Could ‘The Simpsons’ season 28 be the show’s last?

Tonight, “The Simpsons” aired its season 27 finale, and the fact that we are writing that out in itself is stunning. How did we get to a point where a show has so many seasons, it’s older than a good percentage of its viewers? The longevity for this show somehow STILL doesn’t get enough attention when you consider how much of a unicorn it is compared to the majority of other shows, which really fail at getting more than three or four years on the air.

Now, we should go ahead and ask a question that has been on our mind through the twilight weeks of season 27: Should this upcoming season, the show’s 28th on the air, be its last? One of the main reasons we bring this up is because the show has really struggled in the ratings the past few weeks; not only that, but season 27 is down from season 26 by more than 15% in the adults 18-49 metric that drives the majority of ad revenue to Fox. This is the largest drop year-to-year in a long time for “The Simpsons.”

We’re going to steer clear of discussions of quality in this article, mostly because the internet consensus, really regardless of when it is, is that the show stopped being funny “several years ago.” We do think there are still merits to it, but it no longer feels so groundbreaking in a sea of other similar shows. The biggest innovation we had was the #HomerLive experiment last week, which failed to beef up the ratings at all.

We’ll always love “The Simpsons,” and it’ll always make money. If season 28 is not the end, we of course are going to look at season 30 given that it could be a great way for it to go out. For the record, executive producer Al Jean said the following about the show’s future to The Hollywood Reporter some time ago:

“It’s quite possible that we don’t have to go through the whole negotiation for 30. I wouldn’t be stunned if we stopped at [Season] 28, but my bet is on at least [Season] 30. But then you’d have to resign them again. If you made me pick one, I’d say the likeliest is ending after 30.”

If you are interested in getting some other news when it comes to “The Simpsons,” be sure to head over to the link here! Also, sign up over here to get some other TV news on all we cover, sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: Fox.)