan O'Brien, Valentina Garza, Elisabeth Kiernan Averick, Christine Nangle, Broti Gupta, Loni Steele Sosthand, Megan Amram, Bob Kushell, David Isaacs, David Mandel Franchise(s) The Simpsons Creator(s) Matt Groening