0/5

Gone: Fringe

Another big US drama is kicked to the kerb as Nine drops Fringe, to be replaced by The Mentalist.

Nine has just pulled the plug on one of it’s big new dramas, Fringe.

The big budget “thrilling new drama” the network recently promoted as with a big marketing push has been pulled from it schedule effective immediately.

Nine will instead move The Mentalist into its place from next Wednesday at 8:30pm, followed by CSI: NY.

This week the series rated a disappointing 671,000 viewers -thrashed by Criminal Minds’ 1.47m, beaten by Spicks and Specks 1.23m, and pipped by House’s 885,000 viewers.

The complex, futuristic drama starring Australian actors Anna Torv and John Noble has fared better in the US, holding most of its 9million viewers and winning a full series.

Nine has had trouble with its Wednesday line-ups, already pulling Kitchen Nightmares USA and McLeod’s Daughters from the 8:30pm timeslots, the latter last aired to 931,000.

Nine has also had a run of bad luck with sci-fi shows including Moonlight, Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles all under-performing, while Seven’s Bionic Woman and Heroes had uneven results and Torchwood and Battlestar Galactica were moved by TEN onto TEN HD.

When Nine announced with considerable fanfare that it had picked up the rights to Fringe, readers on this site were sceptical, vowing to download it for fear of Nine pulling the plug on the show.

Tim Worner, programmer at rival Seven, recently commented on the difficult game of programming saying, “The aim of our game is to try to please most of the people most of the time and it’s a very tricky equation.”

No doubt Michael Healy concurs today.

Plans for a special by Mythbusters on October 29 are also now shelved. Nine is yet to announce plans for unaired episodes of Fringe and a regular Sunday show where The Mentalist was sitting…

UPDATE: A spokesperson for Nine said Fringe’s fastracking was complicated by the US election but could not confirm a new timeslot for the series yet.

Kindly link to this site when sourcing or posting in messageboards, thanks!

122 Responses

  1. So the curse for Anna Torv continues… the dramas she has a role in (Secret Life of Us, Mistresses, Young Lions and now Fringe) rated poorly and in most cases were pulled from the schedule. I feel sorry for her.

  2. Not surprised. This show is horrible – I knew it wouldn’t last. Abrams is capable of a lot better than this, LOST and Alias are two of my favourite series, but I couldn’t get past the pilot episode of Fringe. It was horrible in pretty much every way. I also predict a similar outcome when Nine airs Eleventh Hour next year, as its pretty much the exact same show as Fringe

  3. So again we trust ch9 and again they let us down with poor programing choices, not happy and now no Mythbusters on the 29th, wonder if they’ll bring that forward?

    Guess I’ll check it out online from now on, just like what happened with Moonlight and many many shows before!

  4. …..and this is why we download. Looks like i’ll be upgrading my broadband plan lol.
    I bet inside a month – they’ll kick the mentallist to the kerb too – only to be replaced by CSI (whatever version) or 2.5 men.

    C9 is now, a 2 trick poney – CSI (im putting all versions under the one umbarella) and 2.5 men….

    I agree with other posts – on other channels, this wud have been bumped to a later time / a HD channel.

    finally – why would anyone want to watch c10 / c9 / c7 ona wednesday nite, when there’s ABC – especially spicks and specs – every show is guaranteed supply a few belly laughs -and it’s good to finish off the day with a good old episode of the x-files on 10hd !

  5. This show is obviously destined for 10:30 or 9HD (preferably 10:30) so why not put it there now and stay on the fastrack. atleast then more people wouldn’t be pushed to the internet – no way to treat viewers

    i guess there will be a lot of red faces after the “epic new drama” “tv’s best new show” and “blockbuster new” were used. people fall for these lines that are not in touch with ratings.

    i guess when a “epic new drama” really does comes along what credibility will 9 have?

  6. Look I get that the networks do drop shows way to often and sometimes are too quick to pull out the axe. I really do think the nets treat the viewers with contempt. But with this example (Fringe) it really was showing no signs of growth or improvement. In fact it was dropping every week.

