The twenty-second season of the American animated television series The Simpsons began airing on Fox on September 26, 2010 and ended on May 22, 2011. The series was renewed for two additional seasons during the twentieth season leading up to this season. The season was produced by Gracie Films and 20th Century Fox Television. On November 11, 2010, the series was renewed for a twenty-third season by Fox with 22 episodes. The season received positive reviews. It was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards. It was also nominated for three Writers Guild of America Awards and won one.

Voice cast & characters

Main cast

Supporting cast

Guest stars for the season included actors Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Amber Riley, businessman Mark Zuckerberg, baseball manager Mike Scioscia, sports writer Bill James, Hugh Laurie, Daniel Radcliffe, race car driver Danica Patrick, Rachel Weisz, businesswoman Martha Stewart, Jon Hamm, Alyson Hannigan, Kristen Wiig, actors Halle Berry, Ricky Gervais, Tommy Chong, Cheech Marin, basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Paul Rudd. Joe Mantegna continued his recurring role as Fat Tony.

Episodes

Production

This season and the previous season were ordered in February 2009. Al Jean remained as showrunner, a role he had since the thirteenth season. Seven episodes were holdovers from the previous season. This season featured the first and only episode, "Homer Scissorhands," co-written by Steve Viksten prior to his death. The season ended with an invitation for the viewers to decide whether or not Ned Flanders would continue dating Edna Krabappel. Executive producer Al Jean said that the writers were not interesting in having another relationship end by the episode's end, and they wanted to see what viewers thought about the characters with disparate personalities.

Reception

Ratings

This season ranked 68th among overall viewers and thirtieth among viewers between the ages of 18 and 49. The season averaged 7.28 million viewers in the overall viewership with an average of 3.3 rating/9% share in the demographic meaning that the season was watched by an average of 3.3% of households and 9% average of all televisions were tuned to the season when it was broadcast.

Critical response

The A.V. Club reviewer Rowan Kaiser rated the season with a B, tying for the second highest rated season of "Animation Domination" with the seventh season of American Dad! and beating the ninth season of Family Guy, which received a C+. It was defeated by the inaugural season of Bob's Burgers, which received a B+. Liam Gaughan of MovieWeb thought the season was an improvement after a reduction in quality since the tenth season. He highlighted the more experimental episodes, better parodies, and creatively incorporating celebrities into the story.

Awards and nominations

At the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards, the episode "Angry Dad: The Movie" was nominated for Outstanding Animated Program, actor Dan Castellaneta was nominated for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance, and musician Alf Clausen was nominated for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series. At the 64th Writers Guild of America Awards, writer Joel H. Cohen won Outstanding Writing: Animation for "Homer the Father." Writers Rob LaZebnik and Chris Cluess were also nominated.