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Fox’s Fringe (0.9/3) was rusty in its return from hiatus, down 25% from its winter finale a month ago. It was hindered by a weak lead-in, Kitchen Nightmares (1.0/4), which was inexplicably low for an original, tied with NBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? at 8 PM. Fringe also faced atypical competition, CBS’ NCAA basketball coverage, which is expected to win the night. Or maybe Fringe fans didn’t get the memo that their show was back or were out helping make Hunger Games a rare March blockbuster. Fringe‘s time slot rival, the CW’s Supernatural (0.6/2) also hit a low, while Nikita (0.5/2) was up a tenth. ABC’s Shark Tank (1.5/5) was down 12%, but both of the network’s newsmagazines were up, leading ABC to a five-week Friday high in 18-49.
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Much as I enjoy Fringe I’m starting to think it’s just getting time to bring things to a conclusion.
With talk of having to reduce fees to try and get a fifth season, with the reduced budget issues that may entail plus the fact it just can’t get any ratings traction……………….if they can wrap it up this season it’s maybe just time to acknowledge that.
It’s like Cougar Town on ABC. I really enjoy them both and I’ll buy them on dvd/blu-ray but not enough other folks do.
Fring’s first episode, the pilot was phenomenal. They also eluded to government and corporate run conspiracies that take lives for profit and power schemes. Then the show was deliberately trashed with bad science, extremely far fetched scenarios and dragged on stupidly so that all the real conspiracy enlightenment would go out the window. They made all their money from show 1, the buy out after the first show was a payment for silence, because the real truth would destroy the corporations that run our government and “natural” phenomena. Oh, and project free tv, theres no ads. Stop paying for cable tv, if you do you are subhuman.
“Fringe hits new low”?! I’m shocked, shocked.
Maybe, just maybe, that’s because it’s bad.
It’s fair enough if you don’t personally like it – but it’s extremely unfair to accuse it of being bad – it’s got some well above average acting, some witty and imaginative narrative/scripting and it consistently displays considerable ambition. In my book that’s not ‘bad’ television. It’s unsuccessful television – in as much as it’s not getting the numbers – but ‘bad’ – no – it’s not bad.
Whatever. Ratings will always be down on a night like this.
I think Hiatus is now the word I hate the most.
When will the networks learn?
Well, that sucks. I love Fringe!… But it appears I’m the only one.
Believe me, you’re not. The outdated ratings system does not reflect how many people actually watch Fringe, or any other show on TV very well.
You don’t understand how ratings and TV works.
The total number of viewers does not matter at all, in any way, to any Network — unless they also produce the show in house. Fox does not produce Fringe, WB does. So the only thing that matters to Fox is the ratings for Adults 18-49 watching the show, because that is all advertisers will pay for. It’s the ONLY way Fox makes money on the show.
And currently, there are not enough people watching the show to make it economical for Fox – hasn’t been for a couple of seasons. It’s already a charity case.
Fox makes money from advertising. It does NOT make money from entertaining you, especially if you are outside the demographic. If you are under 18 or over 49, nobody cares what you watch — you are not a target market.
FOX got the message when it came to 24, but somehow not with FRINGE. Taking these long hiatuses with a serialized show is a BAD IDEA. Take a page from ABC’s LOST playbook: they should either run it as a fall or spring show, but stretching it out does not work. The story is too complex to recall every detail from a month ago. There were things I’d forgotten and I’ve watched the show from Season One.
I preordered and follow ‘Fringe’ on Apple TV – in a big fan of the show – but the makers of the series helped kill it by this new Peter-out-of-his-timeline arc – it never really recovered.
It’s a pity, first couple of seasons concerning Massive Dynamics, William Bell (Leonard Nimoy) and the alternate world were great – this most recent season is probably the dullest.
It’s very sad, this show could have run like 7 or 8 seasons a la X Files if they hadn’t switch Unecessary Plot gears.
Totally agree. I have loved Fringe in the past, and think John Noble has delivered some of the finest acting I’ve ever watched on the box. I’ve been an avid watcher and follower. But with Fox moving the show around, putting it on hiatus for whatever reason I’ve just lost interest. I watched – actually watched, not dvr’d on watched online – it last night at 9pm and I just found myself not caring. I hate saying that. I hate that they’ve lost a loyal follower. I missed one episode this season and now I have have no idea which timeline I’m in, which Olivia this is, or where Peter really should be….the result: Too confused, and I. Just. Don’t. Care. So sad. Such a great show on so many levels but they lost me, and I would think a lot of others.
I was going to comment on this issue, but Red, you just did it for me. Thanks.
remember how we read fringe cast and crew “rallied fans at wondercon” last week to fight for renewal?
and when cougar town went on a city by city tour screening new episodes to build word of mouth for its new season?
YEAH NONE OF THAT MEANS JACK SHIT.
Fringe is the ultimate in arrogance. They had a great, successful show its first year – then fucked with what worked, making a series so convoluted in its mythology that there are no more stakes – because nothing matters and anything can happen and rarely is there any pay-off.
