The Simpsons season 26
The Simpsons' twenty-sixth season aired from 2014 to 2015.
The twenty-sixth season of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons aired on Fox from September 28, 2014, to May 17, 2015. The season was ordered by Fox on October 4, 2013, and was produced by Gracie Films and 20th Century Fox Television. It was primarily showrun by Al Jean, and in May 2015 the series was renewed for a twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth season.
Quick Facts
- Season number
- 26
- Showrunner
- Matt Selman (4 episodes); Al Jean
- Network
- Fox
- First aired
- 28 September 2014
- Last aired
- 17 May 2015
- Episodes
- 22
Facts from the source article.
Production
The production order for this season came in October 2013. Seven episodes were carried over from earlier seasons, with six from the previous one and one from the twenty-fourth. Al Jean remained the primary showrunner, continuing a role he had held since season thirteen, while Matt Selman also acted as showrunner for several episodes, a position he had taken on starting with season twenty-three. Two writers left the show after this season: Valentina L. Garza, whose final episode here was her last before moving to Bordertown, and Marc Wilmore, who departed for F Is for Family.
The season also included a script by filmmaker Judd Apatow, originally submitted as a spec script back in 1990. A crossover episode brought in characters from Matt Groening’s Futurama, written by that series’ writer J. Stewart Burns. Additionally, one hour after the season premiere, the Simpsons characters appeared in a one-hour Family Guy crossover, which was showrun by former Simpsons writer Richard Appel and directed by former Simpsons animator Peter Shin.
The holdover from season twenty-four, “The Man Who Came to Be Dinner,” was initially considered for expansion into a feature film. However, Al Jean and executive producer James L. Brooks decided the plot, which involved aliens Kang and Kodos, was too controversial for a movie, so they aired it on television to lessen the potential backlash.
Reception
During the 2014-2015 TV season, the show pulled a 2.6 rating among viewers aged 18 to 49, placing it 35th overall, and averaged 5.62 million total viewers, which was good for 100th place. Critic Matthew Poland from Slant Magazine scored the first three episodes a 2.5 out of 4, observing that the series had become predictable, with most of the creative risks now limited to the jokes and the couch gags. Gonzo Green of Bubbleblabber rated the whole season a 7.5 out of 10, praising the early episodes, the holiday specials, and the crossover with Futurama, while also admitting that some installments were awful and others relied on recycled storylines.
Looking back in 2025, Lisa Laman of ComicBook.com called season 26, along with season 18, the lowest point in the show’s history, though she noted a few artistic bright spots. At the 67th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, Hank Azaria won Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance for his role in "The Princess Guide," while Dan Castellaneta and Tress MacNeille were also nominated in the same category. The episode "Treehouse of Horror XXV" received a nomination for Outstanding Animated Program.
Re-recording mixers Tara Paul and Mark Linden were nominated for Outstanding Sound Mixing for their work on "Simpsorama." Writers Matt Selman and Michael Price earned a Writers Guild of America Award nomination for Television: Animation for episodes they wrote that season. Executive producer and writer Al Jean was nominated for an Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement for Writing in an Animated Television/Broadcast Production for his script "I Won't Be Home for Christmas."
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