Disney+ replaces 24/7 Simpsons channel with a pick-your-start playlist

Disney launched The Simpsons Stream in March 2025 as a perk for US subscribers on its Premium plan. It ran all 767 episodes from the first 35 seasons in chronological order, close to 300 hours of television, around the clock. Showrunner Matt Selman promoted it as a marathon that would be there whenever you tuned in.

In November 2025, Disney opened it up to every US subscriber, including people on the cheaper plan with ads. It sat alongside other always-on Disney+ streams such as Hits & Heroes, Throwbacks and Real Life.

The appeal was simple. Open the app, and whatever was playing in Springfield at that moment was already on, just like flipping to a rerun on local TV at dinnertime. You did not pick an episode. You got whatever was airing.

That is how many people have always watched the show. For years, The Simpsons was the rerun local stations reached for in the early evening, and cable channel FXX once aired every episode back to back over twelve days. At launch, Disney+ programming executive Gabe Lewis said fans had asked for a Simpsons stream from the very start, and that streams were a go-to for subscribers who just wanted to sit back and relax. The Simpsons Stream was the app version of that habit.

The replacement is a playlist built on Disney’s Playlists feature, which rolled out worldwide on September 15. Instead of joining a feed already in progress, you start it yourself, and it runs through a set sequence.

Some regular viewers say each session follows the same order, so they keep landing on the same familiar stretches of episodes. Disney’s own description of Playlists mentions shuffled playback, so it is not clear how much variety you will actually get.

There are upsides. You can pause, rewind, skip and fast-forward, so you will not miss a joke you talked over or tune in to the last two minutes of a favorite episode. And because Playlists are global, The Simpsons now has a nonstop-style option outside the US, where the old stream was never available.

Disney has not explained it, and its messaging has been confusing. When subscribers reported the Simpsons channel missing in July, a Disney spokesperson said it had not been removed and suggested restarting the app. When Playlists launched in September, Disney said they would not replace its live offerings, yet the examples it gave were all news: the ABC News feed plus eight streams from local ABC stations.

Disney still runs live feeds where it suits, and the 24/7 ABC News stream remains. One reading is that Disney wants to keep true live channels for news and sport, while a long-running cartoon with hundreds of episodes works fine as an on-demand list.

There is another possible factor. Reports in July said Disney was weighing a free tier of Disney+. Old episodes in a list can be tailored to each viewer and split up with commercial breaks, which would fit that kind of plan. That is speculation, not anything Disney has confirmed.

For casual viewers who just want Springfield on in the background, little changes. Press play once and episodes keep coming.

The people who lose out are those who loved the channel feeling: the sense that the TV was already on, and not knowing whether you would land on an early classic or a weaker later season. Choosing from dozens of seasons is exactly the kind of decision that sends tired viewers back to scrolling their phones, and the old stream removed it.

If you want that rerun feel back, free ad-supported services such as Pluto TV, The Roku Channel and Samsung TV Plus still run lots of linear channels, though not The Simpsons. Inside Disney+, your best bet is to start the playlist and turn on shuffle if your app offers it.

Disney+ remains the exclusive US streaming home of The Simpsons, and it has been since the service launched. Alongside the full episode library, it carries The Simpsons Movie, themed shorts tied to Star Wars and Christmas, and Disney+ exclusive episodes.

The show is not going anywhere on TV either. Fox renewed The Simpsons for four more seasons in 2025 as part of a larger deal for its animated shows, so new episodes, and more for the Disney+ library, are still coming.