Our Renew / Cancel Index predicts potential renewal or cancellation for scripted broadcast primetime shows for the 2010-11 season (results through November 8, 2009):
- Likely To Be Canceled By May, 2010
- Some Danger Of Being Canceled By May, 2010
- Likely to Be Renewed For The 2010-11 Season
| Program | Renew/ Cancel Index |
| Til Death (S), (F) | 0.20 |
| Brothers (F) | 0.24 |
| Dollhouse (F), (P) | 0.25 |
| Fringe | 0.57 |
| Bones (P) | 0.75 |
| Lie To Me (P) | 0.76 |
| Glee (P) | 0.89 |
| American Dad (P) | 0.93 |
| The Simpsons (P) | 1.11 |
| The Cleveland Show (P) | 1.15 |
| Family Guy (P) | 1.25 |
| House | 1.49 |
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Note that the Index values for all Fox shows will continue to be very depressed for some time because the World Series ratings have unusually boosted Fox’s overall average. That will slowly subside as Fox’s average evens out post-baseball. For the time being, the order of the shows is far more important than the Index values.
I’m on record in the recent past as being positive on Fringe’s chances for renewal even with its relatively poor ratings performance on Thursdays. However, last week it managed only a 1.7 adults 18-49 rating. Was that entirely a post World Series scheduling/confusion situation? Why then did Bones dip just slightly to a 2.6? The eyes of Fringe fans should be on this week’s results. Another sub-2.0 rating and you might want to start a crazy fan “Save Our Show” campaign. Commenter Harold suggests skywriting.
Dollhouse, ‘Til Death and Brothers , all certain to be canceled, are off Fox’s schedule for the November sweeps period. Dollhouse will gets its 13 episodes aired, as it seems Brothers will too. Who knows (or cares) what happens with all the episodes of ‘Til Death.
10/11 Update: Dollhouse is officially canceled.
This is a breakdown of Fox scripted shows and their renewal and cancellation prospects. Here are links to the other networks:
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Notes:
The Renew/Cancel Index is a show’s Season To Date adults 18-49 rating divided by its network’s Season to Date average 18-49 rating. If a show’s season to date 18-49 ratings average equalled its network’s 18-49 average, the show would have an Index of 1.00. Without special factors, scripted shows that were more than 10% below their network’s average are typically canceled by the end of the broadcast primetime season.
Factors that could cause a show to be renewed with well below average index:
- (F) -Fridays: Shows airing on Fridays have been renewed with significantly lower than average Indexes.
- (S) – Syndication: Shows nearing syndication (66-88 episodes), often have economic factors that trump ratings leading to renewal.
- (T) – Third Party: Shows that have a portion of their cost underwritten by a 3rd party can be renewed with substantially lower ratings.
- (P) – Produced by the network’s production company – For shows on the bubble, being produced by the network’s corporate production company can be a survival advantage. For real losers, it’s unlikely to help.
While I initially tried to designate shows with “plum” timeslots, I think it’s hard to make that call at this point in the season. It’s likely still a factor, but will have to be an “after the fact” call.
What’s the History of the Index and How Did It Do In the Past? Check out the results from the 2007-8 season and the 2008-9 season.
Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved. All ratings used are Live+Same Day viewing.
I still think Fringe could get renewed, but it doesn’t DESERVE to be. FOX is probably just not ready to give up on it yet.
They hopelessly bungled this season, and that was a more critical error than putting it on Thursday. I have a hard time seeing it improve without a massive reorganization of the show’s writing and production staff. Don’t think that’s happening either.
I guess next Thursday’s airing will tell a lot about Fringe – if that terrible rating was just baseball or the show itself.
Past Life’s order was cut.
Only one of Lie to Me / Fringe gets another chance on Tuesdays after AI this spring. Only Fox knows which.
i dont think fox will can fringe, it doesnt have much else to choose from
American Dad had a 2.0 this Sunday and yet the index is the same as last week. Now how does that work?
I’m so worried about FRINGE it’s even hard to put into words. I don’t think I could take its cancelation….I guess I would take a break from TV for a while if that happened.
“Only one of Lie to Me / Fringe gets another chance on Tuesdays after AI this spring. Only Fox knows which.”
Is this really an Either-Or situation? Is there no hope they’ll renew both?