Their actors say it’s “better”…. but viewers disagree. Fox should have insisted they stay on course – or replace the showrunners long ago.
I’m guessing The Hunger Games and NCAA Basketball didn’t help, either.
Agreed. And it still should be considered for airing a day other than Fridays.
Didn’t realize they were showing new episodes since they’d been giving us back to back “Reasons Why to Never Eat Out Again” shows with Screaming Chef.
And why won’t they put Fringe on Time-Warner’s OnDemand?
He has to scream in order to be heard over the string section.
I just don’t want to spend the rest of the season waiting for everyone to remember Peter. It is starting to get clustered also with all the alternates… double blair browns for example. im wafer for them to quickly pick up where they left off last season amd have some of this stuff come to a head.
Whenever I hear Fringe hits a high of any kind, I feel like tv critics are reporting on having found the world’s tallest midget. Why anybody’s fighting for Fringe when more deserving Fox shows got the ax long ago despite being less expensive, featuring better stories/characters, and having better ratings, who knows? I assume someone has naked pictures of Kevin Reilly. (Kevin, normally I’d say give them whatever they want cuz nobody needs to see those, but if it means subjecting us to a renewal of Fringe, just take the embarrassment like a grownup and move on.) I tried to watch Fringe from the beginning after being told it was a successor of sorts to the X Files of which I was a big fan. I still haven’t recovered from the boredom. It’s not the fact that it’s serialized. It’s that it’s bad. Lost could’ve gone down the path of being niche and so confusing or boring that people didn’t bother to tune in, but it didn’t. It’s clearly possible to avoid that. Fringe is the emperor, folks, and I’m sad to report that he’s very clearly sans clothes.
Doesn’t hurt that Anna Torv is Rupert Murdoch’s niece.
Was. By marriage. Isn’t anymore.
The ratings for Fringe always depress the hell out of me. IMHO: The fact more people aren’t watching this show just blows my mind! I’ll say one thing:a long hiatus would hurt any program,but,ESPECIALLY a program such as Fringe-which is struggling to begin with. After such a long layoff-I also had trouble remembering what happened in the last episode before that ill-conceived “hiatus”. That episode 4 weeks ago did reveal that because of Walter being distracted just for a moment in the lab-events were set into motion that led Peter to have a child-but-not with the Olivia he was supposed to be with (At least-I think so). Look, Fringe forces you to think. Nothing on Fringe is just handed to you- thinking is required. I’m sorry if I’m going a bit long here. There truly is no other show like Fringe on the air-it is very unique. If it is cancelled,those of us who enjoy thought provoking sci-fi programming will really be screwed. This is a genre that only appeals to a “fringe” element (pardon the pun) & airing on a Friday night doesn’t help the situation at all. I do thank Fox for one thing & that is having a sci-fi program on the air at all. I say that because the place that used to be a haven for this type of programming-(the formerly Sci-Fi channel) has let fans down in many ways. Nowadays, (for the most part anyway) on that particular “channel”: between the wrestling,the ghost shows,&,the ridiculous B movies-It’s almost as if they are removing every trace of what the channel used to be & that’s very sad for the real genre fans such as Sci_fi fan. Oh sure,they renew one or two “sci-fi” programs,but,the fact remains:since they changed the name-they have been airing less sci-fi programs overall. I’m sorry I ranted a little,but,the Fringe #’s have really depressed me. My fellow Fringe fans (& I know you’re out there) enjoy the rest of this season-it may be our last. Thank you.
Best show on TV, hands down. But who’s around on a Friday night to watch it? EVERYBODY I know — including my mother — records it on the DVR to watch later on. Agree about the comment regarding long hiatuses, however– they’re murder on a show.
“Best show on TV”?
With Breaking Bad and Mad Men on the air?
Surely you jest.
It’s time to let the ratings system go.
It’s merely a quantitative measure. Who cares what uneducated, out-of-work losers watch?
Quality audience is what counts, and this is not what Nielsen can measure.
Bye, bye, Nielsen. We need a different kind of rating system.
No, Nielsen can measure “quality” audience and tell advertisers whether the audience has the qualities they want. Young male, high income, etc. Depends on the advertisers. Obviously, Lexus would want a richer audience than Wal-Mart.
And as we all know, advertisers don’t care about anyone over the age of 49 (on the questionable assumption that their brand preferences are too set in stone to change via advertising, so why bother?)
Despite all the complaints about Nielsen, I’ve never seen conclusive proof that it’s getting anything wrong (only a lot of complaining that it’s not spitting out the numbers this or that person wants to see.)
To assess its accuracy would require not one but two competing systems to be set up – the third to be the tiebreaker because if the second shows different numbers from Nielsen, you still don’t know which of the two is right. And if all three have different numbers, you still don’t know anything.
In case anyone wonders why this hasn’t been done, it’s because the costs would be enormous just to replicate Nielsens once, and unless advertisers refuse to accept Nielsens numbers, nobody has an incentive to spend huge amounts of money to double check the system.
