They’ll never stop The Simpsons. Have no fear, they haven’t had stories in years, but as long as Fox keeps locking 100 monkeys using 100 typewriters in a windowless room to churn out scripts, The Simpsons will keep getting renewed, as it did on Friday for a record 26th season. That would put the longest-running scripted show of all-time at 574 episodes, or more than South Park and King of the Hill‘s episode count COMBINED.
The Simpsons is older than I am, so I literally can’t imagine a world without Moleman in it. Neither can a lot of people, apparently: according to EW, last Sunday’s premiere “was the top-rated broadcast network entertainment program on Sept. 29 among 18-to-49-year-olds and grew 12 percent from the season 24 debut.” Those ratings are more than perfectly cromulent, and it’s unlikely any show will ever approach The Simpsons‘ episode-count number. You’ll see why when you look at the 10 other longest running primetime shows currently on TV.
1. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: 322 episodes
2. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: 297 episodes
3. South Park: 239 episodes
4. NCIS: 236 episodes
5. Two and a Half Men: 226 episodes
6. Family Guy: 211 episodes
7. Grey’s Anatomy: 199 episodes
8. Criminal Minds: 188 episodes
9. How I Met Your Mother: 187 episodes
10. Supernatural: 172 episodes
JUST outside of the top-10 is American Dad!, which gives me an excuse to embed this.