A 26th season of the ever-popular cartoon series, The Simpsons, has been confirmed by Fox, as reported by Sky News. What has become America's longest running television show ever will now continue "with no end in sight," according to producer Al Jean.

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The 25th season premiered in the US on Sunday with a well-timed Homeland spoof, entitled 'Homerland' and attracted 6.4 million viewers and will draw in a worldwide audience with later DVD releases and TV airings.

The news follows last week's announcement that the show will kill off one of its characters in the upcoming 25th season. Though it may have seemed like Al Jean gave a major clue when he said "the actor playing the character won an Emmy for playing that character, but I won't say who it is," the show has in fact won 25 Primetime Emmy awards in its long history for the voices of Hank Azaria (Moe, Apu, Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy) and Dan Castellaneta (Homer, Krusty, Barney), and many others too.

Jean also indicated that there might be a Simpsons/Futurama crossover in the works, which will no doubt excite ardent fans of either animated show. "We had a read yesterday where the excitement was as high as I've ever seen. We had John DiMaggio and Billy West and Maurice LaMarche from Futurama, as well as our cast, and I thought that's got to be the greatest voiceover talent assembled at one read. It was really, really great to see Bender interacting with Homer."

Fox's chairman of entertainment Kevin Reilly spoke of his enthusiasm for boundless more Simpsons action: "It's one of the greatest sitcoms of our time, and I'm looking forward to yet another landmark season." Broadcast in more than 100 countries in 50 languages, the show has become one of the world's favourite TV programmes; a testament to the longevity of its loveable and hilarious yellow characters.

With The Simpsons Season 25 currently airing, fans can look forward to the annual spooky episode, 'Treehouse of Horror XXIV' next Sunday.

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