“The Simpsons” could have an end date in sight — at least according to one of its longtime stars.
Nancy Cartwright, who has voiced Bart Simpson since 1987, revealed that the animated sitcom may wrap after Season 40, during an appearance on Michael Rosenbaum’s “Inside of You” podcast on Tuesday.
Asked how long she thinks “The Simpsons” will be on the air, Cartwright answered, “40 [seasons].”
The show, which first aired as a standalone series in 1989 after debuting as shorts on “The Tracey Ullman Show” two years earlier, finished its 37th season in February.
Rosenbaum followed up by asking if Cartwright really thought it would stop at 40 seasons.
“Yeah,” Cartwright said, before adding, “It’s my opinion” when he pressed her on whether she was sure.
But Cartwright, who is also responsible for several other voices on the show, made clear that she is open to going beyond 40 seasons if the show wants to continue.
Rosenbaum asked what she would do if producers said, “We wanna keep going?” Cartwright joked, “Are we still alive?” before asking whether everyone else would still be around, too.
Once Rosenbaum confirmed that everyone was still working, Cartwright said, “Yeah, we’ll keep going then.”
Asked if she would stay on for as long as it wanted to continue, she replied, “Absolutely.”
Last year, Fox locked down “The Simpsons” for four more seasons as part of its “Animation Domination” slate, which also features “Family Guy,” “Bob’s Burgers” and “American Dad.”
The animation is also getting its second feature film next year, nearly 20 years after 2007’s “The Simpsons Movie.”
When “The Simpsons” hit its 800th episode earlier this year, showrunner Matt Selman told Page Six that he had never seriously expected the series to be canceled.
“There was never a point where I went to bed thinking, ‘The show is probably going to end. We’re going to have to pack it up and clean all the crap out of our offices,’” Selman said.
Selman also pointed to its arrival on Disney+ following Disney’s 2019 acquisition of 21st Century Fox as a major factor in bringing in younger viewers.
“A whole new generation of younger fans fell in love with the show and it became their favorite show,” he said.
“The Simpsons” is the longest-running American scripted primetime series in TV history, having surpassed “Gunsmoke” in 2009, and has now aired 808 episodes.
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