How to watch The Simpsons

The Simpsons
(Image credit: Fox)

If you're wondering how to watch The Simpsons, it just got a whole lot easier – depending on where you live. On the Disney Plus streaming service, you can now watch seasons 1-30 of the show as much as you like. The service has launched in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands, with more countries getting it in 2020. 

If you want to watch all The Simpsons you can handle right now, including The Simpsons Movie, check out the free trial of Disney Plus below, which you can cancel at any time. 

Otherwise, if you want to watch new episodes of The Simpsons on Fox, read on more details on how you do that. 

How to stream The Simpsons

You'll want a Disney Plus account to stream The Simpsons (sign up here). While FX previously offered a Simpsons World app with access to every episode of the show, that recently ceased with the launch of Disney's streaming service. 

Disney Plus offers 30 seasons of the show – 662 episodes – and The Simpsons Movie from 2007. It's $6.99 per month in the US, or $69.99 for the year, and the service is currently offered in the countries mentioned at the top: the US, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand, with prices varying depending on the region. 

Hopefully, as Disney Plus reaches the UK in March 2020, we'll see the show streaming on there, too. 

If you'd rather buy the show, on iTunes and Amazon Prime in the US you can purchase The Simpsons seasons 1-31 to stream or download onto your digital device. 

How to watch The Simpsons season 31

(Image credit: Fox)

Season 31 of The Simpsons airs on Sundays on Fox at 8pm/7pm Central in the United States. That's how you can watch new episodes of the show. You can also watch recent episodes on Fox.com. It's expected that this season will be added to Disney Plus when it ends in 2020. 

Season 31 doesn't appear to have a UK airdate yet on Sky One. It's worth noting, though, that season 30 started airing in February of this year, so perhaps that's an indication of the timeframe Sky is considering for 2020. 

The Simpsons will get its original 4:3 aspect ratio on Disney Plus in 2020

(Image credit: Disney Plus)

If there's one disappointing thing about The Simpsons on Disney Plus, it's that right now you can only stream the episodes in 16:9, which means seasons 1-18 and parts of 19 have been cropped in to fit widescreen TVs. The episodes originally aired in 4:3. After a backlash from fans and the media, however, Disney eventually pledged to offer the episodes in their original aspect ratio starting in 2020.   

What are the best seasons of The Simpsons?

If you're thinking of rewatching The Simpsons on Disney Plus, you might be wondering when the so-called 'classic' years of the show aired. This generally isn't disputed too much among fans: the best seasons of The Simpsons are seasons 3-9, and it could be argued that season 2 and 10 belong in there, too, each of which have their own classic episodes (if not the consistency of years 3-9). 

You'll find individual great episodes in later years, too, but the show has been running for so long that maintaining the same consistency of those earlier seasons is clearly an impossible task. 

Oh, and if you're looking for the Steamed Hams clip above, you'll want season 7's episode 22 Short Films About Springfield. It's a classic. 

Samuel Roberts

Samuel is a PR Manager at game developer Frontier. Formerly TechRadar's Senior Entertainment Editor, he's an expert in Marvel, Star Wars, Netflix shows and general streaming stuff. Before his stint at TechRadar, he spent six years at PC Gamer. Samuel is also the co-host of the popular Back Page podcast, in which he details the trials and tribulations of being a games magazine editor – and attempts to justify his impulsive eBay games buying binges.