It's been over a month since we released our new format. Our trial period comes to an end, today, one month earlier than planned. This is because we've seen enough. You love the news focus, I love the news focus, lawyers love the news focus, so we're staying for at least another year. Our daily visitors have doubled since the change, and have shown no signs of decline.

First thing to do would be to finish the site. The Old News section now includes all news from 1997 to 2002. For the most recent old news, your best bet is to use the quicklinks at the bottom of this page. Another temporary change occured today, with the addition of Christmas images.

If you noticed the decline in updates this week, so did we! Don't worry, we were watching! We'll always be here. If there's no news, then there's no news to be reported. Keep checking back daily for all the latest.

It was close, but the Pennsylvania miners wound up besting the Martin & Lewis story in Sunday's battle of the 9-11 p.m. original telefilms. And for all the sweep specials, Fox's 8 p.m. mainstay, The Simpsons, was still the most-watched program overall on Sunday. Simpsons combined with an NFL overrun helped Fox win the night in the adults 18-49 demo (a 5.9 rating/14 share), while ABC prevailed in viewers (15.6 million), according to preliminary estimates from Nielsen Media Research. Simpsons averaged 17.5 million viewers and a 7.9/18 in adults 18-49, which carried the day for Fox despite the significant slide registered at 8:30 p.m. by "King of the Hill" (13.1 million, 5.9/13) and at 9 p.m. by "Malcolm in the Middle" (9.9 million, 4.2/9). Read More >>>

If you missed the airing of the Conan O'Brien Show with Harry Shearer and Dan Castellaneta, the interview is now available for download. This is also a good opportunity for people in those countries who do not get the show to hear what the two Simpsons stars had to say. The file is 4.5mb and in mp3 format, meaning only the audio is available. The segment runs for just under 10 minutes and the two sample their various character voices throughout the interview. The two also talk about guest voices on the show, namely Michael Jackson and Keith Richards. Click Here To Download >>>

Last week on November 14th we reported that Simpsons Skateboarding for Playstation 2 is in stores. Before you RUSH out and purchase a copy, you might want to read what IGN had to say about the game. Scoring the all-embarassing grade of 2.5 out of 10, it would appear that Simpsons Skateboarding has crashed and burned just one week after hitting the stores. The final word given by reviewer David Smith is: "Not fun, and not funny. Thus, this game fails on both levels -- Simpsons and skateboarding." I guess a good Simpsons game was too much to ask for.

Just a quick heads up that North Americans can see Simpsons voice actors Harry Shearer and Dan Castellaneta as guests on NBC's "Conan O'Brien Show" tonight. Enjoy!

To celebrate The Simpsons 300th episode next year, Bart Simpson is going to try to divorce his parents. The show, now in its 14th season will hit the landmark episode next February. Bart finds out that Homer has squandered the small fortune that Bart made by appearing in a commercial for a product called Baby-Stink-Breath when he was just two-years-old, says Simpsons executive producer, Al Jean. An enraged Bart goes to court to cut ties to his family, citing irreconcilable differences.

Details of the future episode came out Monday night at a rare gathering of all six of the shows' main actors - Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer - during a taping of Bravo's "Inside the Actor's Studio." The Bravo show, in which actors discuss their careers and offer acting tips to drama students, is slated to air the same night as the 300th "Simpsons" episode. Read More >>>

It’s all too common for students to zone out from work on Sunday nights to devote attention to The Simpsons. Across the globe, people of all ages have welcomed America's most beloved family into their living rooms. On Friday, students will get a firsthand look at the show when its original producer and occasional writer Mike Reiss speaks at Freeborn Hall. Minds will be brewing with new truths about the Simpson clan. If you claim to be a fan of the show, there’s no excuse to miss Reiss as he spills details of scripts, secrets, and gossip about celebrity guests. There will be a rare presentation of unaired footage and opportunities for questions. Read More >>>

Little Miss Springfield has lost her flashy clothes and has gone for a more creative and modern look. The site, which is one of the best character dedications on the web, contains a new design which is consistant throughout, using lighter shades of color. All of the same content that you know and have come to love is still there.

Last Exit To Springfield has made some minor modifications to its design.

