The Simpsons Is Going Through a Big Change for Future Seasons

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With Fox’s changing broadcast schedule for the Animation Domination block, it’s going to be shuffling around more shows than ever before. But they also needed to be much tighter as a result to likely keep from cutting its seasonal releases in half, and that looks like it is indeed the case as The Simpsons creative team revealed in an recent interview with Variety that the next new seasons will be much shorter than they were in the past with only “17 episodes” planned.

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The Simpsons Is Going to Have Shorter Seasons From Now On

The Simpsons‘ creative team were in attendance during the Annecy International Film Festival this year where they teased fans about what is coming in the future seasons of the series, and thus they revealed that the new four season renewal is going to only include 17 episodes. 15 of these episodes are planned for its broadcast with Fox, and two of the episodes are then going exclusively to Disney+. “We used to do 22 a year. For the next four [seasons], we’re doing 17 a year,” stated current The Simpsons showrunner Matt Selman. “Fifteen that will premiere in America on Fox, and then two exclusives on Disney+. It’s still a full-time job.”

As The Simpsons team opened up about the workload (which is also why they have yet to actually approach doing a new The Simpsons Movie despite fans asking for a sequel for many years now), just because they are no longer doing 22 episode seasons, it’s still going to take the same amount of time thanks to the kinds of stories they are now telling with both Fox and Disney+. Which fans have seen expanded lately to alternate universes, double length specials, antologies and much more so far.

What Does This Mean for The Simpsons?

The Simpsons has been on a hot streak for the last few years especially as the animated series has been offering the best episodes it has had in quite a while, and a lot of that has been due to the new experimental spirit at the heart of its new era. If there are fewer episodes, it also means that the ones that do make it to air are going to be that much stronger as a result. This latest season offered up some new looks at each of the characters, and there’s a hope that this will continue in the future.

Selman previously teased what’s coming in The Simpsons Season 37 as such, “We’re having fun digging deeper into the side characters,” Selman began. “We’re doing a Chalmers episode where he becomes a manosphere kind of guru selling male beauty products. We have a really terrific Lisa and Marge show about the culture of thrifting that’s so popular with the kids. Another side character we get deep into is Professor Frink. We have a little bit of his emotional backstory — that’s exciting. There’s one about the Quimby family. We get deep into their backstory in a very creative way.”

HT – Variety