Tag Archives: Fringe

‘Fringe’ returns tonight at 9PM on FOX [Update: Solid ratings!]

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Great Scott!  Fringe returns tonight with a brand new episode.  In “The Firefly” Christopher Lloyd (Back from the Future) guest stars as Roscoe Joyce, an 80s keyboardist who happens to have many bizarre connections with Walter.  If you’re a long-time Fringe fan, I have no doubt you’ll be following it to its new night.  If you’re a newcomer to the epic sci-fi series, do not hesitate in giving it a shot.  If you’re a supporter of good TV, join the fun and let’s keep this show chugging for many years to come.  If the show retains its Thursday night ratings and manages to attract some new viewers, the Friday night “death slot” can be reinvented.  Let’s do it!

Look in the gallery below to see stills from tonight’s episode, and jump after the break to watch a FOX-produced Fringe music video that nicely summarizes what’s been going on lately and another video featuring the producers talking about the big move.  Fringe Fridays does have a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?

Update: Last night’s Fringe drew a 1.9/6 in the coveted adults 18-49 demo making it the highest rated program of the night!  And everyone was worried that the move to Friday nights was going to be a bad thing.  Get this: Fringe was up 12% from its last original airing on Thursday December 9, attracting 4.83 million viewers.  Simply put, the show attracted more viewers than it did when it aired on Thursday.  Death slot, be gone!  With the season premiere of Kitchen Nightmares as a lead-in, both shows helped FOX win the night and give the network its highest-rated Friday since May 2008.  If Fringe can keep this up for the next few weeks, we can surely expect to hear news of renewal soon.  But here’s the thing: Fringe was up against back-to-back repeats of CBS’ CSI: NY; the competition is bound to get more intense when CBS and The CW (Supernatural) air new episodes next week. (Oh, and this was neat: Christopher Lloyd’s stellar performance added his name to Twitter’s list of Trending Topics during and after the east coast airing of “The Firefly.”)

Update 2: Things just keep getting better for Fringe!  According to Nielsen, the show gained an additional 42 percent in ratings thanks to DVR playback.  This information was gathered three days after the live airing of the Friday episode.  As reported above, “The Firefly” drew a 1.9 rating in the adults 18-49 demo; if you add the DVR spike in viewership that rating shoots up to a 2.7!  (Compare this number to CBS’ Blue Bloods which drew a 2.4 rating on the same night.)  This is fantastic news for Fringe fans; if the show can keep this up (and perhaps perform better) it won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.

[Via TVLine; IGN; Deadline; EW]

Continue reading ‘Fringe’ returns tonight at 9PM on FOX [Update: Solid ratings!] →

FOX renews ‘Raising Hope’ early, comments on cancelled shows & Fringe’s move [Update: J.J. Abrams addresses the move, too]

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One day after ABC granted early renewals to six of its series, competitor FOX decided to show its muscle by renewing its freshman series Raising Hope.  The Greg Garcia comedy was actually the first freshman series of the year to receive a back-nine episode order, so it’s certainly fitting that today it became the first freshman program to be renewed for a second season.  Go Hope!  The laugh-out-loud family comedy is FOX’s highest-rated new series; having that Glee lead-in doesn’t hurt.  The show’s creator Garcia said, “I’m happy that the show is getting another year. But the fact that I’ve been trying to think of a funny quote for the last two hours and this is the best I could come up with makes me a little nervous about season two.”  FOX prez Kevin Reilly also shared his excitement about the continuation of Hope: “Raising Hope has emerged as a comedic standout: wickedly smart, hilarious and full of heart. Greg Garcia and his great cast have established an appointment show on Tuesday nights this season and we’re confident it’s just the beginning of great things to come.”  Raising Hope returns with new episodes Tuesday February 8 at 9PM.  If you’re not watching this show, it’s never too late to start.