"Neuroscientists—normally a reserved group—were laughing at William M. Kelley's presentation. He wasn't upset, however. The researcher had just shown the scientists a clip from the sitcom Seinfeld to illustrate how his group investigates the brain's response to humor. With the aid of Jerry Seinfeld and his friends, as well as the animated characters of the cartoon The Simpsons, Kelley and his colleagues have found that different brain regions spark with activity when a person gets a joke versus when he or she reacts to it." Read More >>>

UK: BBC2 has been forced to extend the deadline to find a replacement for flagship series The Simpsons after producers failed to come up with the goods. Jane Root, the channel's controller, admitted she was "frustrated" by the quality of ideas subbmitted to replace the animated comedy. The channel regularly attracts ratings of up to 3m for The Simpsons and needs to find a show with popular appeal. BBC lost The Simpsons to Channel 4 earlier this year following a fierce bidding war. The Simpsons will not move to Channel 4 until early 2004, but the search has already begun for a replacement so that different ideas can be piloted over the course of the next year. Read More >>>

You've wrestled, you've bowled, you've opened a taxi service... now it's time to test your skateboarding skills. The Simpsons Skateboarding is available in North American stores today, after being available in the United Kingdom since October. The game which is exclusive to Playstation 2 revolves around the Annual Skate Tour which has arrived in Springfield. The entire town has gone skate crazy on the half-pipes, ramps and rails. Bart Simpson is the favorite to win the whopping Mega-bucks prize of $99, but Homer, Krusty and many others are going to show just what they're capable of when money's at stake.

More info on the game can be found at IGNPS2 and the Official Site or if you'd like to buy it online, EB World and Amazon are selling now.

The Sun: Cartoon favourite Marge Simpson is to get breasts as big as Pamela Lee — after a boob by a plastic surgeon. Marge goes for a nip-and-tuck operation to get rid of fat in a bid to make hubby Homer fancy her again. But the surgeon mistakenly gives her breast implants and she comes out looking like a Playboy model. Soon she lands a modelling deal and ends up flashing her boobs at the residents of Springfield. Read More >>>

The Sun also has some exclusive Simpsons logos and ringtones for Nokia mobile phone owners in the United Kingdom. Click here for further details.

Guest stars rocked 14th season premiere of The Simpsons. The episode featured a who's who of music superstars, including Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, Elvis Costello, Tom Petty, Lenny Kravitz and Brian Setzer. As the series closes in on 300 episodes, more than a hundred celebrity guest voices have been featured. Some, of course, work better than others. Many fans complain that celebrity-filled episodes are usually pretty lame. However, some celebs belong in Springfield. Setting aside semi-regulars Kelsey Grammer (as evil Sideshow Bob) and the late Phil Hartman, Jam! Showbiz has selected the top 10 guest stars in the show's long history. Read The Article >>>

The first time promoter David Fishof organized the Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy Camp, Jay Leno suggested you could get a better return on your five thousand bucks by checking into the Betty Ford Center, where you'd be certain to meet a higher caliber of rock star.

On Sunday, the second time Fishof held the event, he bumped up against another taunting celebrity: Homer Simpson. In the season premiere of "The Simpsons," which aired on the camp's opening night, Homer attended a rock 'n' roll fantasy camp at which fans were drawn to every manner of rock vanity, right down to the ethos of stuffing your pants to attract groupies. Read More >>>

"Britain is following America and becoming a nation of Homer Simpsons, guzzling fizzy drinks and stuffing our faces full of chocolate at astonishing rates. According to new figures, our little island consumes more chocolate and soft drinks than any of our healthier continental neighbours. In fact, the amount of chocolate stuffed into Britain's waistline last year, represented 30% of that sold across Europe and experts say it's an upward trend that is set to continue."

Nick Laws was unavailable for comment. Read More >>>

New sites are rolling in at the moment. The latest site which opened yesterday is simply titled The Simpsons: An Unofficial Site. Combining the efforts of Matty from The Simpsons Halloween Special Site and Chris from Duff'N Pretzels, "The Simpsons" contains an official-site-esque design and the best content from both of the sites. So far the site is only 50% complete, but it's bound to get better as soon as more content is added.

Springfield Indulgence has another new design. Still nothing groundbreaking but an improvement all the same.

For a final note, if you would like to see what people thought of last night's new episode How I Spent My Strummer Vacation, or post your own review, check out the following thread at the No Homers Club and the bitch session at The Springfield Message Board.