I’ve seen a lot of fans saying that this has been a bad and so far boreing season of FRINGE. When fans say that in the first months of S2 it just doesn’t look good. It will be hard to bring back millions of viewers once they move on. The truth is, I believe, that the show is of low quality and was so in S1 but it was masked because of the big numbers it scored when it was paired with American Idol and HOUSE in the early days.
Probably not. FOX only programs 2 hrs a night so they have fewer spots available for pilots as well as returning shows. Fringe may be burned off on FRIDAYS this spring is my guess.
I don’t think I could take its cancelation
Maybe watching X Files reruns would help get you through.
I think I will rely on statements by creator J J Abrams concerning the future of Fringe – he is of the opinion that Fox is “solidly” behind the show. With that said, this year will probably be a ‘full’ season – next year is another story. Perhaps the fans were indeed correct in warning Fox that a move to Thursday would mean big trouble: so far, it looks like they were right on the money !
Fringe is a high quality show–in every department OTHER than the scripting. The scripts aren’t terrible, there’s usually some good moments, but they just aren’t getting the job done.
It was a problem last season, but it’s a much bigger one this season. We’ve met the main characters, and what was needed was a driving narrative to keep us interested. Also, they promised us Leonard Nimoy, and he’s barely been there.
They’ve got a great cast, a workable premise, great visuals–and inadequate writing.
The X-Files had writers like Glen Morgan and James Wong–without them, it would never have gotten past its first season.
They hired Darin Morgan as a consultant on Fringe, but we’ve yet to see a single script from him.
The writing is just too bland, and they don’t take chances.
Dennis, since that American Dad episode wasn’t in its regular timeslot, Nielsen wouldn’t count its ratings for its season average, so neither did I. It is somewhat of an arbitrary distinction, but it’s the convention, and I’m following it.
AH ok, that makes sense. I totally see why nielsen doesn’t iclude those numbers, but I still think that 7:30 outing of AD gave sort of an impression on how it will be doing in the spring.
I agree with the X-Files re-runs, and perhaps episodes such as “Ghost in the Machine”, “Space”, and “Teso Dos Bichos” would have interest. They’re about the same quality as the regular Fringe episodes.
Honestly though, the only thing Fringe does well is mytharc. They really need to get back to it, and wrap it up this season or with a generous extra 13 episodes next year. I like the show, but it really did not deserve the hype or numbers it got last year, and it’s now just settling on the numbers it should always have gotten.
There’s no real sex appeal on the show or any romance, so while it’s no cure all they could try a small something in that area. Really, for a show that makes no effort at all to appeal to the public in the way 99% of shows do, their ratings are surprisingly high.
Dollhouse btw seems to have gotten pulled out of it’s December airings and pushed back to January. At this rate, I don’t expect for Dollhouse to air till summer, or just be released on DVD/Hulu/Both.
‘Til Death replaced it, and then once Brothers ends, ‘Til Death will take over.
I care about ‘Til Death
Chalk this one up to a scheduling snafu. My DVR was not set to record Fringe this week because it thought the World Series was going to be on instead. We were just lucky we saw a commercial for it, said “Wait, that looks new” and then had to record it manually half-way through a non-existent baseball game. Is FOX to blame?
I’ll withhold judgment on until after this Thursday when there is no sports complications. I think it will go back to its pre sports ratings. Those weren’t great but they were good enough.
“Dollhouse btw seems to have gotten pulled out of it’s December airings and pushed back to January.”
This isn’t true. You misread the article. Dollhouse is airing its next six episodes December 4th-18th, then it resumes airing for the final three episodes on January 8th.
It seems this season people either think it’s much better or absolutely terrible. I still have a problem with Olivia and Broyles but in all other ways, this season is much less cringey, more serialized and generally stronger. Last season I didn’t care, but I don’t want to lose my Fringe to what I kinda call bad scheduling this year. It shouldn’t need more nurturing, but it does! ;o
I GUARANTEE Fringe gets renewed.
Fox didn’t spend bookoo bucks on a JJ Abrams franchise only to throw it away after a failed attempt to win Thursday nights.
They have a hit show and they know it, regardless of what ratings the week’s most competitive timeslot show.
I enjoyed the penchant episode of Fringe a few weeks back, but soon after decided to remove it from my list of weekly shows.