Update 3: Click here to watch Hope‘s Golden Globes plea.  Greg Garcia and the cast put together this “For Your Consideration” video and sent it to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association hoping it would help their chances at landing a nomination.  It didn’t, but it’s still well worth a watch.  Let’s just say Cloris Leachman brings down the house with her wildly NSFW language. Continue reading FOX renews ‘Raising Hope’ early, comments on cancelled shows & Fringe’s move [Update: J.J. Abrams addresses the move, too] →

Fringe is about to “re-animate” Friday nights

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Following news that the best sci-fi show on television Fringe is moving to Friday nights, FOX put together this trailer that is all kinds of awesome.  At least we know that the network is willing to push hard for the show to keep it relevant.  The showrunners must be loving this.

Says Dean Norris, Fox senior VP of marketing and special projects: “We are trying to rebrand Friday, and what we’re trying to do with this show specifically is make it kind of like forbidden fruit. We want that teen demographic that might not be our audience right now to say, ‘That this is a show my parents might not want me to watch — but I’m going to watch it, anyway.’”

‘Fringe’ produces tell fans to embrace the Friday move

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This week EW’s Jeff Jensen sat down with Fringe executive producers Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman to discuss the future of Fringe and thoughts about FOX’s decision to shift the sci-fi program to Friday nights.  Here are some choice quotes from the interview.

Wyman on the parallel universe episodes: “You definitely haven’t seen the last of the ‘over there’ world. We’ve established that both of these worlds are linked in a profound way. We are going to attend to that. We are going back ‘over there.’ It’s not going to be forgotten about, but we’re not going to be ‘one on, one off’ right now.”

Pinkner on FOX’s “initial resistance” to the parallel universe storyline: “They were really concerned that if the episodes didn’t have [‘over here’] Walter or Peter in them, it wouldn’t feel like our show anymore. We said that not unlike a show likeLost, Fringe has to constantly evolve, to move and grow and go forward, otherwise we’ll get bored, the cast will get bored, the audience will get bored.”  Adds Wyman: “The alternate world storyline really allowed us to explore the characters deeper via their doppelgängers, to illuminate characters we already know. It’s been a real gas for all of us involved in making the show.”  FOX eventually fell in love with the concept, along with the viewers.

Pinkner on the move to Fridays: “It doesn’t feel loaded to us. It’s not like Fox is saying to us: ‘We’re falling out of love with the show. We’re burning it off by moving it to Friday.” .. “For a year and half now, we’ve been asking and our fans have been asking — to take us off Thursday because the landscape is crowded.”  Adds Wyman: “The research shows that people love the show, but they don’t really want to watch it on Thursday night. Thursday is more of a romantic comedy kind of night, not a hard science fiction night,” says Wyman. “We hope our fans follow us to Friday night. It’s a much easier marketplace, and Fox is going to really support it; they think there’s a real opportunity to reinvent the night.”  Pinkner concludes: “If this felt like a vote of no confidence from Fox, I’d be concerned. But they’ve verbalized the opposite. They think we have a better chance at staying on the air for years to come, which, of course, is what we want, because by design, we have years of story left to tell.”

Yeah, I added the bold font there for effect.  Isn’t this wonderful news?  The Fringe execs just confirmed that there’s “years of story to tell” meaning the show will most likely live on past season 3 and potentially even a fourth season.  After reading the news about the Friday move I felt a bit weary of the situation, but all of their words of encouragement are really comforting.  In the interview the producers also hinted at what’s to come in the second half of the season.  The mystery of The First People will receive some attention, and the January 21 returning-from-hiatus episode is called “Firefly” (an ironic nod to the ill-fated 2002 FOX sci-fi series moved to Friday nights, ironic because the name was decided upon before the writers heard about the scheduling shift) and it will focus on The Observers with a special guest appearance by Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) as an old friend of Walter’s.

Fringe returns Friday, January 21 at 9PM on FOX.

[Via EW]

Get hyped for tonight’s epic ‘Fringe’ episode “Entrada” with this movie-style trailer plus stills

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Normally I do not post trailers for specific show episodes, but this one is a unique exception.  The entire third season of Fringe has led up to this moment.  Ever since “over there” Olivia swapped places with our Olivia in last season’s grand finale we’ve been patiently waiting for our Olivia to realize the switch actually occurred.  And now that she knows who she really is, it’s time for her to come home. While our Olivia tries to figure out a way to do just that, “over there” Olivia has been compromised; thanks to a terse yet all-important message from our trapped Olivia, Peter knows that he’s been sleeping with the enemy and it’s time for answers and ultimately payback. Expect “Entrada” to be one of those pivotal, emotionally-charged epic episodes that cannot be missed. Watch the movie-style trailer edited together by FOX, check out the episode stills in the gallery, and get hyped!  It’s gonna be a wild, exciting journey home.