"America's long, national nightmare is nearly over. After a painful, 169-day hiatus, new episodes of The Simpsons finally return to Fox TV Sundays at 8:00 P.M. Eastern. The characters who debuted in animated shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show in April 1987 launch their 14th season on November 10. The Simpsons now ties The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet as history's longest-running comedy series. How has it flourished so long? The Simpsons's knack for making viewers laugh out loud is obvious. However, among its secret ingredients, intellectual rigor is key. The uninitiated still assume The Simpsons is a children's cartoon show. In reality, it is both incredibly adult and, I sincerely believe, television's single most intelligent offering today." Read More >>>

Another Simpsons website rises from the grave today. The long awaited return of Destination: Springfield has arrived. The site is now hosted at the domain 'homerize.com' and sports a brand new design/color scheme. For those who haven't seen the site before, it focuses mainly on images. That includes pics, framegrabs, scenes, color-ins, and wallpaper. Good to see sites opening rather than closing lately.

After creator Matt Groening's conflicting comments earlier this year, the fate of The Simpsons looked unsure. Now, as Bart and his cartoon clan enter their 14th season — debuting Sunday at 8 pm/ET on Fox — the picture is clearer. "Realistically, the way it works, the actors are signed to do season 15, which starts a year from now," exec producer Al Jean tells TV Guide Online. "I don't see why that won't happen." Read More >>>

Canoe.ca: As any fan knows, Homer can't get no satisfaction. The same can't be said of Joel Cohen, the Calgary writer who has helped put the "Doh!" in the animated icon's mouth for three years now. In Sunday's official Simpsons season opener, the family encounter a who's who of dinosaur rockers, including Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. For Cohen, that meant a chance to rub elbows with the aging music gods. "I kind of met Mick," said Cohen. "You have the recording studio and next to it, the engineering room. So you'll have people drop in to watch the stars record, depending on who they are. When Mick was there, the room was jam-packed. He didn't shake hands or show pictures of his family or anything." Read more on Joel's experience >>>

FYI: In our November 5th update "FOX Plays Scary Game", Philly.com asked readers to decide what they’d rather watch: The Simpsons or the NFL. The results are in, and the vote goes to The Simpsons, by a 3 to 1 edge.

Rolling Stone magazine is paying tribute to The Simpsons by featuring them on its cover. The magazine is marking the start of the show's fourteenth series by releasing three different covers with the characters on famous album sleeves. The first one shows Bart as the baby on Nirvana's Nevermind. The second features Homer as Bruce Springsteen on the cover of Born In The USA. The third shows The Simpsons as The Beatles on the cover of Abbey Road. All three covers have been designed by Simpsons creator Matt Groening himself. The covers can be seen below.



• Don't miss RollingStone.com's Simpsons Make Rock History section >>>

Another ratings report, this one sums it all up. E! Online has posted its Neilsen ratings summary, and The Simpsons cracked the top 10 for the prime-time week ended Sunday. The 14th season debut Treehouse Of Horror XIII was watched by 16.7 million diehard fans, landing the show in tenth position on Neilsen's ratings meter. In contrast, NBC's Scrubs and Will And Grace landed in eighth and ninth positions respectively. This definitely looks good for the future of the show, lets see if ratings can remain consistent next week. Go here for a full rundown of the week's ratings.

FOX's broadcast of Sunday's San Francisco-Oakland game came close to ticking off fans of "The Simpsons." In endless commercials broadcast throughout the earlier Eagles-Bears game, Fox promoted the cartoon's season-opening "Treehouse of Horrors XII" episode. The show was to begin at 7:30 p.m., right after the West Coast game. But choke-artist 49ers kicker Jose Cortez shanked a gimme at the end of regulation, and the game dragged into OT. Cortez eventually redeemed himself, winning the game with a 23-yarder. But by then, it was 7:35 p.m. Fox then filled the next five minutes with enough plugs to float the Titanic. And then, it joined "The Simpsons" in progress. Read More >>>

Even without the World Series, FOX was able to handily win Sunday night in North America, thanks to a couple of series premieres and the Simpsons Halloween special. The Simpsons' "Treehouse of Horror XIII," 8.9/13, and the season premiere of King of the Hill, 7.0/10, were tops at 8 p.m. The rating numbers for The Simpsons was the best start for the series in five years. Overall, the network raked in a 7.8 rating/12 share, but its competitors weren't far behind. Read More >>>

A new site called Springfield A&M has opened. This site provides both multimedia and informative content, and their design is quite unique. Although there is not much content there currently, the owner says there is much to come. This site looks very promising in my eyes, and is very much needed due to all of the current sites closing their doors due to C&D's and loss of interest.

