Have you been able to comprehend that the nearly two-week long marathon of The Simpsons has left your TV yet? The show’s 552 episodes and movie were shown around the clock on the year-old FXX network from August 21st through Monday. I probably sat through approximately 100 of them, and that’s a low estimate. Also, I own the DVDs anyway, so what the hell kind of devil magic does this show have over us all?
The ratings suggest I wasn’t alone, with even the show’s much-maligned later seasons drawing huge ratings for cable among total viewers and especially in the key demos. It has likely changed FXX’s future in the same manner the original run of The Simpsons changed Fox’s future.
The New York Times ran a long story on just how well the marathon did. It’s worth a read just for how much America’s favorite yellow family has helped the new network, and what’s coming up for it in the future. However, there is this one crack at what FXX used to be:
FXX was ranked 49th among all cable networks in the 18-to-49 age group before the marathon. Over the last 12 nights, it jumped to third place. FXX is available in just 74 million homes, well below the 100 million or so the biggest cable networks reach.
The channel FXX sprang from the Fox Soccer Channel, which “had an asset value of nil.” Mr. Landgraf said.
From a ratings perspective, Landgraf — known as one of the more straight-shooting execs in TV — would be right. Plus, with Fox Soccer losing Premier League and MLS rights and Fox launching FS1 and FS2, there was little to no “marquee” programming left for the network following the 2013 Gold Cup. Fox will likely be happy that they’ve found a way to make the former Fox Soccer a huge profit center, while continuing to make soccer on Fox a key part of its future.
Still though, Fox has an issue with having soccer fans embracing the company as the new home for the World Cup beginning next year. Kicking dirt on the grave of Fox Soccer probably isn’t going to help that.
