The Simpsons 12-day Marathon Was History-Making

Many of you may have heard about the 12-day The Simpsons Marathon on FXX that played every single episode ever of The Simpsons (including the film) all in a row without break and without apology. The marathon was in honor of FXX and their acquisition of all 552 Simpsons episodes (doesn’t hurt that FXX is owned by 21st Century Fox…) and also celebrating the first time any Simpsons episode was aired on cable.

That’s so cool, right?

Turns out this was a HUGE benefit for the fledgling FXX network in many ways, and it was huge for reinforcing the 25-year Simpsons zeitgeist as well. Check this out:

FXX is only available to a portion of the population (74 MM.) It’s not on basic cable (which is available to 100 MM) and only certain subscribers to Dish/DirectTV/Cable services have it.

FXX typically only reaches 200,000 people per evening.

FXX was typically ranked 49th out of all stations for Demo A18-49.

Over the 12 nights, FXX jumped all the way to the #1 cable network of all 105 measured cable networks for A18-49 on 3 separate nights. Since The Simpsons was the only thing on this station for 12 days this is SO cool. It speaks to the love and longevity of the show but also to the fact that marathons like these become “event programming.” People aren’t DVR’ing this, they’re tuning in to watch season 1 (1989) live! This also propelled FXX to reach the money demo with an average viewer age of 28 – one of the youngest in the TV business.

Well there’s more. The fact that FXX has moved up to the top 3 cable stations overall is even more significant because of it’s limited reach – meaning a huge share of those who have FXX watched it. This event had enormous power and draw. (Hell, it was all we watched at our house for 12 days. L-I-T-E-R-A-L-L-Y. You guys. And we felt bereft when it was over.)

Not to worry if you missed it and have FXX. Now that the kickoff marathon event is over, FXX moves to every-Simpsons-ever-forever in the form of 5 days on, 2 days off. This will be a great boost for the FXX original shows that are non-Simpsons (there are some.) And it’s a perfect opportunity to evaluate how much of The Simpsons dialog is a part of your every day vernacular.

All info courtesy of Nielsen as told to me by The New York Times. Tons more data and stats in the article.

Also, check out one of the promos FXX aired up to and while The Simpsons was on. They were all so great.