The move to Thursday gave the series a deep wound, and the decision to go into “one off mode” let a deadly infection set in with the base…
You can’t make a show that is meant to be highly serialized, not serialized and expect to keep the entire audience (RE:Battlestar Galactica season 3.) Fringe seems to be losing both the casual viewers and hard core fans because the casual viewer does not find the series approachable or interesting and the hard core fan is not getting the depth they were hoping for when they started out on the journey.
Big Ove reaction, the show was on hiatus for a few weeks.
Even Before that the ratings where not great because of the mega competition, FOx was quite ok with that.
It will be back to the usual level now everyone knows its back on.
Ok I really don’t like Ausiello but he had a story today basically saying that Fringe is safe for the time being.
http://ausiellofiles.ew.com/2009/11/09/fringe-exclusive-j-j-abrams-on-ratings-and-future/
I think it’s a great show and very simply it just needs to be taken off thursday nights. I mean what kind of show is going to get ratings going against Grey’s, The Office and CSI every week?
Its ridiculous that very good shows like Fringe and Parks and Rec are both in danger of being canceled because of that horrible time-slot.
ok my rant is over lol, now I gotta prepare my “Save Fringe” letter.
phiser, stop your incessant whining and stop watching it if the show is so darn terrible and tvbythenumbers.com, LEAVE FRINGE ALONE, already.
It went on hiatus, you’re all haters, it’s the competition, the network is behind it, no one knew it was on…
Bingo!
All this chatter/reasons why the show is sinking sounds exactly the same as when Terminator was on its deathbed.
Frankly, all these “ratings” sites are a bunch of fringe haters anyways.
‘Cause they report ratings that are unfavorable to Fringe?
Rebecca, I’ve been a moderate fan of Fringe. I see how good it could be, and I see how bad it actually is, most weeks. And wasn’t somebody just lambasting me here for NOT watching the shows I pick on? I can’t win. Oh wait–I always win. Eventually.
phiser, stop watching the show, simple as that.
It’s just got the worst time slot of any show on air, basically. Fox HAS to understand that. When given the chance, it thrives. Don’t they want it to do well?
“Maybe watching X Files reruns would help get you through.”
Dude.
I don’t usually say dude, but in this case I’ll make an exception.
So, dude….I AM watching X-Files up and down. At the moment, I am mid Season 6, and as much as I love that show, I so do not want to lose Fringe. While I can recite most X-Files episodes by heart Fringe is new, fresh and pretty excellent.
We will all now more about this matter this coming Friday but for the moment, my gut says the rating won’t go up more than 0.1 and that Fringe will indeed be burned off an Fridays next year, making a third season unthinkable.
“All this chatter/reasons why the show is sinking sounds exactly the same as when Terminator was on its deathbed.”
As much as it pains me, I agree….I thought the exact same thing yesterday. This feels soooo Terminator….and in a very bad way. I’ve made my peace with TSCC’s cancelation and also with the axe coming down on Dollhouse, but with Fringe I am not willing to part. If I have to, I’ll really give up on TV for a while.
Fringe needs to become more serialized, The standalone episodes just don’t work, and even if there aren’t full blown mytharc episodes each week, there should at least be some tie-in the main story. The first season finale and a couple episodes this season really opened up huge possibility for the show and I’d like to see the show expand in that direction.
I don’t know if serialization is the answer, in and of itself–Alias went down in the ratings year after year, with its heavily serialized storyline. It’s not episodic vs. serialized–it’s boring vs. interesting, and Fringe hasn’t been interesting enough.
Bones has been getting very consistent ratings with episodic storylines every week, and running character arcs playing out in the midst of those.
I’m fine with them being more serialized with Fringe, but I don’t think that solves their problems.
I also think it may be irrelevant to whether the show goes to a third season. Abrams is still riding high. FOX wants to work with him again. They invested a lot of money in this show.
I just wish they’d invested more of it in the writing staff.
Samuray, seriously–nobody who cares that much about TV stops watching it because one show gets canceled. I don’t believe you. But it probably wouldn’t do you a bit of harm.
I don’t understand all this talk about how much FOX is in love with Abrams and how much cash they are spending on the show. Didn’t they chop the budget and ship the show off to Vancouver? My guess is that by giving his show the absolute best timeslot in the history of TV and the remote free viewing thing that they have paid him back over and over for his magical presence. They did it for an entire season and promoted the hell out of it too. I’d say Abrams was just as lucky to have FOX to launce his show and they were to have him.