Seen the new "Treehouse of Horror XIII" episode? Want to comment on it? Well, feel free to express your opinion regarding it (or read the other critiques) at the No Homers Club and Springfield Message Board, two of the most popular Simpsons forums online. And while I'm at it, here's what our staff thought of the first new Simpsons episode in months.

Eric's Grade: B+    ||    Ryan's Grade: A    ||    Adam's Grade: B

A Hitchhiker's Guide to Springfield returns to the web after a short absence at a new URL, roundspringfield.com. The site moved domains to elude the FOX lawyers, after changing names not that long ago because of a C&D they had receieved. They continue their excellence with a big staff, innovative multimedia, and daily updates.

It's been just over a week since we launched with our new format. So are we staying? If things continue like this, we most certainly will. I am making this post to discuss some of the goings on here at The Simpsons Channel right now.

13 updates in this period of time is a record for us, and one that has been achieved with the commitments of long time staff member Eric Wirtanen and a brand new addition to the staff, Ryan Beland. You should be seeing more posts from these guys over the trial period and hopefully beyond!

I've become concerned with the amount of news already being knocked off the front page, so at the bottom of the site is a new link: Archived news. This is automatic and will display the latest news if you missed it. Just one of the ways we're trying to make The Simpsons Channel your source for Simpsons news.

Bart and Homer Simpson are coming to town. The pair will be the guests of honour at Huddersfield's Christmas lights switch-on. More than £15,000 will be spent on illuminations to get the town's shoppers into the festive spirit.

Huddersfield town centre manager David Wyles said: "There will be additional lights on lower King Street, to illuminate the area between the Kingsgate Centre and The Yards." A day of entertainment is planned on the piazza in the build-up to the big switch-on on Saturday, November 16. Bart and Homer will meet youngsters throughout the day at Peters department store before the big switch-on at 6pm. Read More >>>

Citizen Times: At first, 32-year-old photographer Bo Post didn't want to go on the record badmouthing "The Simpsons." "If I tell you my name and that I don't like The Simpsons, I'm going to get nasty phone calls because most everyone watches it," she said. At 8:00 on November 3, a good deal of fans will be sitting down for the annual Halloween episode, which unofficially kicks off the show's 14th season. The official premiere runs Nov. 10.

Even at 14, the show's humor is hardly adolescent, and its popularity doesn't fade. College students and young adults who started watching the animated series in its 1990 debut season are now in their 30's and 40's. They have families, jobs and concerns outside the realm of cartoons. But they still watch reruns, quote lines from a variety of characters and analyze the show's unprecedented run. Once criticized for a lack of family values by both Barbara and George Bush, The Simpsons have evolved into an accepted and often applauded satire on a blue-collar American family. Read More >>>

Zap2it: Following on the heels of young fans of The Simpsons, Burger King is now putting Treehouse of Horror-inspired toys in Big Kids and Kids Meals. They are also giving the Whopper a make-over a la Homer. As of Yesterday, those in search of a heart attack wrapped in tissue paper can get the Homer Simpson X-treme Bacon & Cheese Whopper consisting of a burger piled with four-and-a-half strips of bacon, two slices of American cheese plus on slice of smoked cheddar cheese. Read More >>>

Hexam Courant: Football fans don't usually like seeing yellow cards, but 10-year-old Newcastle United fan, James Pattison was prepared to make an exception when he led ten of his friends and family on to the hallowed turf of the UK national sports centre at Bisham Abbey. For the "card" in question was the cartoon hero Bart Simpson! A meeting with Bart and his dysfunctional family was part of James's prize when he won a back-to-school competition at Marks & Spencer. Read More >>>

The MegaStar UK site is currently giving away five copies of "The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horrors" on DVD! All you have to do is answer one simple question and you could win a Simpsons DVD packed with some of the show's best Halloween episodes. Read More >>>

SL Tribune: It is almost a rule that the quality of long-running television shows swirls down the toilet after three or four seasons. Not the Simpsons. The half hour animated show is a clasic, a staple that has remained as true to its roots and is as ingeniously funny today as it was when the Simpson family first appeared in 1987. Now the show opens its 14th season Sunday with its 13th Halloween episode. Read More >>>

The Scotsman: British Prime Minister Tony Blair is being lined up to follow Ringo Starr, Bill Gates and Buzz Aldrin in accepting the highest honour Americans can bestow - an invitation to appear in The Simpsons. Blair, who has confessed the US cartoon programme is often watched at No10, has been asked by its executive producers to be the next guest voice. Read More >>