Update: Fringe only averaged 9.003 million viewers from 8-9:30 (these #s will change in the finals since it ran until 9:35p) though it had a 3.2 rating among 18-49 year olds (good, not great). The best half hour for Fringe was 9-9:30 when it did 9.176 million, 3.3/9 among 18-49 year olds and a 2.6/8 among 18-34 year olds. Worse news for 90210: the slippage did hold up, dropping 30% among 18-34 year olds to a 2.1 rating and 35% among 18-49 year olds to a 1.7 rating. CW will still put a smile on it because it still was the night’s #1 program among 18-34 year old women, even if it did drop down to 3.314 million viewers.
Here’s the early ratings report for Fringe and 90210. Please keep in mind that these metered market numbers are never very accurate, but serve merely as the earliest look possible. We’ll have the fast affiliate overnight data soon hopefully, which is more accurate and also comes with viewer totals and 18-49/18-34 demographic data.
My brief word on Fringe is this: how could I possibly say anything bad about a science fiction show that pays homage to SpongeBob? No major spoilers here but the scene was more or less the mad scientist who’d been locked in asylum for 17 years sees SpongeBob and says something like, “This show is for children? It’s so profound!” I enjoyed Fringe and I enjoyed the limited commercial interruptions (”remote free viewing”) and found it very effective. I think for a one hour show it was about perfect. However the pilot for Fringe ran 1 hour and 35 minutes and somewhere in there I could’ve probably actually done with a 2 minute commercial break. But the 60 and 90 second interruptions did not seem maddening at all.
In the early metered market numbers, Fringe pulled a respectable 6.4/10, (household rating/share) but that’s less than I thought it would do. It’s not possible to derive viewers from the household rating but a 6.4 household rating would be about 7.3 million homes and probably wind up in the neighborhood of 9 million viewers. I expected it to definitely clear 10 million viewers, so we’ll see what happens as we get better data.
If the early numbers hold, 90210 experienced significant drop-offs from its premiere last week. It would appear that the commenters who claimed people who watched the original would check out the new series and fade away may be doing some chest thumping today. 90210 had a 2.8/7 (household rating/share) in the overnights, which Berman is declaring is some huge drop off from last week where he claims it had a 3.9/6. I think Marc makes a mistake in reacting to the metered market numbers, but based on this he concludes it dropped 28 percent from the 8pm-9pm portion of the premiere, which is extremely disappointing.
In last week’s actual fast affiliate report 90210 had a 3.5/5 but in the final numbers it had a 3.2/5 (you can see the numbers change a bit, in this case, down, but sometimes the changes are up, there’s no way to predict).
If it winds up being 28% down from the 3.2/5, that would indeed be disappointing, but it will also depend how it did among 18-49 year olds, women, and specifically according to the CW 18-34 year old women. Some drop-off would be no surprise, but 28% would be alarming. However if the drop off mostly occurred with women 35 and over, CW will find a way to be happy. But if there is a 28% decrease among 18-34 year old women, there will be cause for concern. We’ll see when the press releases come out.
When we see the updated numbers, I’ll update this post and Bill will have the full night’s report for the broadcast networks up shortly after.
Why am I always surprised when the public at large doesn’t get what I get?
Fringe is a great show, I fear maybe too involved for the class of viewers out there these days. Honestly, I think people have gotten too stupid to understand the television they’re getting.
That’s okay, Fox has a reality show for them where they can either fit through the hole of fall into what looks to me to be green water.
But I’m sad for us. ‘Cause we all get dragged down by these people.
Yes sir, I agree, just like the show Invasion a few years ago. Great show, lasted all season but not brought back.
I don’t mean to rain on your parade, Robert, but I actually dissent from Fringe. I didn’t think it was all that strong–and I’m not just saying that because I wish ill on any show that competes with Terminator for ratings.
Will we get incremenetal data Fringe’s performance? I would be interested to see how many viewers dropped off at the 30 and 60 minute marks. The first 30 minutes of the show really confused me, and I just didn’t have an overall favorable reaction to the episode. I’ll probably watch another few episodes to see if it can hit a stride, but I’m becoming a mite skeptical.
How worried should us Summer lovers be that the Fringe premiere beat TSCC’s premiere by 50% in total viewers (9-10m vs. 6.4m)?
Joe, you say people are getting too stupid to understand the tv they’re getting. That’s why Terminator didnt get high ratings. Every acclaimed critic is raving about it yet the audience chooses Gossip Girl over it…how is that possible? I don’t think Fringe is up to par yet. It’s supposed to be inventive en edgy but I’ve seen all this already in X-Files. I hope it will pick up and give more intriguing stuff.
Outlander, I will post 30 min ratings for Fringe once I get the data.
I know this is about Fringe and 90210 but I wanna say this about Terminator Chronicles. In spite of the bad ratings in my honest humble opinion it’s the best I’ve seen on prime time in a while. Bad ratings does not equal bad television and not in this case. I will continue to watch every episode and I’m gonna enjoy them. That’s practically guaranteed considering the quality of all the previous episodes.
Beverly Hills will probably get a drop in viewers and I don’t see Fringe succeeding the way Fox intended to. Maybe this week but I will anxiously wait for the numbers in the coming week. Looks like television in general is bleeding viewers. Reality TV is destroying quality.
They should cast Summer in Fringe. Everybody wins. Better yet, they should put her on House, American Idol and all Fox shows.
