The Simpsons' 10 Most Desperate Attempts To Boost Ratings
6. Whodunnit? - ‘Who Shot Mr Burns?’ - S6, E25 / S7, E1
In November 1980, over three hundred million people tuned in to Dallas to find out who shot JR Ewing.
Fifteen years later, The Simpsons tried to replicate the same storyline, except this time, rather than oil baron JR, it was Nuclear Power Plant owner, Charles Montgomery Burns.
After an episode highlighting his out of hand tyranny, Mr Burns has an off-screen confrontation with someone and ends up getting shot. At the end of the Season 6 finale, regulars of the show were gathered around the unconscious Burns while Marge says everyone is a suspect.
Before the revelation, a spin-off of the popular TV show America’s Most Wanted (titled ’Springfield’s Most Wanted) went through suspects and their motivations. Fox was trying to get the whole world interested in this mystery.
While the premiere episode of Season 7 piled up evidence against Homer, it turned out to be Maggie Simpson all along in an iffy turn of events which was divisive for many viewers.
By the end of Season 6, The Simpsons was pulling in a very respectable viewership of just over 15 million (down 5 million from just eighteen months prior), so this episode can be seen as one of the first times Simpsons writers attempted to boost ratings. As for ratings, the publicity stunt was inconsequential, as by the end of Season 7 viewership was just under 15 million. The mystery was unable to prevent season decay.