Fringe airs Thursdays at 9PM on FOX.  Starting January 28 it will air on Fridays.

[Via EW; IGN]

FOX announces midseason schedule, moves ‘Idol’ to Thursday, bumps ‘Fringe’ to Friday

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Today FOX announced their 2011 midseason schedule and it includes the return of Kitchen Nightmares and American Idol, four series premieres (The Chicago Code, Million Dollar Money Drop, Mixed Signals, Bob’s Burgers), and some series program shuffling.  American Idol will now air Wednesdays and Thursdays, and it will serve as a lead-in to Human Target and Bones on those respective days.  So what does all this mean for the fantastic sci-fi series Fringe?  Not good things.  Beginning January 28 the show will be bumped to Friday nights, also known as the the graveyard for ratings-deprived TV series (read: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Dollhouse). Now before you start panicking, you should know that FOX has made this move with good intentions.  According to Deadline “almost half” the show’s viewers record-and-watch using DVRs, and FOX prez Kevin Reilly has high hopes that Fringe’s cult following will stick with the show no matter what night it falls on (you’ve got that right, partner!). “Fringe has a very particular, loyal audience,” says Reilly. “If [Fringe] could stay near the current levels, we’ll get a big trade-up on Friday and will solve our problem there.” Fringe will replace The Good Guys in the 9PM slot. Though they won’t commit to cancellation just yet, FOX has confirmed that Guys and Running Wilde will not be receiving additional episodes this season.

Update: I managed to find a juicier quote from Reilly on the Fringe Friday situation: “We are not killing the show. Over the last week, over 45% of the audience time-shifted the show. That’s almost half of the dedicated audience watching it on their DVRs. It’s been such a loyal fanbase. I will be really disheartened if the viewer base decides to not watch because it shifted one night. I hope they go with it, and if not they have the option of picking it up on their DVRs. If it does anywhere near what it did on Thursdays, we can glue that show to the schedule because it can be a big win for us.”  And there you have it–no need to jump to scary conclusions just yet, Fringe fans.

Look after the break to view the FOX midseason schedule.

[Via Deadline, here & here; EW] Continue reading FOX announces midseason schedule, moves ‘Idol’ to Thursday, bumps ‘Fringe’ to Friday →

Fringe cast photo, plus more premiere stills

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Look what we’ve got here–more Fringe season 3 premiere stills!  And this time they contain strictly images of Alt-Olivia making her way around our universe.  Add these photos to the ongoing collection.  But before you jump into the stills that are waiting in the gallery below, go ahead and study the cast photo pasted above.  Some things I notice: the mysterious images we are left with at every commercial break lay on the floor amongst a brightly lit flashlight; the Observer peering through the doorway to the alternate universe; Astrid’s badass ‘tude; and Walter is not consuming a beverage!

Fringe premieres Thursday, September 23 at 9PM on FOX.

Update: New cast group shot after the break!

[Via EW, here & here; IGN]

Continue reading Fringe cast photo, plus more premiere stills →

Fringe season 3 cast & premiere stills

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Walter.  Walternate.  Olivia.  Bolivia.  Our world.  Their world.  Whose side are we on?  Are we the good guys or the bad guys?  What is Walternate going to do with our Olivia?  How exactly is their Bolivia going to infiltrate our world without getting caught by Walter, Peter, and Astrid?  And what of that doomsday device?  So many questions linger from the amazing alternate world-traveling Fringe season 2 finale it’s hard to wrap your brain around all of it.  But fear not because the season 3 premiere is just around the corner and answers will come.  Check out these cast and season premiere stills (organized in the two galleries below) and let the anticipation and theorizing begin.