I don’t know what to make of Fringe yet. I will be watching more in the next weeks to see how it fits but I can’t say I got the feeling that I have to keeping watching it no matter what. I understood it and get the direction of the show as best can be attained from 1 episode but I don’t know if it grabbed me in a big way.
The numbers were less than I thought they would be, I thought it would get somewhere around 11 million. I don’t know why I expect big numbers for TV now though, it just doesn’t seem to happen anymore.
I felt the show was average nothing to really write home about.
The cast was weak and the story was just another X-File done with average actors.
Hope the numbers of Fringe improve, and they keep it on air. its a great show.
Man, if those 90210 numbers are correct, then I hope I don’t harm myself thumping my chest . . . I did watch Fringe, though, and I could not get hooked at all. And I love JJ Abrams and the sci-fi genre, so you’d think it would’ve been a winning combo. I don’t know what’s wrong with me!
Jim, you certainly have my vote for head of programming, casting and cross promotion at Fox.
Yeah Jim, mine too. Even the haters had to acknowledge Glau’s talent especially after the last episode. She has “the walk” and “the stare” down to perfection. My wife and me were totally fooled by that one scene and that would prolly get us killed if you saw it.
An aggressively pirated screener and the prospect of two commercial ridden hours lowered my expectations for the premiere, ratings wise. What I’m waiting to see is how it will fare following new episodes of House.
Doc, very good point on the House follow-on. In our poll, now retired, I thought Fringe would likely be the biggest hit of the season largely because it followed House (starting next week).
Yep. House will be a monster lead in. Should easily pull Fringe into the low to mid teens. I think your prediction will come true.
90210’s household ratings isn’t doing any good for CW. Only in it’s 2nd week of broadcast,28% drop…If it continues to fall week after week,CW should just consider pulling off it’s wires out from TV .Just hope and pray that demos for 18-34 women would drop significantly. Looking at this week’s OTH ratings, I would say OTH deserves to stay longer in CW than 90210.
Why are FOX’s series premieres not doing well this time around? I was totally shocked by TSCC and PB ratings.Fringe was so-so to me,but it should have garnered more viewers.I was hoping that it would be the biggest series premiere for Fall 2008. Btw, I have to say I’m a big fan of Summer Glau ,from the days of Firefly till today. I really hope TSCC would do better next week in ratings.
I’m not really surprised that 90210 dropped. When I watched the first show last week I found myself not being interested in the new people at all and just hung on for the few minutes with the old cast, Brenda and Kelly. I know that sounds lame but what can you expect with a remake of 90210 that included some of the old cast? I know that CW was really happy with the viewers of the first show too but I did think more people would tune in.
When the absolute best number is just over 4 million I think a big drop like last night takes an even bigger bite than we think. Not that I think it will get the axe though.
I think 90210 is going to drop even more once House is back in the game again
And it’ll be dead in the water in January when American Idol comes back.
90210. Garbage in, garbage out.
I heard Fring had like 9 million viewers overall. Lucky for them they’ve got House. They can’t manage without that
For all the hype and advertising Fringe received, these numbers are crap. House will boost it, but without House it’s like Tony said, it can’t manage.
Joe, in complete agreement with your comment. People avoid shows that make them actually think and require the ability to be held in suspense. The networks have found a way to hold stupid people down with stupid shows.
Gusar, Fox notes that it still was the best series premiere EVER that didn’t follow Idol or NFL. Of course I can’t remember the season premieres that didn’t follow NFL or AI, so I’m sure that’s not really saying very much. My general sense is that given production costs etc, the show needs to perform MUCH better than Big Brother. It performed better, but I’m not sure i’d say “much better”. From 8-9 Fringe had a 3.2/9 among 18-49 year olds to BB 2.6/7. It’s 23% better, but it may cost 300%+ more to produce. I think House will help, and its possible they’ll pick up a few more people willing to try it after House when they rebroadcast the pilot Sunday at 8pm after NFL post game…
So between Fringe and TSCC, FOX seems to be missing about three million viewers. Is it 8 pm is too early for the combintion of programming and audience they’re going for or is it the early start to the season while people are still settling into school/work after the summer rush? For my part, I was still at dinner at 8 pm on Monday night. I cranked up the DVR about quarter to nine to watch…
I’m begining to think that Fringe might not last. I liked the pilot but significantly less when I rewatched it last night. The lead characters don’t really match (Anna Torv looks like Joshua Jackson’s nanny, not his peer/love interest. Or possibly his mom) and the season teaser looked like the worst parts of LOST and the X-Files jumbled together. I won’t be surprised if it loses traction next week – HOUSE has a big audience but they don’t tend to stick around for the next hour (see PB this past spring).
Robert, House premiered without AI or Super Bowl, but I don’t recall what numbers it did. But it would be the only one I can think of that might possibly be close to Fringe’s numbers.
Ok, I just looked it up and House premiered to 7.05 mil on November 16, 2004. Definitely less than Fringe.
Julia, definitely a good example that you can’t always judge what’s to come based on how something debuts. Though House had tons of on air promotion it also has very good “word of mouth” and by its procedural nature will appeal to a wider audience (plus, it’s a great show!) than Fringe. I think word of mouth could potentially help Fringe, though not as much as House, and based on early reviews/comments, it’s not a slam dunk that it will get great “word of mouth” pass on.