Gone: Fringe (again)
Nine promised Fringe in summer, right? They just didn't say for how long...
- Published by David Knox
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This really is very poor for customer relations…
Nine has now dropped Fringe from its schedule a second time, despite promising the show would air over summer (technically they kept the promise, they just never promised for how long). It is to be replaced with repeats of Crime Investigation Australia from Monday.
On Monday night the show managed 602,000, beaten by a double ep of Bones on 1.16m and ABC’s 90 minute Celebrity: Dominick Dunne slightly ahead on 697,000.
Now the J.J.Abrams sci fi, hailed as one of Nine’s big titles for the second part of the year can’t even find an audience in summer. Or is it that the audience was disillusioned by the first dumping? When Nine initially dropped Fringe readers of TV Tonight vented their anger in droves.
Nine’s abandonment of Fringe, now out of schedule entirely, follows TEN’s promise of 90210 for summer, but given just one night’s return in the last week of ratings. It didn’t even make it to summer.
What remains something of a contradiction for Nine is its continual courting of younger, advertiser-friendly viewers while demonstrating programming disdain for the shows that appeal to the market and failing to understand the way younger viewers think.
Nine would do well to spend some time on focus groups -but then, these things kinda cost money….
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- Tagged with 90210, Bones, Celebrity: Dominick Dunne, Crime Investigation Australia, Fringe
46 Responses
still no fringe, i dont expect it to come back at all now, but even if it did i wouldn’t watch it because i’ve already seen the first 14 episodes by downloading them it’s so much easier, i wanted to say shame on channel 9 for not airing fringe for 2 reasons 1 being that fringe was the only sci-fi show on 9 and 2 is that there are 2 australian actors playing leads in this show you’d think that they would at least air the show for that, but no it’s all gotta be about the ratings, stuff you channel 9 im done with tv.
What the free tv network suits don’t seem to understand or do understand but choose to ignore it is that the tv viewer won’t tolerate their shows being rescheduled or look like being rescheduled or disappearing altogether because of so-called poor ratings and they resort to illegally downloading copies. Those copies are then quickly transferred to DVD and sent to friends and before you know it there ar thousands and thousands of copies out there
By the time tv programmes like Legend of the Seeker, Merlin, Sanctuary, Eureka, Stargate Universe and the like get to Australia they will have been seen by pretty much everyone in the country all because the viewer doesn’t trust the networks to air the entire run of episodes on a regular day and time
I would hold Fringe up as an example, it’s an excellent series
Definitely right Mark, that’s how i heard about Chuck and Eleventh Hour.
@Josh
Quote – “No offence David, But after this coming Monday, we’ve officially caught up to the US. So Nine had no option of continuing it over the summer because there are no episodes left to air!
New episodes don’t air until almost February in the US. I love your site and visit it daily, but what was the point of this article and all the fuss; knowing that they had run out of episodes?”
Actually you are very mistaken. The US is up to a 10th episode and is on break until early January. So there is a lot of fuss about another cancelled show.
These days, it makes more sense to read or hear about a new show on the Internet, then download it, or wait for the DVD.
The FTA networks are completely hopeless now; don’t even give them another chance.
I have all 10 eps thanks to the wonders of modern tech.
I cant wait till it;s return in Jan or Feb…
Marco: “Oh, FFS!!!” My sentiment exactly.
Every time something I like comes on (OK, I like Sci-Fi/paranormal.), it vanishes because the networks freak that they aren’t #1 100% of the time.
This is why I need broadband. BitTorrent is far more reliable than Seven, Nine and Ten programming combined. Less ads too.
i’ve been on holidays nearly a week already and instead of watching free to air TV I have been watching TV shows on DVD (and movies too) – there are no ads, no changing times, you can watch it when you want and channel 9 can’t take it away from you, like everything else they stop/change etc. to be honest I have not watched WIN/9 all holidays…what’s that tell you??
So obviously non-ratings period means nothing.
This isn’t surprising but it’s really infuriating. What’s the point of taking it off if it rates low when ti doesn’t really matter?
Is episode 7 the only episode they missed?
On the bright side for me, at least there is no longer a clash with Army Wives.
This is a shame especially since this week’s episode was very very good.
The removal of Fringe from the 9’s schedule means that Star Wars: The Clone Wars on 10 is currently the only sci fi show that is currently being shown on free to air (non-HD) TV.
I’m a considerably tech savy guy, but i could never quite understand why people would rather download tv shows & movies with crappy sound & picture quality, just so they could watch them first.
I have now seen the light!
If the networks keep abusing the public, more & more people are going to jump on the BT train. For considerably cheaper than a Pay-TV subscription you get internet & all the TV shows you like, in as high/low a quality as you like, with no ads, whenever you like.
I’m sorry, but after years of holding the high moral ground, i can take the abuse no more.
You’ve lost another one.
I remember when I loved non-ratings because I got to see all the shows they’d ripped off during the year, it was almost as busy as ratings season. Fringe and L&O are the only shows I’ve been watching.
Never saw the last season & a half of Judging Amy either 🙁
Nine could and should shift both Fringe and Gossip Girl to their 9HD channel
(just as they’re currently showing 2 year old Nip Tuck episodes on 9HD on Monday nights). It’s unfortunate The Sarah Connor, Pushing Daisies and Chuck shows didn’t get moved to 9HD also, instead of being sold to Foxtel. I expect Ten will move the mediocre 90210 show to 10HD, where it can remain at a stable timslot.
The funny thing is, if you are trying to court a younger audience you really need to be on the mark with your programming or they’ll download instead. Dicking around with the scheduling does not encourage viewer loyalty. I can only say that Channel Nine deserves everything it gets.
How is a show expected to gain an audience if they never know if it’s going to be on or not? I am so glad I discovered the joys of bittorrent after Moonlight was ignominiously pulled last summer. Channel Nine can sink into the sad hole it’s dug for itself for all I care. I only care how things rate in the U.S. now.
Word of advice to any Fringe fans… Download it. See Ch9, that’s not so hard is it.
Sorry Josh, but there is one more episode left.
Kudo’s to ch 9 though, keep up the good work you idiots. It has justified me having a large download quota so I can watch my favourite shows that continually get treated like crap.
not even remotely surprised. I didnt get into it this time around because a) how it was bounced around before getting axed b) plus it was up against spicks & specks, hollow men etc c) saw no point in getting into it a few episodes into the season.
It’s such a shame that to people who aren’t “in the know”, downloading torrents of our fave shows is an illegal activity.
If just one of the commercial networks have a “series timeslot guarantee” that means that for say 3 months, a show will be on at the same time every week and not moved no matter what, they will win viewers and possibly ratings overall.
The biggest problem with free to air TV nowadays whether it be during ratings time or summer, is that alot of shows that would otherwise do well are not given a chance. Shows are written off or moved for too quickly.
To me its a bit like your local shops changing every time you go there, or a bar or restaurent closing their doors after having a night that not as many people turned up. Sooner or later you’ll either go somewhere else or just buy online. Anyone in business knows brand building and loyalty takes time, and consistancy to get there.
they just don’t get it do they.
it will never be sucessful at 9:30 even during the summer, so put it on at 10:30 or 11:30. so we can record it to watch it later. sure some people will complain but not as many that will if it is completely gone.
and crime investigation australia = 9 now has more factuals than 7 no matter which way you look at it.
Josh it doesn’t matter if it’s one ep or 100, look at ch10 doing the same with Burn Notice (2 eps unaired) also House and NCIS which have continued and big fan will just get these online, rather than wait months for them to be re-started in Feb.
I have to wonder how long Flashpoint will last on 09?