15 Fascinating IMDb Statistics About Your Favourite TV Shows

12. The Last Great Simpsons Episode Was In 1997

Simpsons The City of New York vs Homer Simpson
Fox

The Simpsons isn't as highly-rated as you might think on IMDb. The show as a whole is only 8.7, which is likely due to how many bad years it's now had compared to great ones, but it'd be fair to assume it'd had the odd high spot in the last 20 years.

Not so, because the last great episode - if we use the metric of a 9+ rating as being great - came way back in 1997, with Season 9's opener The City of New York vs Homer Simpson (which has a 9.1 rating). Season 9 is frequently cited as the beginning of the show's decline, and given no subsequent episode would ever reach such heights there is some truth in that.

Few episodes of The Simpsons have reached massive ratings though, and the show has a range of scores few series can match (it helps that it's had over 600 episodes): the highest is Homer's Enemy on 9.3 (let's not get into the fact that absolutely shouldn't be higher than the likes of Last Exit To Springfield, You Only Move Twice, Marge vs The Monorail, and King Size Homer), while the absolute worst is Season 23's Lisa Goes Gaga on 4.2, which is actually totally fair.

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Contributor

NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.