I don’t blame FOX for Fringe’s decline in ratings. The fact is, Fringe is a challenging show that requires a lot of attention and has been positioned against some successful shows that don’t. Fringe runs against two of the most successful procedurals on the TV schedule, Grey’s Anatomy and CSI, as well as NBC’s block of 30-minute comedy The Office and Outsourced. Not even considering the cable offerings, Thursday at 9:00pm is your DVR’s equivalent of cardio-hour. Fringe simply couldn’t keep up with the competition there in terms of its must-watch-live status, but on the other hand Fringe is a phenom in DVR performance. Fringe tops the DVR charts consistently, destroying it’s live competitors Grey’s and CSI in terms of gains in the key demo of adult viewers aged 18-49. (See this piece at TVByTheNumbers.) The sad fact is: DVR numbers only tell the potential for a show if the mitigating DVR-choice factors – time slot, competition, etc. – were removed. On the up side, while Fringe still has some growing to do to crawl outside of the bubble, the fact is Friday could potentially convert a sizable share of those DVR numbers into live views.
Another thing worth considering about this scheduling thing is that while it is true that FOX often puts scripted shows on Fridays that are in danger of cancellation, in this case there may be an entirely different set of reasoning. FOX could be looking to Fringe as its best hope for bringing value back to Friday, after The Good Guys pretty much hosed the value of the time-slot. Networks use selected slices of time to set the value of their advertising space. They call this “The Sweeps.” During the sweeps, ratings data is tabulated to be representative of the various demos related to each time-slot. In the last sweeps period The Good Guys was essentially a joke. It pulled cable level live viewers, and even worse adult viewer demos. In the next round of sweeps, which kick off in February, FOX needs to bring some value back to that time slot – but at the same time cannot move a ‘successful’ show into a night where it will most assuredly lose viewers. Of the shows that would make the most sense – Lie To Me, Fringe, and Human Target – only Fringe will have enough new episodes available to make it through February sweeps. Again: Fringe was the only choice if FOX wanted to undo the devaluation of The Good Guys, there is simply nothing else on their schedule that could fill that spot.
Granted, it could be a lot of smoke blowing, but FOX head Kevin Reilly speaks of the Fringe scheduling in very positive terms on Deadline.com saying “Fringe has a very particular, loyal audience. If Fringe could stay near the current levels, we’ll get a big trade-up on Friday and will solve our problem there.”
The fact is, Fringe does have a very loyal audience and it is very likely Fringe will retain more core viewers in this Friday move than something like House, or Bones. The key word in Reilly’s statement is that he believes FOX has a ‘Friday Problem.’ The truth is, most networks do – aside from the potential for diminished demos in the adult range there are a lot of organic factors that make Friday a poor choice for major advertising campaigns. Fringe has a hard road ahead of itself to make Friday profitable enough to ensure a renewal, but the chances may be better than you think.
22
2010
In Defense of FOX – Why Fringe Friday Was Unavoidable
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16
2010
Fringe Exclusive: Across the Universes
WARNING: Contains Spoilers!
Who says you can’t go home again? Now that Fringe’s Olivia knows she’s actually a captive in Walternate’s wild world, it’s time for our heroine to head back to the universe she belongs in.
“Olivia just needs to find someone she can trust,” says Anna Torv, whose Agent Dunham has spent the bulk of Season 3 on the other side — being brainwashed and experimented on by Walternate — while her doppelgänger (aka Bolivia) was over here, working as a secret agent within Fringe Division by day and rocking an unsuspecting Peter’s world by night. Thankfully, her time in the alt-verse has allowed Olivia to line up a few allies to aid in her escape, including, of all people, alt-Broyles.
“I figure out that she knows who she really is,” reveals Lance Reddick, adding that his by-the-book Fringe Division leader ultimately opts to betray his country after uncovering Walternate’s wicked plan to get his hands on the Cortexiphan in Olivia’s system. “He decides to save Olivia because they’re about to dissect her. She is the only one they have ever found who can cross back and forth between universes safely without any of the effects, and they want to know why.”
Back in this world, things are looking just as grim for Bolivia. With her cover blown and unable to secure an extraction back to the alternate universe, the Mata Hari winds up in federal custody and facing trial. But then something sick and certifiably Fringe occurs to send our home team into a tizzy. “Shock, horror, all of that,” is all Reddick will reveal of the twist.
Once the dust settles and both women are back where they belong, it won’t be long before even more shock and horror set in. After all, Peter’s got some ‘splaining to do about what he’s been up to — and who he’s been getting down with — since the real Olivia’s been gone.
