Fringe: FOX Pres Talks About the Friday Ratings

EW’s James Hibbard recently interviewed FOX entertainment president Kevin Reilly about Fringe’s performance on Friday nights. Reilly said, “I’m so psyched about it… It does go to show you the loyalty of the genre audience, when you get the right show. I’m so grateful to that audience, I’d like to shake their hands. We have a lot of passion for that show here.”

It should be noted that the conversation took place prior to last Friday when Fringe had its second significant drop in the ratings. The series was moved to Friday nights on January 21st and attracted a 1.9 rating in the 18-49 demographic and 4.87 million viewers. That’s about what it had been doing on Thursdays. The following week, the numbers were about the same.

On February 4th, the demo dropped to a 1.6 rating and 4.26 million viewers, a loss of 16% in the demo. Last Friday, the numbers for Fringe fell again, to a 1.4 rating and 3.74 million, a decline of 13% in the demo. Some are quick to point out that many series were down last week but ultimately a show must be judged on its own, on how profitable it is for a network.

There are eight episodes left in this season. The ratings for those will either convince FOX to give Fringe a fourth season or that it’s just not worth the expense.

What do you think? Will the numbers for Fringe rise, continue to fall, or have they evened off?