It doesn’t actually matter to networks whether Nielsens is correct. Nielsens could be pulling numbers out of a paper bag. All that matters is that advertisers are happy and keep giving networks money.
Yes, Nielsen Ratings are probably a true Hollywood religion.
Of course they get it wrong with a sample size of 0,02%.
It’s a truly pathetic system.
@sci_fi fan-as much as I hate to admit it( as a Fringe fan), you are absolutely correct! To the various networks-they don’t care whether the numbers are actual,correct,or,even true. As long as the advertisers buy into it & keep giving them money-the networks are thrilled. As they say:perception is everything-if it appears they are getting huge numbers-they’ll take it. Sad thing is though:Who ends up getting screwed by this practice? We the fans! Fact is: Most of these networks don’t give a rat’s ass about any of us! Sad,but,true.
My issue with Nielsen is their sample size. 5000, out of a population of 300,000,000. I know alot of research goes into making sure the 5000 is representative and comprehensive but it’s still very small. I agree with the comment above which said that as long as advertisers are happy with the numbers/methodology, nothing else matters. With that said, Nielsen will do the TV shows (and viewers) justice to have a larger sample size to better gauge the ratings. I don’t profess to know the magic number but it is larger than 5000.
I wonder what a true member of the statistics profession has to say about Nielsen ratings.
I also wonder if there’s a poker table somewhere in Hollywood, and the executives are playing poker, and the winner gets the highest Nielsen ratings.
Just happy Shark Tank is tanking again as that show doesn’t deserve another season…typical reality garbage and as for Fringe, time for FOX to bid it adieu and bring in fresher programming to the night and the CW is…well…the CW with their always stagnant ratings.
Shark Tank will be back next season. It costs ABC about a dime to make. Besides, It’s fairly entertaining.
My reaction to this story was “Fringe is still on?” I tried to get into it when I heard it compared to the X-Files but always found the plotlines to be silly (which I could forgive) and boring (which I could not). It’s time to put this show to bed.
Ok, how is Fringe “very unique” ? It’s basically the X Files. A
Ok , How is Fringe “very unique” and there is “no other show like it ” umm what about Doctor Who ? Dimension and Time Travel and enough twist and turns to give to a headache for a week. How unique is it to follow 2 government agents around(X files) through other dimension and time travel (Doctor Who). This should should have been canned years ago. They canceled two of my favorite Fox shows , Human Target (which had better numbers), Lie To Me.. I don’t know the numbers on this show..and they are gonna cancel The Finder which is 10x better then Fringe but they leave this show on.
“Fringe is the ultimate in arrogance”??? Are you completely INSANE??? The first season was by far the weakest because they were establishing characters and focused on the “freak of the week” each episode. They didn’t gain traction in their storytelling until season 2 when they really delved into the mythology. And THAT is what keeps us loyal fans glued to this show. That and the wonderful, dedicated professionals who work hard to make this one of the very best shows on TV. Yes it’s true the real dedicated fans are probably not in the 18 to 49 demographic – which is sadly too bad – but as a piece of finely crafted entertainment that never talks down to its audience and in fact, urges us to think about what they’re saying – well that is truly a rare thing – especially when the 18 to 49′s (and everyone else too) is so used to being spoon-fed their drama and comedy. It’s quite sad really. Because when people feel a show doesn’t fall into the easily digestible, completely obvious TV they’re used to, they just turn to something else. Fringe is neither of those and so doesn’t fit into one’s expectations. But that is exactly the point. And that is why it does have a very dedicated (and not large) fan-base. Fox has been very good to support it for 4 seasons and while I really hope for a 5th season, I think the show would fade much better on cable with no commercials and a straight run with no month-long breaks that seriously impact the audience for such a complex show.
Exactly! When a show doesn’t instantly gratify or *gasp* make people think, then we better trash it immediately!
I love Fringe. The series is truly in a class all by itself. I have enjoyed each and every episode and consider it to be an even better series than the one which obviously inspired it, The X-Files.
Unfortunately, I feel the show adheres to its mythology at the expense of the formula that would pull in more viewers: Peter, Olivia, and Walter solving the scientific quandary/monster of the week. Too much time has been spent exploring alternate timelines/universes. This season is way too convoluted to hold the attention of many die hard fans, let alone the average viewer who might decide to give the show a chance. FOX has done Fringe a great disservice by repeatedly pulling the series for weeks at a time.
Fringe can still build upon its audience, but it must conclude its alternate universe storyline and spend what episodes are ordered next season delving deeper into the dynamics of the three leads while they solve new and engaging cases each week. The blueprint for success is in the main credits.
“The Finder which is 10x better then Fringe”- first of all-the word is than-not then. Second of all -what have you been smoking?!?! If you have a constructive critique of Fringe(which I love) I can accept it,but, don’t start with nonsense about The Finder being better than Fringe. Even the show it spun off from isn’t quite as good anymore with that ridiculous baby storyline. Trust me: Noone is going to “find” this Bones spinoff-because NOONE is looking for it!!!!!