Flanders wife, oh wait...

Since it's a publicity stunt to get people to watch the show again they needed to announce it beforehand.

Wow, this show is really still on? Damn. Fox must be pretty loyal to them even tho ratings wise it hasn't done crap for several years. Then again, I guess they put Fox on the map.

I would have thought you had just hit on something, right there.

Agnes Skinner. Older character, not particularly liked, but an important part of another character's psyche. If she died, how would that affect Principal Skinner? The impact on the show could be significant.

The only problem is, her VA, Tress MacNeille, hasn't won any award for The Simpsons, let alone for that character.

Here are the characters that are apparently in the running, based on that hint - this is being gotten from imdb's award list for the series:

Hank Azaria: Moe Szyslak / Carl / Chief Wiggum / Bumblebee Man / Jed Clampett / Michael Corleone / Apu / Johnny Lightlips / Comic Book Guy / "General" / Lou
Dan Castellaneta: Homer Simpson / Grampa Simpson / Groundskeeper Willie / Tattoo / [characters he voiced in "Today, I am a Clown", 2003]
Kelsey Grammar: Sideshow Bob
Nancy Cartwright: Bart Simpson
Jackie Mason: Rabbi Krustofsky
Julie Kavner: Marge / Patty / Selma / Marge's Mother
Yeardley Smith: Lisa Simpson
Marcia Wallace: Edna Krabappel

Plus, Anne Hathaway: Princess Penelope (one-off character)

If anyone can identify all of the Dan Castellaneta characters that speak in "Today, I am a Clown", it would help - imdb doesn't list specifics, just says "(voice)". From what I can see, these are all of the characters that have won Simpsons VAs emmies.

Obvious candidates are Marge's Mother and Grampa Simpson, Sideshow Bob, Carl, Lou, Apu, Wiggum, Moe, Patty, and Selma. Of these, I think the most likely ones are Wiggum, Sideshow Bob, and Moe, with Carl, Lou, Patty, and Selma being less likely in my view, and the grandparents being least likely of them.

If I had to make a prediction, I'm going to go with Sideshow Bob, with my second choice being Wiggum. Why Wiggum over Moe? Because I see more of an impact from that death - Moe is just the guy who runs the tavern, Wiggum affects both crime (via police) and the school (via Ralph), and is "well-respected", in a sense, by the people of Springfield. If this isn't a death to remove a character because of the VA (Sideshow Bob), it's a death to have an impact on both viewers and Springfield. Clancy Wiggum is just as loveable as Moe Szyslak to the audience, but Clancy is more important in Springfield.

Its ratings are fine. Its ratings are very young skewing so its able to charge high advertising rates so its still very profitable for Fox. In fact its one of the top 10 most expensive shows for advertisers to pay for still. Plus Fox gets syndication money which is A LOT! 

I to this day have no idea why Fox wants Simpsons gone.  They don't, and will never have, anything to replace the money cow that it is.

You know. I could see how it could be Abe.

The last season had a LOT of Grandpa Simpson episodes. I could see if they had planned this ahead and decided to burn out all the Grandpa ideas they had.

Well better then fine actually.   It still pulls over 6 million viewers and is on most weeks the most viewed scripted show on sundays.

They aren't at the highs they used to be... but pretty much nobody is.

TV is FAR more diverse then it used to be.   It's much harder to get a good nielson rating now a days.

For an example.  NCIS was the top show of last year... and it did about half of what Cheers did when the Simpsons first season ran.

Yup, those huge media companies screwed themselves over good.  I guess all their short term thinking came back to bite them in the ass.

Well Sundays for the 4 main networks are kinda a disaster these days. NBC has football so that gets gigantic ratings, but every other network is suffering especially with the cable competition. Like the Breaking Bad finale aired a few weeks ago and pulled in very large ratings and now The Walking Dead will start and that will also pull in big ratings and all these shows are hurting ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC. But it should be noted that the Simpsons is hardly ever the top show of the night. In terms of scipted programming, Sundays belonged to ABC for many years in the days of Desperate Housewives and then last year as well, ABC's Once Upon a Time was winning the night in the 18-49 demo. Now ABC is doing quite badly, and CBS always has problems on Sundays. Fox does averagely as well as both The Simpsons and Family Guy are in decline. 

That is true, but you can't compare the ratings of today to the ratings of shows many years ago. Now people watch shows online, or on their DVR's and plus there are hundreads more cable channels now competing with the 4 main networks.

NCIS was the top show in total viewers, but total viewer numbers don't affect the renewal or cancellation of a show at all; its always the 18-49 demo that dictates a shows advertising rates and ultimately the renewal decision. 

You can see from this table the ad rates for different shows for Fall 2012. Although those rates are 1 year late now and most shows have seen a decline in ratings with the exception of a few like The Voice and The Big Bang Theory. 

http://gaia.adage.com/images/bin/image/how-much-does-30-seconds-1300px.jpg

As you can see, although NCIS was No.1 in total viewers, it charges very average advertising rates cause its extremely old skewing and advertisers don't care for old viewers.