The Simpsons Predicted PBS Funding Cuts 23 Years In the past

It appears as if yet one more prediction by record-breaking animated sitcom The Simpsons has come to cross this 12 months, as the way forward for public TV community PBS has been thrown into doubt by federal authorities funding cuts. Earlier in 2025, Congress handed over $1 billion in cuts to the finances of the Company of Public Broadcasting (CPB).

The CPB serves as a conduit for the federal funding which has historically gone in direction of PBS, in addition to the native TV stations it companions with. Cuts to the company’s funding have began to chunk within the final two months, successfully bringing yet one more Simpsons prediction to cross within the 2020s.

Over 20 years in the past, the present featured a joke suggesting that the Republican Social gathering would attempt to put off PBS. In a way, that’s precisely what’s occurred in latest months, because it’s Republican votes in Congress supporting a invoice tabled by the White Home which eliminated authorities funding from the CPB.

The Simpsons is known for being one of many TV reveals with essentially the most future predictions to have come true, and followers of the sitcom are commonly digging up new examples of its obvious potential to divine potential occasions. Now, a single prophetic line within the episode “Brawl within the Household” has come to the eye of sure sharp-eared viewers.

The Simpsons Predicted The Republican Authorities’s Cuts To PBS Again In 2002

This season 13 episode of The Simpsons begins with a gathering of Springfield’s Republican Social gathering, during which Mr. Burns asks what’s on the agenda for the week. Krusty the Clown promptly replies, “Let’s do away with PBS!” This joke truly references the Republican Social gathering’s lengthy historical past of attempting to chop funding from public media.

Nonetheless, the joke is particularly well timed now that it appears to have predicted a historic choice from this 12 months’s new Republican authorities to take away $1.1 billion in funding from the Company of Public Broadcasting. This choice precipitated the closing down of the CPB in August 2025 (by way of NPR).

Large cuts to the PBS tv community quickly adopted (by way of The New York Instances). As of September 30, the community has reduce over 100 jobs, whereas native sister stations have seen layoffs totaling hundreds (by way of CNN).

These cuts have already resulted in a significant shakeup to the programming schedule for 2026, with a number of new period-drama masterpieces from PBS now canceled. The community had deliberate to launch authentic sequence celebrating the 250th anniversary of American independence, however these reveals will now get replaced by reruns of earlier releases.

The Federal Authorities Can’t “Get Rid” Of PBS, Although

The funding cuts to PBS and its sister stations are only one instance of the elevated politicization of American media below the second Trump administration. Earlier in October, the authorities launched an announcement criticizing the Netflix sequence Boots, a step which might have been unheard-of in occasions passed by.

Nonetheless, it’s vital to notice that the removing of federal funding from the CPB in and of itself received’t “get rid” of PBS, as Krusty the Clown demanded of the Republican Social gathering. As a result of solely a fraction of PBS funding comes from this supply, the federal authorities doesn’t even have the fiscal means to close it down.

As an alternative, essentially the most critical results of these cuts is that varied native TV stations are being compelled to shut down. Whereas additionally they threaten the way forward for PBS, as a 21% reduce in expenditure for the following 12 months signifies, this nationwide community of public broadcasting lives on to combat one other day, in the interim. The Simpsons was solely half-right.

Sources: NPR; The New York Instances; CNN