The Simpsons Renewed Through Season 30, Setting New Record
All main cast members are coming back.
Fox has renewed The Simpsons for two more seasons, bringing the longrunning animated show through seasons 29 and 30. After Season 30, there will be 669 episodes in all, surpassing Gunsmoke (635 episodes) to become the most for any scripted TV show in history.
Additionally, all the main cast members are coming back for the new seasons, including Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria, and Harry Shearer. Last year, it was reported that Shearer, who voices Ned Flanders and Mr. Burns (among other characters), would not return for Seasons 27 and 28, but that later turned out not to be true.
The Simpsons is currently on its 28th season, which began in September. The show is averaging 7.2 million viewers per episode, spread across live TV and other platforms, Fox said. Episode 600, a Treehouse of Horror chapter that saw Frank Grimes get resurrected, was the biggest so far this year, picking up 9.9 million viewers.
"This is yet another record-setting moment for what is truly a landmark series," Fox TV CEO executives Dana Walden and Gary Newman said in a joint statement. "The Simpsons has meant so much to the network, the studio and everyone at Fox, and its continued cultural impact around the globe is a testament to the combined brilliance of [creator Matt Groening], [producer James L. Brooks], and [showrunner Al Jean]. And to the millions of Simpsons fans around the world, thank you for watching all these years. We're happy to tell you there’s lots more to come."
Starting on Thanksgiving Day (November 24), FXX will air the first 600 episodes of The Simpsons as part of a 13-day marathon. According to FXX, this is the longest marathon in the history of television, surpassing the previous record of 552 back-to-back episodes in 2014, also for The Simpsons.
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-simpsons-renewed-through-season-30-setting-new/1100-6445125/
