Happy 10-Year Anniversary to the ‘Every.Simpsons.Ever.’ Marathon
Ten years ago today, the television world went from “I can’t believe The Simpsons is still on the air…” to “I can’t believe The Simpsons is still on the air!” with one glorious, nostalgic, record-breaking binge watch.
On August 21, 2014, the newly founded basic cable channel FXX, a comedy-focused expansion of FX Networks, launched their plan to drum up viewership, celebrate their acquisition of syndication rights for the The Simpsons and make television history with the start of a 12-day marathon of every Simpsons episode ever made up until that point, including a bonus airing of The Simpsons Movie. The 552-episode-long event broke the record for the longest consecutive TV marathon ever (not counting the commercial interruptions) as superfans and their families raced to the couch in order to catch their favorite Golden Age episodes during the “Every.Simpsons.Ever.” spectacular.
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A decade later, the idea of a commercial-laden, basic cable binge watch of The Simpsons seems quaint considering how Disney (who now own both FXX and The Simpsons) has the entire Simpsons catalog available for streaming on its Disney+ platform, but back in the summer of 2014, “Every.Simpsons.Ever.” united the show’s constantly squabbling fandom for 12 unforgettable days — or, at least, until the marathon reached the Jerkass Homer era.
“Every.Simpsons.Ever.” was an immediate success for FXX, with the channel tripling its audience literally overnight upon the launch of the marathon as FXX became the home of the single most unmissable event on television during the late summer viewership slump. Obviously, most Simpsons fans didn’t watch every single episode, seeing as the 4:30 a.m. timeslot is daunting for even the most die-hard fans despite how enticing “Mr. Plow” may be. Nevertheless, the promise of around-the-clock Simpsons episodes brought the fandom out in full force to spend entire evenings on their favorite seasons and see the custom promos and bumpers created for the historic celebration.
Unfortunately for FXX’s place in the history books, the success of “Every.Simpsons.Ever.” quickly inspired copycats, and, in early 2015, VH1 Classics slapped together a similar marathon for Saturday Night Live reruns that broke FXX’s record by seven days. However, FXX enjoyed the experiment enough to launch “The Simpsons 600 Marathon” in 2016, which celebrated the 600th episode of The Simpsons and included the entire catalog through the newest season — though, this time, they skipped The Simpsons Movie.
The last FXX Simpsons marathon took place in 2019 with “Plus+Size Holiday Marathon,” which the channel began on the 30th anniversary of the airing of the show's first ever episode, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire." However, 2019 was also the year that Disney acquired 21st Century Fox, FX Networks and The Simpsons, and FXX hasn’t aired a single marathon since.
Of course, Simpsons fans can (and often do) host their own private Simpsons marathon thanks to the show’s streaming library, but there’s just something special about watching your favorite episode knowing that hundreds of thousands of fans are doing the exact same.
