Fox threatens to cancel The Simpsons

20th Century Fox is threatening to cancel The Simpsons as part of current contract negotiations regarding the show’s 24th season.

Fox want cast members to take a 45% pay cut – going from 8 million dollars to 4 million a season – and are playing dirty, knowing full well that they can continue to make plenty of d'oh... sorry, 'dough', from the show via syndication deals.

Fox has claimed the cancellation scalps of thousands of amazing shows during Total Film’s lifetime – Arrested Development , Firefly , Futurama and The Tick to name but four – but we never thought we’d be reporting that they’re about to call time on The Simpsons .

Unlike those shows, it’s probably not going before its time, but we certainly expected America’s greatest ever sitcom to die with a little more dignity than this.

Still, maybe this'll lead to another Simpsons Movie. Or a McBain spin-off action flick. Well, we can dream can't we?

Sam Ashurst is a London-based film maker, journalist, and podcast host. He's the director of Frankenstein's Creature, A Little More Flesh + A Little More Flesh 2, and co-hosts the Arrow Podcast. His words have appeared on HuffPost, MSN, The Independent, Yahoo, Cosmopolitan, and many more, as well as of course for us here at GamesRadar+.