Bones fans are more used to watching it in it’s current 8pm Thurs time slot, so they tuned in anyway, just to watch rerun.
I have to rip Fringe fans, how hard is it to check out the FOX website to see if it’s a new show, which i did. Everyone has internet access.
I also thought it would be a rerun, but to rely just on dvr box, you couldn’t manual record it.
This is where the stupid american stereotypes come from and Fringe fans, you disappoint me.
They were filming in New York and the tax incentives ran out after 1 year.
So moved production to Vancouver, cheaper cdn dollar and where there is a WB studio already.
Almost every show has had there budget slashed, due to the economy.
They only cut 1 regular actor from the show, have you noticed any changes. I certainly haven’t.
Well, pisher, I can take cancelations…..but in rare cases they catch me really off guard, and if that comes together with a show I deeply love, then I’m in a bit of trouble and turn my back on TV for a while.
“Lost” would have been a candidate for that too since I consider it the best TV show ever made, but I think the danger of production being shut down before the series finale is shot is at this point….well, minimal.
It has happened only once before, with HBO’s “Carnivále”. I don’t think I’ll ever forgive them for that, but that’s beside the point here.
Fringe needs moved. Anywhere but Fridays or where it is at now. I knew the second I saw they were moving it there that it was a bad idea. Moving the O.C. to Thursday nights was able to kill one of the biggest buzz shows in a long time so why wouldn’t they expect it out of a niche sci-fi show? If FOX really wants to make an impact on Thursday nights against CBS and ABC put all the cards on the table and air Bones at 8/7c and House at 9/8c. I would love to see what would happen with a CSI, Grey’s Anatomy, House showdown. I think House may have the clout to make a huge dent in both of those ratings giants from years past.
OR they could really just go balls to the wall and do this come January.
MON: 8/7c – Human Target
9/8c – 24
TUE: 8/7c – House
9/8c – Past Life
WED: 8/7c – American Idol
9/8c – Glee (absolute no brainer pairing)
THU: 8/7c – Am.Idol results (might as well just give it 1HR to start)
9/8c – Fringe (there’s your exposure…cant say they didnt try)
FOX needs to stop pairing shows with already established fan bases together. Use them to pair with new shows and see what happens. 24 with House is a waste. While not as strong as it once was 24 is still gonna pull in viewers and although its an 9/8c show it would pair well with what I have seen for Human Target.
If you are hell bent on Fringe at the toughest hour of the week(not to mention at the same time as a similar show that no doubt have shared fans that take viewers from each other in Supernatural) and claiming it as improvement in the slot against GA and CSI. If you shift Idol to WED/THU you no doubt put the pressure on other networks in the 8/7c Thursday spot while at the same time give Fringe more potential eyes that are too lazy to turn the channel even if they hate SciFi shows.
FOX has the biggest show in the past decade and have only managed to successfully use it to boost marginal shows into ratings hits with House and Bones so why not just let a show that struggles in the ratings benefit from it instead of a new show that they will grow impatient with and shove something else in 3 weeks later.
Or if they wanted to listen to ridiculous schedules such as mine and others above why not go crazy.
MON: 8/7c – 24
9/8c – Dollhouse
TUE: 8/7c – Dollhouse/Idol in Jan
9/8c – Dollhouse
WED: 8/7c – Dollhouse
9/8c – Fringe
THUR: 8/7c – Firefly
9/8c – Fringe
FRI: 8/7c – Terminator Sarah Connor
9/8c – Hell’s Kitchen: Dollhouse Edition
SAT: 8/7c – Americas Most Wanted
9/8c – American Idol Results(NOW 4 days of Seacrest stalling isntead of the normal 28 mins)
SUN: 7/6c – Dollhouse (Animated)
8/7c – Fringe Idol (Cast of Fringe SING FOR YOUR VOTES!)
9/8c – Family Guy (w/Eliza Dushku 12 episode guest arc)
9:30/8:30 – pick an episode of one of Seth MacFarlanes shows out of a hat
Simpsons? House? So You Think You Can Dance? Bones? Canceled. They weren’t in the long term plans of the network anyways.
“Hell’s Kitchen: Dollhouse Edition”
I LOLed
If Fox has to choose between Fringe and Lie to Me, it will certainly pick Lie to Me. Fox produces the show while Fringe is produced by WB.
