Comments on: Early Ratings Report for Fox’s Fringe and CW’s 90210

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 18:03:23 +0000

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.

By: Julia

Julia — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:58:41 +0000

Ok, I just looked it up and House premiered to 7.05 mil on November 16, 2004. Definitely less than Fringe.

By: Julia

Julia — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:28:48 +0000

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.

By: K8ie

K8ie — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:21:47 +0000

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).

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:21:00 +0000

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…

By: thebean

thebean — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:17:54 +0000

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.

By: Gusar

Gusar — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:10:26 +0000

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.

By: Tony

Tony — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:06:39 +0000

I heard Fring had like 9 million viewers overall. Lucky for them they’ve got House. They can’t manage without that

By: deliajane

deliajane — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:03:07 +0000

90210. Garbage in, garbage out.

By: Sandy

Sandy — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:00:56 +0000

And it’ll be dead in the water in January when American Idol comes back.

By: Gabriela

Gabriela — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:57:15 +0000

I think 90210 is going to drop even more once House is back in the game again

By: 1982

1982 — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:51:05 +0000

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.

By: Ricky

Ricky — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:39:52 +0000

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.

By: DocArzt

DocArzt — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:33:22 +0000

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.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:27:57 +0000

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).

By: DocArzt

DocArzt — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:23:57 +0000

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.

By: Tony

Tony — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:21:35 +0000

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.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:08:40 +0000

Jim, you certainly have my vote for head of programming, casting and cross promotion at Fox.

By: Angie

Angie — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:06:18 +0000

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!

By: katka

katka — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:02:08 +0000

Hope the numbers of Fringe improve, and they keep it on air. its a great show.

By: 790

790 — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 16:01:15 +0000

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.

By: 1982

1982 — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:59:03 +0000

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.

By: jim

jim — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:57:37 +0000

They should cast Summer in Fringe. Everybody wins. Better yet, they should put her on House, American Idol and all Fox shows.

By: Maria

Maria — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:57:21 +0000

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.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:44:33 +0000

Outlander, I will post 30 min ratings for Fringe once I get the data.