“The last interaction he had with Olivia was, ‘I’m not quite sure how I feel about you, but I’m gonna take a huge emotional gamble on what we could be,’” says Joshua Jackson. “Now the payoff for that gamble was that he actually did fall in love, just not with the woman he was signing on for. How do you broach that conversation?”
13
2010
3×08 – Entrada Still
8
2010
Anna Torv says the biggest test for both Olivias is coming soon
This season on Fringe, Anna Torv’s been playing two Olivia Dunhams stretched to their limit. But she told a conference call just now that both Olivias are about to face their greatest challenge of all. Spoilers ahead!
That challenge? Going home. Torv hinted strongly that both Olivias will have to deal with going back to their old lives after having had a bigger taste of life on the “other side.” And with both Olivias getting to know the alternate-universe people who are technically their enemies — and gaining sympathy once they realize that people on both sides are good people, who are just trying to save their worlds — their loyalties will face a new test when they have to go back to their original groups, she said.
She also mentioned in passing that the show’s current structure, of alternating between episodes set in “our” universe and “over there,” is just in the early part of the season. “I’m looking forward to playing them as they are in their own world,” she says of both Olivias.
Torv said it would have been fun to play a version of Olivia who’s totally different than the Olivia we know — but in fact, the differences between the two Olivias are mostly pretty subtle. But getting to see Olivia through another Olivia’s eyes has given Torv a new perspective on her character — “I am seeing her clearly,” said Torv. “You don’t get to do that too often.” She also says that playing in two different universes has been fun, because each universe has its own energy, and she gets to enjoy playing off two slightly different casts — Charlie and Lincoln in one universe, Peter in the other.
She also hinted that seducing Peter is “just an assignment” for Fauxlivia, “but Peter’s a charmer, and I don’t know what she’s going to do when they’ve been together for a little bit.”
We asked Torv how her Shakespearean background helps her play a story with so much doubling and mistaken identities, and she said that Shakespeare mostly helps her play big operatic scenes with conviction. And when you have to say something like, “the shapeshifters are trying to destroy our universe,” it’s important to say it with a straight face. But she did say that she thinks “our” Walter Noble, the mad scientist, is just like one of Shakespeare’s fools, in the sense of being wiser than everybody else as well as having moments of dreadful pathos.
And Torv said she sort of missed playing the more repressed version of Olivia, as opposed to two versions who are both more open and emotional. She likes the role-reversal of having a woman be more cool and emotionally contained, while the two male leads constantly stand around the laboratory — which is basically like their kitchen — talking about their feelings and how they stand with each other. “I think so often, you have the guys that are the quiet, slient type, who do the tough stuff. And you have the girls who are working out and chatting and talking about their relationships,” said Torv. “Fringe turns that on its head.” Perversely, she found playing a more repressed character quite liberating.
8
2010
Two worlds, one great TV show
By Alex Strachan, Postmedia News
“I’ve seen strange,” Peter Bishop, Joshua Jackson’s character in Fringe, said in the second-season finale, Over There. “This is something else.”
On its glossy, made-in-Vancouver surface, Fringe is another of those TV science-fiction serials that poses a larger-than-life mystery, then drops hints along the road to revelation and final redemption.
In the three seasons Fringe has been telling its twin stories of alternating, mirror worlds, it has evolved into something more than a sci-fi serial drama, though. At its heart lies a human story about loss and the tragic consequences of well-intended, heartfelt decisions, as reflected in its relationship between a haunted, science-obsessed father, played by John Noble, and his estranged son, played by Jackson.
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8
2010
Anna Torv kicks butt on Fringe
VANCOUVER – If Anna Torv is tired, she isn’t showing it.
Torv is in every scene, this day. Shooting ran late the night before and the day’s call time was pushed back to 11 a.m. That means an already long day is about to get longer: Fringe may well continue shooting past midnight.
This crew is fast, though, and working flat out. Ever since The X-Files, Vancouver crews have earned a reputation for being among the fastest and hardest-working on the continent – one of the reasons Vancouver has been dubbed, not always as a compliment, Hollywood North. As freight trains thunder past the antique shop, horns blasting just steps from the film site, a small army of electricians, grips, props masters, camera operators and sound technicians scramble between the antique shop and, half a block away, a temporary bakery.
Fringe is filming in two places at once on this day, and Torv is a study in motion, moving between one site and the other, trailed wherever she goes by a heavy Panavision camera and grips hauling mobile dolly tracks.
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