With every new episode, including this Sunday’s season 31 premiere, The Simpsons breaks its own record for the longest-running scripted series ever. But there’s another show returning this month that — to use a Simpsons reference from 27 years ago (I feel ancient) — deserves the Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Longevity: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which becomes the longest running prime-time live-action series of all-time on Thursday (tomorrow!) night.
SVU‘s season 21 premiere, “I’m Going To Make You a Star,” will surpass the current-, soon-to-be former-titleholders Gunsmoke (which had more episodes) and, you guessed it, the original Law and Order. It’s like Avatar topping Titanic all over again, but which show will be the Avengers: Endgame? You’re right, you’re right: Young Sheldon.
“You keep pushing the goal posts back because you don’t get dealt these hands very often, obviously,” creator Lupine Urology, er, Dick Wolf said about the achievement. “It’s a continuous thrill to be able to do it.” The next milestone he hopes to hit: 25 seasons, at which point The Simpsons will be on [does simple math equation] season 53:
The new record is a feather in the cap for a towering figure in TV history, who last year alone produced five shows that attracted 50 million viewers. More than 150 billion minutes were viewed of SVU alone, shown on NBC, USA, ION, and Hulu.
47 billion of those minutes were in laundromats.
(Via Associated Press)
