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Fringe: Joshua Jackson Talks About the Friday Night Ratings

Published:February 14, 2011

FringeA few weeks ago, Fringe fans pulled off something pretty remarkable. The series moved to Fridays and the ratings for the first couple of airings were essentially the same as they had been on Thursday nights. Fridays are one of the least-watched nights of television and FOX Entertainment President Kevin Reilly said that, if the show could maintain its audience, it would be safe from cancellation. Few expected that it could do that but were proven wrong — for two weeks.

On Friday, Fringe was down in the ratings for the second week in a row. The sci-fi series attracted a mere 1.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 3.74 million viewers. That represents a series low for Fringe. Though this is still much better than what The Good Guys was bringing in, it’s certainly not a good sign for Fringe’s chances for a renewal and season four.

Series star Joshua Jackson was recently interviewed by EW and addressed the numbers:

Lots of fans have been sweating the future of Fringe, due to the move to Friday. How are you feeling about it? Are you hopeful about the future?
Having worked in television for awhile, I, like everyone else, went “Ooo, that’s not good” when they moved us to Friday. But my opinion on this is this: If all the people who watch Fringe -– on the day and date and on DVR -– tune in on Fridays for the next five or six weeks, then the show will be fine. The way to save the show is very simple: If you’re a hardcore fan of the show -– and in particular, if you’re a hardcore fan of the show with a Nielsen box -– you have to give us an hour of your time on Friday night. To its credit, [Fox] has given us every shot. We stumbled out of the gate the first year, but Fox stuck with us. In the second season, they may have had expectations that we didn’t meet when they moved us to Thursday night, but we held our own. And now, while we have lost something of the casual viewer, we retain a solid base of hardcore viewers. If the hardcores come with us to Friday night and stick with us for the rest of the season, we’ll be able to tell next year’s story.

What do you think? Will Fringe’s ratings rise again or is it doomed to be cancelled? Has your interest in the show waned? Should it be cancelled?

 

Image courtesy FOX.

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{ 42 comments… read them below or add one }

Brad Smith May 6, 2012 at 9:17 am

“Fringe” is one of the most pleasant surprises I have seen on broadcast TV in a long, long time. The production is excellent, the cast is superb (Walter kills!), and I find the story lines to be both entertaining and factual. “Fringe” is a remarkable work of entertainment and enlightening piece of art. In my opinion.

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Anonymous February 25, 2011 at 4:13 pm

THEY ALSO GET YOU INTERESTED THEN DROP THE SHOW, THE LEAST THEY COULD DO IF THEY DON’T RENEW IS TO GIVE US A CLOSURE STORY INSTEAD OF CANCELLING WITHOUT A DECENT ENDING

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