Choice of Scheduling Damages Ratings for ‘Fringe’
The impact of Fox’s decision to move Fringe to Thursday’s is now well and truly evident.
Fringe used to air on Tuesday’s where it was the no.1 ranked program on the night, consistently raking in more than 10 million viewers. Clearly attempting to take away from their competition rather than add to Fringe, Fox decided to air Fringe’s second season on Thursday’s.
Everyone except Fox thought the move was a mistake, but now that the stats are in there can be no further debate. Fringe’s season premiere saw ratings fall by 9%, and its most recent episode fell even more sharply, drawing only 5.9 million viewers – roughly half of what it used to get.
Fringe has gone from easily achieving a no.1 rank on its night to fighting for no.4. Now that’s a monumental scheduling mistake.
September 26th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
It was a huge mistake to move Fringe to the frightening night of Thursdays where Grey’s Anatomy and CSI rule the ratings. I hope they rethink this and move this to another night.
September 26th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
You might want to wait until after the CBS and ABC premiere weeks before you call it a mistake. Besides, FOX is on record (and gave out several statements this week) that Fringe isn’t supposed to win anything, it’s merely supposed to give them better numbers for their usually crappy Thursday slots – which is has, in droves.
One quote from FOX:
“Don’t worry about FRINGE. We expected it to take a hit given the new night and the competition, but its combination with BONES is doing exactly what we’d hoped they would do for FOX on the night: Lift our ratings and total viewers for the night. Last night’s telecast showed a lift of more than +25% in the adult 18-49 demo and more than +70% in total viewers versus our Thursday night average last season – so they are both in good standing as far as we’re concerned!”
September 26th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
“You might want to wait until after the CBS and ABC premiere weeks before you call it a mistake.”
WTF does that even mean? Makes no sense.
Here’s what does make sense.
Fringe costs a shit load more than Terminator the Sarah Connor Chronicles. It’s ratings are now only 2 million more than Sarah Connor. Do the numbers.
Like this article says, Fringe was kicking arse and taking names on Tuesdays. Now it isn’t.
I call BS on Fox’s quote:’Dont’ worry about Fringe” nonsense. There is nothing on Fox’s mind except ratings. Ratings are what = advertising dollars. If a show rates low, its attraction to advertising dollars is low. If that’s the case, and the cost of the show is high, the show is in danger and Fringe is one of Fox’s most expensive shows…
You can’t convince me moving Fringe wasn’t a mistake. You can’t convince me that because Fox has taken some numbers away from their competition that they’ll continue to plow millions of dollars per episode into Fringe. It simply isn’t cost effective.
In the end, it’s not about hurting the enemy, it’s about making money. If they can’t make money, hurting the enemy only hurts themselves.
It’s basic business, to think otherwise is to buy into their BS.
Moving Fringe to Thur has hurt the show. Pure and simple.
That’s my view I don’t think I’m theorizing here, I’ve seen it time and time again, year after year. This is how it goes.
September 26th, 2009 at 9:51 pm
I agree with Guy, that Fox quote is fluff. They say it lifted their viewers on Thur, but the REALITY is they dropped millions of viewers overall. Show’s get cancelled for falling ratings. At best, budgets get shaved.
How long can Fox pour millions per ep into Fringe if it leaves them fourth in the popularity pecking order? Not long ago Fringe was moved to Canada and Kirk Acevedo sacked all to save on budget, proving Fringe is not exempt from the hideous revenue vs cost ratings model. Last year it wasn’t questioned. This year it will be, ESPECIALLY if ratings continue to fall. That’s the rub.
On a brighter note, Fringe is still rockin so I hope Fox don’t about face in the future, that’s for sure. But it would be rare for them or any network to go against the grain for any show. I reckon Dollhouse is an exception, and only cause Fox exec’s love Eliza Dushku’s butt in tight leather, or so the word goes.
Maybe Fringe people can put Anna Torv into leather, might help…
Oh yeah, and LOL to the idea that “Fringe isn’t supposed to win anything”. Hahah. A network saying “we dont really want to be the no.1 show, so don’t worry” is one of the most retarded things I’ve heard in long while. You’d have to be in an alternate reality to believe that. Of course they want to be no.1. That’s what their shareholders want ffs!
September 27th, 2009 at 3:36 am
Fox really needs to go back to the drawing board and rethink this.
They need to move Fringe back to where it belongs on Tuesday nights.
Everybody that I spoke to about this thought this was a huge mistake now we see that we were all right.
It would also help a lot if Fox would extend their primetime line up until 11 pm instead of having the local news on at 10 pm.
Fringe is one of the best series on TV and it would be a shame if it got cancled due to poor ratings because it was put up against Grey’s Anatomy CSI and Supernatural.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:30 am
I am sure Fox told Firefly not to worry about ratings right before they blew it out of the sky! It is totally insane to kill a fantastic show just to try to “boost ratings” that are nonexistant for Fox on Thursday night due to the powerhouses on the other channels at 9:00! MOVE FRINGE BACK TO TUESDAY WHERE IT BELONGS–SHAME ON YOU FOX TO MISTREAT SCI-FI!!