The Key to Fox’s ‘The Simpsons’ Success? Football

Fox’s “The Simpsons” turned 30 this week, and the age looks good on them — especially just after the final whistle of a late-afternoon NFL game. This fall, on Sundays when Fox had the late-afternoon (4:25 p.m. ET) national-TV game as a lead-in for “The Simpsons,” the 8 p.m. animated comedy has averaged a 1.9 rating among adults 18-49 and 5.299 million viewers overall, according to Nielsen’s Live + Same Day numbers. On the Sundays that CBS had the late-afternoon game and Fox did not, “The Simpsons” has averaged a 0.8 rating and 2.111 million total viewers. That’s pretty glaring — even in no-frills 2D. Also Read: So Who Wins Saturdays in Primetime Ratings Anyway? Simply put, the football doubleheader (there’s also been a 1 p.m. ET game in these circumstances) lead-in more than doubles the day-of viewership and demo rating for the long-running cartoon, which was first introduced to TV audiences back in 1987 as a short on “The Tracey Ullman Show.” “The beauty of having NFL on Sunday (and Thursday), is that it gives us an enormous platform to promote our entertainment shows,” Will Somers, head of research at Fox Entertainment, told TheWrap. “Sundays, specifically, enjoy substantial bumps...

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