I doubt Fox will cancel Fringe. Last week’s number is a reflection of the baseball scheduling confusion. Fox has improved over last year’s numbers on Thursday nights. I don’t see Fox tinkering with something that is a relative success.
Beyond that, I think Fox has figured out that Fringe has a devoted fan base. The high DVR viewership is a reflection of that. That devotiong may bode well for future DVD sales and putting re-runs on cable.
Let’s assume I’m wrong and Fox cans the show. What exactly would they put on after Bones that would get a better rating on Thursday night?
You tried trolling for hits from Fringe fans last weekend, and you’re doing it again. Sorry, not playing.
I still dont think Fringe is in that much danger. FOX knew what they were getting into by airing the series in that slot. Hopefully FOX will announce midseason soon so we can know what their plans are.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I had Fringe set to DVR all new episodes on my Dish Network, however, it did not record. I am not sure why, but it may have been due to the scheduling confusion. I am a loyal Fringe fan, but was not able to watch the episode! I had to watch it on Fox.com. I would imagine others had the same issue.
FOX doesnt have enough post Idol slots for Fringe and Lie to Me. They already have Human Target, Glee, and Past Life planned for post Idol. How many of their dramas can they use Idol to help?
@Dave
Unless you have a Nielsen box, you probably helped the show more (though very little more) by watching on Fox.com than on your DVR.
Id go with this
Mondays
8:00 House
9:00 24
Tuesdays
8:00 American Idol
9:00 Past Life (Jan-March)
9:00 Hell’s Kitchen (March-June)
Wednesdays
8:00 American Idol
9:00 Human Target (Jan-March)
9:00 Glee (March-May)
Thursdays
8:00 Bones
9:00 Fringe
Fridays
8:00 Lie to Me (Jan-March)
8:00 Human Target (March-May; Remaining Episodes)
9:00 Dollhouse (Jan)
9:00 Kitchen Nightmares (Jan-March)
Its likely Kitchen Nightmares will air a new season fridays at 9. Fridays at 8 can be used as a slot for remaining episodes of a drama that FOX doesnt have room for. Im sick of guessing, FOX just announce the schedule lol.
“Everyone has internet access.”
Not everyone. A lot of people still don’t. Everyone on here obviously does so they don’t have an excuse.
If the ratings rebound, then those viewers who missed it will be happy the series isn’t completely serialized, otherwise they would have no idea what’s going on.
In fact, not being as serialized means that viewers can tune back in if they miss a couple of episodes.
I would move Fringe and Dollhouse to Tuesdays
Move all the animation from Sundays to Fridays
Introduce my new dramas on Sundays
Slide Idol to Wed/Thurs
Please FOX just announce the sched……
Why havn’t they decided to move it? I don’t get it. It’s a great show….. just move it. Shows who move to Thursdays against surbivor and amercian idol suffer a hard painful death!
A lof of good shows go crashing on thursday’s from NBC.
It would be interesting to read an article about shows who were highly rated, then killed by placing them against American Idol or against Survivor back in the day. Especialy when Amercian Idol and Survivor played on the same day….
I dont think Idol and Survivor ever aired on the same day. Though Idol did air on Thursdays for special occasions.
I think that Survivor has aired once or twice on Wednesdays (perhaps during March Madness?) and may have gone up against AI at one point. Not positive about though.
@James
Fox will NEVER move their animation from Sunday to Friday.
At least these “ratings” sites are written by grownups, as opposed to Rebecca, who writes like a 12-year-old. And presumably is one.
If you fangirls believe that FOX is solidly behind a show they threw to the wolves and has fallen flat on its face (just like they knew it would), I’ve got both a Brooklyn Bridge and a bootleg DVD collection of all 13 episodes of the quietly-successful “Eastwick” to sell you.
As my name suggests, I’m a huge fringe fan but this season has been horrible! Last year the standalone episodes were mostly good but this year they are just dreadful. JJ abrams didn’t want to make this show serialized like Lost, now it seems that was a big mistake. The best episodes are mytharc and if they don’t want to keep bleeding viewers they need to kick it in gear. It just occurred to me that football is coming back this Thursday, that is gonna affect flash forward and quite possibly fringe as well.
Fringe definitely needs to end! Mercy/Trauma/The Forgotten and Eastwick didn’t have a 1.7 18-49 demo yet. But Fringe achieved to get that!
