Fox appears willing to shut down “The Simpsons” after more than two decades if its six core cast members don’t take a reduction of their $400,000-per-episode salary.
Here’s the thing. While “Simpsons” still does well for Fox, Fox has other shows that do well also. Plus Fox can always ask Seth McFarlane to make another one of his shitty shows to replace "The Simpsons." How “The Simpsons” ranks against other Fox fare:
FOX SHOWS 18-49
4.5 (4.8) (---) (---) New Girl
4.1 (4.4) (---) (---) The X Factor (We)
3.9 (---) (---) (---) House
3.9 (4.3) (---) (---) The X Factor (Th)
3.7 (4.0) (1.0) (---) Glee
3.5 (4.1) (---) (1.9) Family Guy
3.1 (3.1) (---) (---) Terra Nova
3.0 (3.9) (---) (2.4) The Simpsons
2.9 (3.1) (0.8) (---) Raising Hope
2.7 (3.0) (---) (---) American Dad
2.6 (3.1) (---) (---) Cleveland Show
1.7 (1.6) (1.0) (0.9) Kitchen Nightmares
1.2 (1.5) (0.6) (0.6) Fringe
--- (1.0) (1.1) (1.0) Cops
Fox can also potentially just hire a bunch of impressionists to play Bart, Apu and Mr. Burns. This could keep up the demand for “Simpsons” lunch boxes, video games and so on.
It would probably be easy enough for the voice actors to walk away. Roughly 66 “Simpsons” episodes were produced over the series’ last three full seasons; $400,000 x 66 = $26.4 million per voice actor. That’s just the last three years; the 23rd season is airing now.
Find the Hollywood Reporter’s story on the matter here.
