• They certainly have enough episodes to pull it off. One of News Corp.’s greatest pieces of entertainment could eventually become a franchise all its own. With the series likely to pass the 500-episode mark with its upcoming 23rd season, Fox is reportedly talking about a long-term plan for the franchise, involving a cable network of its own. Obviously, they wouldn’t be able to do this right away — most of the series is embedded in long-term syndication deals — but once those expire, a single network approach might prove to be more financially sound as the series reaches its point of quarter-life crisis. So how would this work, anyway? Let’s do a quick number breakdown:

• 245 length, in hours, of the series’ current 486 episodes, plus “The Simpsons Movie,” with commercials
• 10.2 number of days that would manage to fill up, including commercials, before you’d run into a show repeat
• 35.7 number of times the network would cycle through every single episode, plus a movie, in a single year source

• » So, what do you guys think? Is a network built around a single show, even one as diverse and far-reaching as “The Simpsons,” something you’d watch? Or would it be like the original MTV — where everyone loved the idea of it, but didn’t necessarily stick with it? We’re not sure, but there are probably some pretty killer OWN Network jokes they could make if Fox did this.

Posted by Ernie Smith • Permalink