1.7 !! that looks like tscc numbers, they should move it to fridays and make a sci-fi block, see if it helps dollhouse LOL
Bill writes, “Who knows (or cares) what happens with all the episodes of ‘Til Death.”
Looking by the ratings for the most recent broadcasts of each, about as many people as care what happens with all the episodes of “Dollhouse.” Approximately 2 million.
But I’ll try to keep future discussion limited to only those shows with high nerd appeal. I know when FOX decides not to air an episode of some Joss Whedon piece of shit that had no business being on the air in the first place, it’s a cause for Robert to make 20 threads on the subject, each one filled with 200 nerdorrific rants in the comments section.
Riff writes:
“But I’ll try to keep future discussion limited to only those shows with high nerd appeal. I know when FOX decides not to air an episode of some Joss Whedon piece of shit that had no business being on the air in the first place, it’s a cause for Robert to make 20 threads on the subject, each one filled with 200 nerdorrific rants in the comments section.”
How else are we going to fill up our bingo cards, especially now that Eastwick has been canceled.
Fringe is solid. The problem is that they sent a sophomore show up against solidly entrenched franchises. The orig CSI, Grey’s, Office/30 are all deep-rooted in the time slot… how in the freakin heck do they expect Fringe to contend? How? As good as it is – it would have to be the best show of all times – just to break even with the established audience base for the other quality programs… aka death sentence. I would rather see it chase Am-Idol’s tail on Tues, than die an honorable death on must flee tv thursday.
I don’t there’s just something about Fringe that makes it hard for me to get into the series. It’s not bad but I just can’t get into it. It is a carbon copy of X-Files and there’s already Supernatural a show that’s pretty good while having it’s own spin on it without making it a full on carbon copy of the X-Files like Fringe feels like.
Sorry the last line should have been “unlike fringe”.
So, since Fox gets nothing from DVD sales and watching the show on wb.com or hulu.com, is it best to view the episodes on http://fox.com/fringe?
One of the problems may have been the Nimoy decision. William Bell was supposed to be a big (as in active) part of the storyline going forward. But with Nimoy cast with only limited availability (and looking somewhat frail), they scaled back his on-screen role. They may have meant less myth episodes, and more monster of the week. Not good for a show like this.
Overall, though, it would be sad if they cancelled it.
I got home on Thursday and found that my Tivo wasn’t recording Fringe because it still had the World Series in its program list. I was able to catch the mistake in time.
@Dan When they reduced the order for Past Life, I believe the press release actually stated that the reason was a full schedule. So, I can see Fox moving it to Fridays once Dollhouse has finished their 13, and putting Fringe or Lie to Me on Tuesdays instead.
@DocH That seems to be one of the things Lie to Me and Fringe have in common this year: They’re both sophomore shows in pretty tough timeslots. They’re up against, as you stated, established shows with huge audiences. Obviously Fox takes this into account. At the end of the day, they have to put some shows in those time slots. House does well against DWTS, but it’s also an established show with an established following. I’d be happy if Fox showed a little more faith. And I’m with Dan… I hope they announce the schedule soon.
Why would FOX Care about Fringe its starting to get TSCC numbers and well they dont own the show. surely a 2.1 wouldnt be enough to keep it going anyway especally when Bones gets 2.6 or higher. and it had the nice American Idol lead in for a few months. If the numbers arent better this week it should be moved to friday.
@gleebo – No Dark Angel in that schedule?
Hmmm. Okay I loved Dark Angel and most of the Low rated shows on Fox I listed so I’ll go ahead and greenlight the following as a midseason replacement for the 3rd airing of Dollhouse each week.
13 eps of “Are You Smarter Than Jessica Alba”
Im not sure about Fringe season 3 unless they can turn around this ratings problem. Like if its gets back to a 2.0ish demo I think they will renew. If it doesnt i’d be rather surprised about season 3.
Gleebo – ouch. Though it’d be cool seeing their first contestant, Bill O’Reilly, get humiliated.
Wait. There was an episode of Fringe last week? My DVR didn’t pick it up. Damn baseball – or whatever sport it was having it’s sport thing on TV last week.
I cannot stand when shows get pushed to a new night. There was a reason I enjoyed the Fringe on a Tue. night… I didn’t have anything to do that night. Do the ratings count how many people have to Tivo/DVR the episodes?
I do agree the World Series killed last weeks ratings of the Fringe. My “guide” said World Series 6-10pm or whatever and I checked anyways to see if Fringe was on which it was. How many people did that??