    Nine gave it a huge promo push, aired a 2 minute “sneak peak” right after 60 Minutes in Sunday primetime, encored it…AND most importantly of all – Nine gace it the biggest lead in it has – new ep of 2.4 Men (getting about 1.4 million) at 8pm! If that is not throwing everything behind it I don’t know what is. Last night Fringe dipped to 671,000 viewers, and did not make the top 10 in 18-49 or 16-39. Sorry, that is just a huge failure. Those kind of figures really hurt Nine’s Wednesday, and begin to have a huge effect on weekly reach and advertising rates.

    People keep saying “what about the fans” well sorry. There wasn’t enough of you. 671,000 at 8.30 Wednesday is just too low a number for a network to make a profit from that hour.

    I agree in the past Nine has been qay to quick to pull the plug: Canal Road perfect example. But for Fringe, I think it was time to go.

    Hopefully next year when Seven Nine and Ten have their SD 2nd 24 hour channels, these kind of shows will move to the sister channel – and to prime slots. So you will see Sarah Connor, Fringe, Canal Road etc on 8.30 on Nine’s 2nd channel.

  7. Channel 9 if you are listening

    Put Fringe, Moonlight, Terminator on 9HD only timeslot if its not rating well!!

    Removing it completely is crazy, and no wonder people are downloading shows its impossible to keep up!!

  8. No surpises here, watched 1 and a 1/2 episodes(episode 1/Pilot etc and half of episode 2/ 2nd episode Nine screened), but gave up as I thought it was crap.
    There was no way this show was going to last in this timeslot, it is more suited to a 10:30pm timselot – Fringe will either end up on 9HD or a latenight timeslot.

  9. I am genuinely surprised they didn’t replace it with Two and a Half Men. Nine should move the new episodes to Wednesdays so it is out of the way of Packed to the Rafters, and so I can watch PTTR, NCIS and Two and a Half Men. Currently I can only watch one (PTTR) and tape another (which is NCIS) on Tuesdays nights.

  10. “The aim of our game is to try to please most of the people most of the time and it’s a very tricky equation.”

    What a load of bulls**t! They’re not out to please us! They’re out to win the ratings war and they’re not going to if they keep pulling s**t like this one us!

    I had a feeling this would happen. I mean 9 keep buying Sci-Fi shows and they don’t even belong on there in the first place, They advertise the hell out of them and then they’re pulled after a short amount of time.

    I’ve been really enjoying Fringe but I knew it wouldn’t last.

  11. Dangit.. I thought it was only a matter of time. Nine did it to Smallville and they did it to Sarah Connor Chronicles as well (and basically any other show that isn’t based around police or hospitals or a court room).

    I wish Seven or 10 had this show. On 10 I’d at least probably be able to see it on their HD channel and seven, they’d just put it to 10.30.

    So what is Nine doing for the fans?

  12. Colour me unsurprised. Has anyone else reached the point (where I am currently) of just shrugging their shoulders and putting sidereel into my Google search?

    I’m just completely apathetic about it. And not just Nine, because Seven and TEN are just as culpable. Time to move to the US. At least they play out their series…

  13. Again, like anything on Nine (or on any network these days actually) that isnt crime related its given the boot. I get that stuff like this is not popular, but Nine have the downright disgusting habit of removing a show from the schedule completly and shelving it indefinatly. Seven are the best, just moving the series that dont work later into the night; im sure we could be spared Balls of Steel for heavens sakes. Ten seem to have their HD channel good for cult shows as well eg BSG. Nine use their HD channel for 2+ year old cancelled series that they never got around to airing the first time. Some things never change with Nine – and its examples like this why i view via other means.

  14. danness: Agree with you completely. The only thing that seems to last a whole season is The AFL/NRL Footy Shows and Friday Night Football (but even then only in Brisbane, GC and Sydney)

  15. Five episodes, exactly as I predicted. I understand that its ratings were bad, but I think these are the main reasons why it failed:

    – it’s on channel 9
    – channel 9 mistreat nearly all shows, especially sci-fi
    – it never started at 8.30 and finished at 9.30 like they advertised, but sometimes went until 9.40

  16. it kinda sux channel 9 are treating their viewers this way… i refuse to watch channel 9 at all and have done so for about a year now…any show i watch that channel 9 airs i download…..my friends do the same

  17. Really unhappy with this. They could have moved it to a later timeslot rather than getting rid of it completely.

    There really needs to be something done with all these frantic changes made by the networks, it’s starting to get really pathetic and rude. I can’t even remember the last time I got to watch a good show all the way through on Australian television without interruptions.

Leave a Reply