Gone: Fringe
Another big US drama is kicked to the kerb as Nine drops Fringe, to be replaced by The Mentalist.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under Programming
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.
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122 Responses
CH 9 you suck! as always unreliable and unfair to veiwers.
Disappointing! I was really enjoying Fringe.
Time to download the series from now on i guess!
Genre related TV shows need time to mature and build up their TV audience. Seldom will a sci-fi TV show be an instant hit (like rare exception The X Files) It’s a pattern that can be tracked back to the 70’s. The success of genre shows were not solely due to good ratings, but also the patience of the programmer to attempt to nurture the show. Maybe try a different advertising campaign. It’s when programmers act like excecutioners and go on a culling spree is when a show stands no chance. Look what happened when Jericho was cancelled in the US after its first season. The people had the power to ressurect the show and they did. I think a single coffee bean was sent in the mail from fans around the world. The studio started piling up with mountains of coffee beans. They got the message. Maybe we need to do something similar. Like send then a copy of the last printed TV guide that had Fringe listed.
If you really want 9 to listen, stop watching their news, and get everyone you know to stop watching their news for one week. If the news ratings fall, they will fall over themselves trying to fix the problem.
So let’s spread the word. No channel 9 news, especially at 6pm from Monday 27 to Sunday 2 Nov.
Oh, and let channel 9 know why the news has tanked.
jesus, who cares?
i downloaded every episode anyway, knowing nein would bone it ASAP
i was just getting into fringe but i missed last weeks episode which was its last 🙁 im not suprised did this they always do it. Before fringe was on i didnt watch channel 9 simply because no real variety and it was either 2 and a half men or CSI. on top of that shows were packed full of ads. the only time i would even consider to look at 9 if there was a good movie on or nothing else to watch. At least i still have 10 and 7 to fill my needs. ill give channel 9 one more chance, screw me over again and i wont watch channel 9 ever again untill it improves.
@#$%%! I try and avoid low-brow channel 9 as much as possible, but Fringe was a show I was just starting to get into. Now they suddenly pull it off the air. Channel 9, you have the consistency of a bowel movement during a cholera epidemic.
This show has x-files written all over it, it was good, but we were never going to find out what happens. The main characters are never going to get it togather. It was probably better it got cancelled now before we all got into it.
Nine has absolutely no idea. There are too many reality and police shows on at the moment. Fringe was a breath of fresh air. How do they expect to get a following for a tv new show when they only air the first 3 episodes.
Give a new show a chance!!!
Booooo, bring it back, bring it back, bring it back!!!
Channel 9 totally suck for doing this, Fringe is an awesome show ! Whoever made this executive descision should be shot!
Bring back Fringe!!!!!!!!!
ARRrrrrrrrrr !!! so angry as I proceed to pull out my hair!!! Just settled down to an enjoyable Wednesday night of watching Fringe and what pops up but the Mentalist!! You got to be Kidding!!..Not Happy Channel Nine!!!..”please explain!”…..
Change the time slot…change the day….but please put it back on!!!..Don’t treat us like children and make decisions for us and give this show a chance!!…
I am really angry and disapointed that nine cancelled ‘Fringe’…. It was my new favourite show, and I looked forward to watching it every week.
Can someone from nine, who has authority to speak on behalf of nine please advise the general public what is happening with the show, and when it will be aired, what time slot/day. A quick advertisement appeared on the television just before the mentalist began, saying it will be aired at a later stage…..
This is ridiculous, I cant even buy the series yet, because all episodes havn’t been aired in the USA.
Anyone who didnt watch the show, doesnt know what they were missing out on. Its a crime show with real science combined… It tops CSI and Criminal Minds etc etc etc.
Very disgruntled viewer
Gutted great show, something outside of the rest of the crime programming thats on and thats what the telly needs a bit of variety. literally just found this website today couple minutes before the show should have started and realised about kitchen nightmares to!!