Moving this show to Fridays would kill this show and I believe it is far too early to do that only 1/2 into the Second Season. That was exactly the same outcome of “Jericho” on CBS. Also I remember a show called “Millennium”, moved to Fridays and was cancelled.
“Frankly, all these ‘ratings’ sites are a bunch of fringe haters anyways.”
Rebecca has figured out The Pattern!
Maybe the reason this season has sucked is because Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman are no longer writing for the show. I think we’ve only had one JJ Abrams written show this year as well. This weeks episode will be a lame standalone too, maybe the audience will stick around for the highly touted 8th episode “August”
Well, there was no way Orci and Kurtzman were going to stick around Fringe when they just had a hit movie last summer.
And that’s a serious problem, because they are still the defacto authority over at Fringe, and their attention is elsewhere much of the time.
They either have to come back fulltime (unlikely) or let somebody else completely take over.
Or they could just say “It’s the timeslot”, point to improved ratings for FOX at that hour, and wait to see if they get renewed anyway.
Kate – Thats likely true. I dont see Past Life airing after Idol. With the cut order, its liekly to air fridays.
There is no excuses, the real reason that Fringe is droping is cos the show is being bad, as simple as that.
The last episodes of 1st season were like an orgasm, but with this new episodes they returned back at the bad episodes of season 1. People expected an evolution from last episdoes, but they did the opposite, returning to banal episodes that dont contribute in anything to the general story. I don’t understand their policy, it was demostrated that following the story like last lst seasons episodes was good, but they want to try make individual episodes that anybody can see without havent seen the full show, for what? try to get new viwers? They are lossing them…
I really hope they rectify fast and do like the 1st season were the 1st 6-7 eiposdes were bad and then they redirected the show to a masterpiece.
I think people are underselling the competition from Supernatural. They are both very similar and very X-Files like shows. I personally liked the first 3 seasons of Supernatural but season 4 and so far through season 5 it has became my absolute favorite show on television. People are gonna say that the 2.5 million or so viewers it gets isn’t hurting Fringe. I’m sorry I love Fringe but I am watching Supernatural and waiting for the blu Ray just like I did with season 1. Imagine if even a quarter of the people that do the same didn’t have to make that choice. It would make a noticable difference.
Either the CW or FOX needs to make a move in that slot because the ratings for both shows suffer. Although I think SN is more of a case of incompatible lead in.
I tried to watch Vampire Diaries and got fed up with it’s cheesy fog effects and poor use of Ian Somerhalder midway thru the 2nd ep and quit watching.
Yeah, the whole World Series schedule REALLY messed up Fringe this past week. I have Time Warner cable and the DVR Series Recording function did not get that the World Series was over and that there was a new episode of Fringe on. Millions upon millions of people that have Time Warner probably experienced the exact same thing. Is there any way to see if websites like hulu.com had a significant jump in online viewing of Fringe this past week? I know that’s were I had to go to see the new episode!
I like Fringe and watch it on Hulu or on my DVR but I agree this season has not been the best. I didn’t like them killing off the FBI agent and the whole shape shifter thing. It is at its best when they are solving strange, fantastic crimes not this two universe thing. More of Olivia and Peter too.
I will be very pissed off if FOX put Fringe after AI in spring because the show doesn’t deserve that. It had its opportunity last year – when it was paired with AI and House – to built an audience and that didn’t happened so why FOX should do that again? They never gave that chance to Dollhouse or Firefly or Terminator or Dark Angel or Millennium so why another chance to Fringe? Because it’s a JJ Abrams show? So what?
The problem with Fringe is that the show is uneven, it has some very good episodes (the mythology ones) and it has some very bad. I don’t mind the combination of mythology and stand alone – to be honest I prefer that – but make the stand alone episodes equally compelling and most important original. With Fringe it seems that they only care about the overall story and the MOTW is there just to buy time. If the only reason to watch a show is to take the answers for the mythology then that show does not deserve to be watched, viewers should also be able to enjoy the ride. I understand that not every episode can be great but at least show some effort. In Fringe all the MOTW so far are copies of the X-Files episodes and not even good ones. In The X-Files we’ve waited years and years to get the whole picture but it was worth it because in the meantime we’ve got many little masterpieces, so many thought-provoking, scary, character-study episodes that never get old. Same with Buffy, Angel, Millennium where some of the best episodes were the stand alones.