“The Box”, the Fringe season premiere episode, airs Thursday, September 23 at 9PM on FOX.

[Via IGN]


A still from the Fringe musical episode

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Ausiello Files’ snagged a still from the set of the April 29 Fringe musical episode.  In it, the characters will cover popular songs that will play out in a Walter Bishop hallucination.

Executive producer Jeff Pinkner: “We didn’t set out to do a musical.  We set out to do an episode that explored Walter’s state of mind — he’s dealing with some very upsetting news.  When we realized that the way Walter would deal with such news would be to try to anesthetize himself with copious amounts of marijuana, well, singing and dancing became a natural outcome.”  Agent Olivia Dunham embodies what Ausiello calls “a retro private-eye persona” and Pinkner goes on to tease: “It’ll be interesting to see how Walter really perceives her.”

Fringe airs Thursday nights at 9PM on FOX.

[Via EW-AusielloFiles]

Fringe retro title sequence

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Fringe fans, how neat was this retro title sequence that played out at the beginning of the show’s best episode yet?  In “Peter,” we were finally told about the heartbreaking story concerning Walter and his dying son and how he stole alternate universe Peter from Walternate.  Clearly the producers wanted to have some fun with this flashback episode, and so they altered the title sequence and changed the font of the hovering location words when the places being shown were set in the past.  Thank goodness FOX renewed Fringe.  Cue sigh of relief.  (Look after the break to compare this to the standard opening sequence.)

Continue reading Fringe retro title sequence →

Fringe: The Musical

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During a Glee-themed week of musical programming in May, FOX is airing an musically-inspired episode of Fringe.  How odd, I know!  The creepy and the fantastical will turn even freakier in the episode titled “Overture” that will feature series regulars Agent Dunham (Anna Torv), Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson), Agent Farnsworth (Jasika Nicole), Nina Sharp (Blair Brown), and even Broyles (Lance Reddick) break out into song and dance.  No, this isn’t a peek into the alternate universe where all our characters live as professional singers and dancers.  The characters will cover popular songs that will play out in a Walter Bishop hallucination.

Says musically trained Farnsworth (Nicole): “When I first read that, I thought, ‘How are they going to pull this off? This is really weird.’ And it makes complete sense within the story. It’s essentially Walter kind of manifesting his idea. He’s trying to get his mind off of, you know, what’s going on because he’s just waiting to see what’s going to go on with Peter. And essentially he’s kind of created this little world in his head. And so everything is super-symbolic so all the characters embody the qualities that he notices about them the most, which is really neat. And it happens in the 1940s. Everybody’s in 1940s dress, but they still have cell phones and stuff. So it’s just his brain, because he’s telling a story to someone. Sort of like a bedtime story to help ease his anxiety. So we get to sing in it.”

What’s interesting is that Sharp (Brown) and Broyles (Reddick) come from musical theater backgrounds.  Says Reddick: “…everyone was kind of freaked out about the singing.  For me, it was like having to play the piano at the same time; that freaked me out a little bit. But, yeah, it was fun. For me, what was more fun was actually being able to play completely to the character.”

As strange as this all sounds, it might just work.  If Buffy can pull it off, so can the Bishops & Company.

[Via SciFiWire]

FOX picks up Fringe for a third season

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What’s that you’re pointing at, Walter?  Is the parallel universe telling you something?  FOX decided to renew Fringe for a third season, huh?  YES!

Despite the recent drop in ratings due to its competitive Thursday night time slot, FOX is reassuring its rabid fans that Fringe will return next fall for a third season.  Fringe proved itself a worthy contender this season when its audience numbers were up on nights when its competition (CSI, Grey’s Anatomy) aired repeats.  Along with a good amount of DVR recordings, what this proves is that Fringe still has a strong viewership; it’s just that it isn’t priority number one against other high profile shows.  The renewal comes at a good time; Fringe is on hiatus right now, so the guarantee of another season puts the writers in a comfortable position; they can plan ahead and not worry about the fear of wrapping story lines up too quickly.

Fringe returns with all new episodes Thursday, April 1 on FOX.

[Via EW; IGN]