So it had a few less viewers than house, if the main shows are devided up by 800k, 650k and 2x1m than thats just a demographic of taste and the people into the other series arent gonna swap any way!
The simplest thing would be to stop making us watch repeats of 2.5 men (love the show) and give us the programme then. Or alternatively get rid of all the repeats there putting on and air then replace the repeast with remainder of the programmes they’ve paid for and people want to see – job done everyone happy, and that wayvthey can use the repeats when they get really hard up!
Seriously get a new decission maker up there – there wasting money, losing viewers, and losing credibility
Channel 9 – Why do you insist on pulling programmes off air with absolutely no warning, or advice on what is happening ?? And here i was thinking uncle Kerry had passed away … seems like everyone who wants to be him is starting with the Doug Mulray “rip it off during an ad break” mentality, and then actually trying to use their friggin brains well after that.
You will never win every time slot, however you may just gain a substantial number of viewers on a regular basis if you can try and be just that … regular. Want to know what people do when they flick on the TV looking for one of their favourite shows, and discover something else there in the timeslot … they don’t sit and watch it for a while to evaluate it, they turn to over to one of your competitors …. or put on a DVD, or go and download which doesn’t help anyones ratings …. wake up channel 9. With all of the communication tools at your disposal, let people know what is happening you bunch of morons.
What about us poor people that live remote and don’t even get channel 10 or any HD channel or Pay TV? Put shows on at a later time so we at least have something to tape to watch later in the week, when there is usually nothing on but football! Internet here can’t even be guaranteed, so give us a break and stop removing shows.
I really enjoyed fringe and was loking forward to tonigths episode, we always watch crimanal minds as we tape it for later. Bad desicion cahannel 9. Put Fringe back on.
Bloody Nine.
This is why I don’t watch network television. The mongrels get you hooked on a show and then change timeslots willy nilly, or cancel the show entirely. Well bugger nine. They can take a flying leap. I won’t be watching them again. I’ll just wait for the DVD box sets and buy those, just like I have with Heroes, Lost, BSG, and others.
Well thanks for helping me choose my new broadband connection 9. You can forget my 8:30 timeslot from now it. Back to House and downloading any show that looks decent that has ‘9’ attached to it.
This is pathetic! How rude and inconsiderate! At least move it to another time slot and let the 670000+ viewers who enjoy the show watch it! You stupid morons!!!
Boo Ch9. I prefer sci-fi to to crime. Crime shows are constantly finding the worst in humanity to make episodes about. I hate watching shows about rape, child abuse etc. Bring back the sci-fi imagination and innovation. At least we aren’t filling our brains with evil content. Australian TV can’t seem to grasp the fact that the fantasy/sci-fi audience is potentially huge seeing as Fantasy/sci-fi is the biggest selling book genre.
tossers.
sorry was that to blunt for everyone…
nine are tossers…for that matter expand that across the entire network broadcast business.
Rule of thumb to built customer loyalty:
Be Consistent
Be Reliable
Be Good at what you do.
Sorry Network TV but you fail on all accounts in offering good customer service.
Damn it, was really starting to enjoy fringe, but typical from channel nine. Fringe was never going to win the ratings war, its definitely not for everyone given its quirky sci-fi nature.
Oh the “mental” ..ist, what a piece of ..”work”… Not Simon Baker’s or anyones.
It works just like a sleeping tablet.
And the brave TV scheduler at NINE who follows this with CSI NY……
Oh dear, we will be asleep soundly.
To the Idiots @ nine scheduling look for new jobs, replace great new groundbreaking shows with this dribble…….what posessed you, even us women dont want to watch Simon Baker.
“VIVA channel 10”
I can’t believe channel nine has done it again! I loved fringe! sooo over channel nine and they way they keep pulling good programmes off air, maybe i’ll just download everything on my computer, that way I know i’ll get to see it!!!
The Mentalist will be the next show to be axed. It’s completely lacklustre and Simon Baker won’t be able to hold the fort with this one. His co-stars lack on screen presence, and the writing is crap.