The Simpsons are an animated television program that was created by Matt Groening. It is broadcasted by Fox Network. In New Zealand it is on 5:00pm Weekdays, 7:00pm Saturday and 7:00-8:00pm Sundays. On Sundays at 7:30pm there is a new episode of The Simpsons from the new seasons that have just been created. 5:00 pm is the perfect time slot for children and teenagers because it is the time when they are all back at home from a hard day therefore they watch television to relax. Not only does this mean they see The Simpsons are been watched but also the adverts that are on during The Simpsons. This means that it is a huge potential market time slot for adverts because a majority of people are watching it and also because it is before dinner time which is the perfect time to advertise food adverts such as Pizza Hut, Dominoes, Food in a minute, etc. I personally believe that The Simpsons are enjoyable to everyone no matter what age you are, because for younger children it attracts them with animation and the funny actions of the character. Even if the children don’t understand the humor there are funny lines such as “D’oh” which the children laugh at. The older people such as teenagers (13-21) will simply enjoy the humor and the characters because the characters are made to relate to everyone and so that people can like them.
TAGS (Target Audience Grouping System), the group that are outlined in the show are the next generation, young hopefuls, comfortable full nesters, affluent acquire and struggling young families. The young hopefuls aged 15-24 and the next generation aged 10-14 are outlined because they are two young groups who are huge media consumers, therefore they would watch The Simpsons and love it because it will be entertaining and humorous for them. It is a PG (Parental Guidance) rated television program because it only contains low level of animated violence, low offensive language and sexual references. The relation between all five groups is that the humor can be enjoyed and loved by everyone because there is a character or drama that everyone can relate to.
There are many characters in The Simpson that everyone can relate to even through the difference of race, religion, personality and class. There is the friendly neighbor Ned Flanders and his family who are devoted Christians, Comic Book Guy for the nerds, Mr. Burns for the rich, Krusty the Clown who’s Jewish, etc. The Simpsons has a wide variety of characters match the multi cultural world that is today. The wider variety means wider audience that watches the program therefore proving to be very vital for television as it attracts huge amounts of audience.
There are many methods which can be used to record the amount of people watching The Simpsons, such as people meter, online polls, on demand, competition and merchandise. People meter will determine what age, gender and age the person in the household that is watching The Simpsons. The online polls can relate to The Simpsons with questions such as “Who is your favourite character” this shows the amount of audience and the characters that audience likes which can help with merchandise. Merchandise can show which characters are loved most and how famous the program is determined on the amount of merchandise that is purchased.
The Simpsons have been on for longer than 20 years now but also the ratings are dropping on the program. The reason of the decrease in views is because of all the other programs that are on these days that are funnier and more entertaining such as Family Guy and South Park. There was even a Cartoon Wars and South Park came first overall. Although this been said The Simpsons is still a very popular program that is and still will be loved in the years to come.
