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    [OC] Visualizing The Simpsons Episode Ratings Over Time
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    [OC] Visualizing The Simpsons Episode Ratings Over Time


    [OC] Visualizing The Simpsons Episode Ratings Over Time

    Posted by tomeph

    View 45 Comments

    45 Comments

    2. BenThereOrBenSquare on

      For anyone wondering, the two lower rated episodes during the glory days were the clip shows. And that low rated season 9 episode is the musical episode.

    6. Rarewear_fan on

      One of those green ones from the last few years has to be that Ned Flanders crime noir episode…..extremely well made

    7. SsooooOriginal on

      I haven’t kept up since like S13, but I believe the ratings are more the cultural shift than the show itself getting worse. I stopped because I stopped watching TV in general.

      S9 and S10, where the turn clearly happens, have some of the peak episodes that probably made more core memories and memes than any other seasons. 

      Episodes critiquing wealth, religion tribalism, traditional views of sex and gender, identity, civic rights, belonging, and so much more.

      Lisas Sax is one of my favorites. Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo called the weebwave two decades before it really landed. There are so many episodes I am remembering just going through the episode lists.

    9. sjackson12 on

      FYI, the few really low rated episodes early on are clip shows. the 9.3 is the frank grimes one, the 9.2s are who shot mr burns (part one), and treehouse of horror 5 (the one with the shinning, time and punishment, and nightmare cafeteria – generally considered the best treehouse episode), and the hank scorpio episode.

      i’m surprised lisa becomes a vegetarian (7-5) is only 8.5!

    15. ShyguyFlyguy on

      Season8 was the GOAT imo.

      You only move twice

      The mysterious voyage of homer

      The springfield files

      Mountain of madness

      Homer vs the eighth commandment

    16. killernat1234 on

      The thing with the simpsons is it’s one of those shows you put on when you can’t be bothered looking through everything to find something to watch

    19. dixonbalsagna on

      growing up in the 90s, the new episode of Simpsons was a sunday night ritual for my family, I specifically remember it fizzling out after the ‘tomacco’ episode. apparently that was season 11, and looking at this chart I see season 10 was the last season with any >8.0 rated episodes.

    21. THE-BS on

      If you can come out with something brilliant, and then remove all the talent, it will continue to trample brainless through decades of mediocrity, like a zombie.

    23. Hial_SW on

      I stopped watching back around season 13 or so. I have yet to see one meme or quick edit in a youtube video that uses footage in an episode that I have not seen before. So 23 years of cultural insignificance.

    24. Glittering-Draw-6223 on

      theres gotta be something more at play.

      nostalgia, or the inherently negative bias in social media or something… theres gotta be some other contributing factor its too consistent to be solely caused by a general decline in quality..

    25. MysteryRadish on

      While it’s clear things haven’t been awesome since season 9 or so, it looks like season 30 was the absolute low point, with just one okay episode and the worst average of the whole show by several points.

      Anybody know what was up that year? New writers? New characters nobody liked? There has to be something that made that one so distincively bad.

    27. Hypo_Mix on

      I would be interested in to see the results by generation, curious if nostalgia is playing any role. 

    31. GroundbreakingBag164 on

      Barthood (S27E09) was so good, definitely deserves the green

      And the green ones in S33 are both parts of A Serious Flanders, a ridiculously brutal crime thriller episode

    32. dsp_guy on

      Funny that I stopped watching around S10 when I was in college. Never seen an episode past that season.

    33. liltomas on

      Looks like the most hated episodes are ones featuring celebrities (Musk, Gaga…), musicals and clip shows. Makes sense.

    36. Practical_Smell_4244 on

      Its okay what goes up must eventually fall down this is life the shittiness increases with passing time

    39. dubesto on

      This is kind of inevitable when you keep milking things as long as you can. The cow eventually gets sick

    41. daddydillo892 on

      Completely thought the pic was a screenshot of a disk defragmentation. Figured it must be on one of the ‘i’m old’ or computer subs.

    42. Ok-Drink-1328 on

      i agree with the pattern but not the specific ones, some old episodes were true art, not recognized

    43. DMala on

      I don’t understand how the show has survived this long. Any normal show, S11 would have been the death knell. Maybe S15, with as much of a cash cow as it had been.

      To just keep renewing it year after year in the face of steadily declining ratings just defies logic, even for Fox.

    45. Maycrofy on

      I’ll say it here because it’s the right space: the Simpsons should try to become like the Simspons comics. They are more zany and PG 13 but they still resemble The early episodes writing.