Jeff Pinkner from LOST is the showrunner on Fringe.
Abrams, Robert Orci, Alex Kurtzman were pretty much there to start the show up in it’s 1st season.
Thursday 9pm is much tougher.
FRINGE (average low 2’s) vs Grey’s – 5.1, Office 4.1, CSI 3.5, Supernatural 1.1.
Monday 9pm.
LTM (mid-high 2’s) vs Two Men/BBT – 4.4/4.5, DWTS – 3.7, Trauma – 1.8, Gossip Girl 1.2.
I’m guessing both LTM and Fringe will get a least 1 special airing on Tuesday after IDOL. Maybe as a faceoff.
So what if FOX doesn’t own the show, CBS doesn’t own Two Half Men or Big Bang Theory, but they invested in making them hits.
Fringe is much further along, has name recognition as updated X-Files.
JJ Abrams show, and actually has a quite a fanbase, selling dvd’s, merchandise.
LTM is own by FOX, but it only has 13 episodes last year, 13+ 3-5 additional, whatever the #. Nobody know’s anything about the show, sells virtually no dvd’s and is nowhere near syndication.
Fringe ratings are still quite a bit better, if you compare ratings reletive to lead ins.
Last year Fringe had around 3.9 average, LTM around 2.9.
This year LTM is slightly lower around 2.7-8 and Fringe is around low 2’s.
I agree with the criticisms of its writing. It just needs some good writers brought in. Some good slam-bang action, deaths, and serious emotional conflict. And more Nimoy.
Bet you if the ratings don’t pick up they move it to fridays!
Last week was the first episode i didnt watch. I started to and then just lost interest. I dont even know what the main story is anymore. Theres Bell and that other guy who teleported last season or whatever. Its been too long inbetween stand-alones to keep track. They killed off a interesting side character, Charlie, and another interesting character (Observer) is hardly ever shown, and bleh. Its on the Fringe with my patience. I wont be upset if its canned.
It really didn’t help Fringe when Fox shoved it into Thursday night… It didn’t have the hard core audience willing to follow it either. I haven’t watched this year because it’s against Supernatural, and I for one will take SPN over anything that goes against it.
However; I do think Supernatural and Fringe are canceling each other out in the live viewing and DVR viewing. Both share the exact same audience, and there are those that will drop one for the other.
I’m a huge Supernatural fan but I can’t say that right now for the past two years it’s better than Fringe.Yes it has a big internet fan base but the last two seasons really dissapointed me.I still watch it but I can’t help but laugh at times.Fringe at least has better acting,and I wouldn’t call it an X-Files copy for any reason.It’s just that Thursdays are wrong and I think that FOX wanted to create false expectation to sell tv ads.I can’t really see how it even crossed their minds over there that it could compete with older tv series
I want to like fringe, but it hasn’t drawn me in. If they want to save it, they should spike Darin Morgan’s coffee with some Sam-E and pray it works.
Bill, do you know why we have not heard about Lie To Me’s back nine episode order yet? The show is doing solid in ratings so far! 13 episodes are ordered already. Why doesn’t FOX already announce the full season order of 22 episodes? I mean, they are about to start filming episode 11 already. And still no news on the back nine order!
Do you think FOX will give Lie to Me the full 22 episodes for this season? If so, why are they waiting to announce that?
Julia3, FOX will have a pretty crammed mid-season schedule. It will be interesting to see how it works all the shows it has in. My guess is that any announcement about additional episodes for “Lie To Me” will come pretty close/at the same time as the announcements for FOX’s mid season schedule. That should be soon.
There are a lot of possibilities for “Lie To Me.” It’s possible it could get 5, 9, or even 0 additional episodes, and a lack of a back 9 wouldn’t necessarily preclude it from returning next year. If FOX schedules “24″ with “House” there won’t really be room for it unless FOX bounces “Fringe” to Fridays.
Robert, thanks so much for the info! In your opinion, there is no cause to worry about Lie to Me’s cancellation, though, right?
What do you think FOX will do? Order 5 or 9 more? Strictly in your opinion, that is. I know it’s anyone’s guess.
Personally, I think the second season of Lie to Me so much better than season one.
How is the show doing in ratings in general? Good enough for another season, right?
Uhh…where is this week’s version?
Fringe rebounded last Thursday, and the new index should reflect this.