Sun 20 Sep 2009
Was FRINGE A Success On Thursday?
Posted by Nick C under FOX, FRINGE
[11] Comments
The short answer?
No. Wait I hear, it only had a small drop in viewers (7.98M) and only had a small drop in the 18-49 demo at 2.9, neither of which were series lows. So why am I thinking it wasn’t a success?
It was the season premiere, and it lost viewers from the season finale. It was only 1.3M people and around half a point in the demo. That isn’t too bad. Well it’s not too bad when you consider it followed BONES and not AMERICAN IDOL. However BONES had 2.1M more viewers and .1 more in the demo (BONES has always schewed older than other FOX programming), and FRINGE was only up against THE OFFICE and SUPERNATURAL in terms of new content. What happens when CSI and GRAY’S ANATOMY come back next week?
Well I hear the argument of “Nick, they don’t really share viewers…” hmmm… that may be true but we’ll find out next week. Of course we may see a drop in viewers because the premiere was so awful. It is a mystery show that likes to take 1 step forward and 2 steps back, but the premiere was like running back a couple hundred yards from the finale. Is that what fans waited all summer for? Really?
This was a gamble for FOX, and I’m not convinced it was a good decision. It was always a ballsy decision, and with the success FOX has every night of the week (except Friday) they can certainly gamble and try and get good numbers from a full Thursday lineup. FRINGE fans need not worry, if it isn’t working out it will get moved back to its cushy time slot.
X Files did the same thing all the time. I know a lot of the tv critics like Matt Roush and Maureen Ryan liked the premiere. What did you hate about it? It’s like saying Battlestar Galactica was a bad show. And Anna torv has improved since last season. In fact, she even presented at tonight’s It’s a lot like X Files and Alias. Anyway, in regards to ratings, JJ Abrams doesn’t like it either.
http://www.bangordailynews.com/detail/121375.html
“Fringe” has drawn the unenviable time slot of 9 p.m. Thursday, which puts it up against hits “CSI” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” cult fave “Supernatural” and beloved comedies “The Office” and “30 Rock.”
“There are many places I’d rather be than there,” admitted Abrams. “But I’d rather be picked up for a second season than not.”
I agree that ratings-wise the return was really not good, and that that gamble Fox made might turn pretty disastrous once the other mammoths of the timeslot return.
(And yes, the episode itself was even more of a disaster than its ratings…)
BSG was a bad show. Really. Take some creative writing classes and get back to us about how BSG followed all the normal rules of character development. Wait! It didn’t, and it made characters Cylons for really no other reason than they didn’t know what to do with the show and it worked for Boomer in Season 1 when the show was popular.
Anna Torv presented something? Gee, that must mean she can act and must not mean that her agent is powerful or her Uncle is Rupert Murdoch. Wait she does have a powerful agent, and her Uncle is Rupert. I saw the premiere and she still can’t act. Her scared/crying look is awful, someone needs to tell her you don’t smile and cringe at the same time to show you’re crying.
I wondered if you were going to say something about this Nick C. Even I knew this would be a bad move and I know nothing about tv, demos and ratings etc.
The show is not strong enough to put in that type of timeslot. It ’s only one season old and all the other ones have been going for years and have big, established fanbases. It was NEVER going to be able to compete. What were they thinking?
I actually liked the premiere alot. To me it was sort of resetting things. They brought Peter into it abit more and looks like the division is changing. However, other parts were not done as well.
As much as I know they don’t want to go there, I think this show would be much more suited to being completely serialised. They have so much they can do/tell with the mythology. However, because they do the case thing very little of the mythology gets told and i think that is what people find more interesting.
Is Fox letting them do their own thing with this? Or do they have alot of studio influence? If their influencing, then they need to let them do serialised, but not as complicated as Fox and then all the characters can be fully utilised. Also, change the timeslot. That’s the only way I see them surviving.
Oops, I meant serialised, but not as complicated as Lost. Sorry.
Glad you’re back Nick.
Anna Torv is the Dirty Digger’s niece? Bet that would be handy if you were on a show that was on Fox network…..
This was actually new info for me, so thanks for amusing me.
Personally I was mixed on the premier of Fringe, but I can see the subsequent episodes taking a turn for the worse.
If that happens, then what would they replace it with? And would they shorten SYTYCD to one hour to put it back on Tuesdays or move it somewhere else?
I’d like to see Fringe back on Tuesday,my DVR is wide open on Thursdays now and still miss a few shows.Tuesdays there is nothing for me to watch now!Move it on back Fox!!!
Oh and Nick C,come on dude! BSG was an awesome show!Many,many awards,dvd’s and a spin-off have come from it.It has a motion picture(of a different vision)in the works now and all of the actors on that show can be seen everywhere on tv now.Ron Moore is a frackin genious!
Yeah because God knows Ron Moore was in huge demand before BSG and is in much higher demand now…
Oh wait. He wasn’t and isn’t. I’ve read the scriptment for the movie and that movie is likely to be huge. That will just be yet another example of why BSGINO (BSG In Name Only) was crap.
The first episode was a total cop out – people were expecting revelations, not resets. If they don’t get back on track really quickly they’ll skip past X-Files high point and go straight to the plummeting ratings where people realized Chris Carter knew about as much about the direction he was going as a blind drunk Bedouin in a sandstorm.