NOTE: There seems to be some confusion over what the FOX exec is saying below. We don't think they mean reinventing the show literally, just the marketing image of it. Hence the use of "Retarget" not "Reboot." Carry on ...
FOX is 100% committed to Fringe, just not the Fringe you’ve been watching. In comments made to EW’s Jeff Jensen, FOX execs described their game-plan to save the show – which doesn’t need saving, according to them (confusing!) – by reinventing the image - the marketing image, that is - of Fringe from dense character driven adult SciFi to rebellious-teen targeted horror.
“We are trying to re-brand Friday, and what we’re trying to do with this show specifically is make it kind of like forbidden fruit,” Dean Norris told EW’s Jeff Jensen. “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.’” Note to FOX: number of teen Fringe characters: Zero.
Might not be an entirely bad idea since Friday does belong to TheCW’s latently teen-targeted Smallville and Supernatural – although, I’d assume the teens that do things to piss off their parents are already out on Friday night, doing the things that really do piss them off. It might have been an even better idea to give Fringe a lead-in more appropriate for the show’s real core audience far away from two of television’s most successful procedurals. Say what you want about Friday night, Fringe’s Thursday time slot against CSI and Grey’s Anatomy was truly the death-slot for the show. On Friday’s we get Kitchen Nightmares as a lead in – which is as you know big with the kids these days.
In the article at EW, it seems the fans fighting to keep Fringe alive and doing everything they can to keep the fandom mobilized are being brushed aside in favor of this rose-colored glasses perspective from FOX head Kevin Reilly that Fringe isn't in any danger at all, with outlets like Aint It Cool News, Collider, FringeBloggers.com, and, oh yeah, those TVOvermind guys, being branded as fear mongers and chicken little bloggers. The position seems to be that the latest “Re-Animating Friday” promo was designed to go “…right after those most likely to have been impacted by Geekdom’s town criers.” Because as you know, we here at TVOvermind would love to see Fringe fail and encourage viewers to tune out as often as we can.
Ironically enough, the article we were quoted from was filled with statistical evidence as to how Fringe’s audience shrunk after the numerous breaks in the Fringe schedule. The idea is that viewers become frustrated with too many interruptions in the story-telling, particularly when each episode is ending with a high-staked cliffhanger - and they cease watching live, opting for DVR or even end-of-season DVD viewings. The logic comes from none other than the LOST crew, who recognized that fans of that show could not handle interruptions in the heavily serialized plot and were trading live viewing for bulk end-of-season catch-ups, hence costing the show in terms of ratings. LOST petitioned for an uninterrupted season and as a result the attrition slowed. Sam's piece wasn't some blogger's equivalent of "the sky is falling," it was culled from the Learnings of the industry itself - well, one network in the industry at least. Oh, wait a minute - didn't FOX air 24 originally? The article in question wasn’t actually claiming Fringe would die from its move to Friday, but that the damage was inflicted by the numerous interruptions to the storyline - something FOX is probably aware would happen - or was at least a risk, given what we know about serials. In fact, with regards to Friday, Sam’s article says:
So if FOX runs Fringe Fridays like it ran Dollhouse Fridays, and iff (the math term meaning "if and only if") we've reached a plateau of the Fringe hardcore, we could be looking at smooth running for Fringe here on out.
So while we generally like to see our names on promos, it’s occasionally nice to have the actual context represented there. Make no mistake about it, I love the energy of the new promo - but to think that FOX produced this not because they wanted to show that they were - as practically everyone quoted in the piece has said - up to the challenge of breaking ground on Fridays, but to ridicule those quoted as some sorts of kooks for spreading facts about the Friday landscape is laughable to just about anyone who reads TVBythenumbers or has a subscription to Ad Age.
So an interesting week for Fringe fans all together. First, don't worry FOX is completely in support of Fringe – a show they feel they need to give a complete face-lift in order to flesh out the audience with teens; and the “bloggers” out here supporting the show and trying to point fans in a constructive direction are being targeted through their presumed vanity in order to undo the ‘damage’ they are doing to the show … which FOX has just moved into a ratings desert. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
I thought the promo was great…until I read the EW article. Targeting to teenagers? Horror show? Forbidden fruit? WTF!? I would much rather they target the parents stuck at home on Friday night waiting to hear from these badass teenagers.
I just hope that the writers are not being pressured to write to this new audience.
I hope these teenagers are science students and not fans of Paris Hilton.
As a teenager myself, I was kinda shocked reading that.
I love Fringe. And while I can only name three other people my age who watch the show, that doesn't mean I love it any less. Fringe should not change because they are finally trying to market it to a new audience. On the contrary, I think it should remain exactly the same.
Just because we're still in high school doesn't mean that we don't understand anything. A lot of us don't want "dumbed down" television. That's why I love Fringe – it's smart and witty and intelligent among other things. That's why I loved LOST. If Fringe turns into a soap opera, it's going to be very difficult to force myself to keep watching. I like the geeky science investigation of it all and I think other people my age can too.
It's no problem beginning to target the 13-18 demographic. I think they should have done it long ago. But to make changes in the show to do so… that's not right. It's harming the original audience and limiting the new one.
And anyway, what's so rebellious about Fringe? The fact that Peter slept with Olivia's doppelganger? *gasp* Because I'm sure they don't show even racier things on Glee – a show that my entire generation (save me) seems obsessed with. Fringe being "forbidden fruit"… I have to laugh. It's like their attempting to make it some science-fiction version of that awful book Twilight. Only we have badass Olivia Dunham, and they have whiny Bella Swan.
There's nothing in Fox's statement that says they are making changes to the show. Read the EW article again. They are simply talking about the promos they are going to air.
As for what's rebellious? Well, Walter's incessant pot-smoking, for one. That's nothing new… the man has been snorting and injecting altered substances since day one. Yeah, I think teens might get into that, if Fox had the guts to promote it…
Yeah as a parent I don't think I like that … ;)
My teen son likes Fringe just the way it is, thank you very much FOX.
On another note, I watched the X-files as a teen. So you don't have to change a show to draw in a teen audience. I love Fringe because it is a character driven show, with a freaking weird and sometimes gross backdrop.
Oh just cancel it then. Why force us to watch it die a slow tortuous death by turning it into a sci-fi clone of 90210? If FOX is determined to save Fringe PUT IT ON A NIGHT WHEN PEOPLE WHO LOVE IT WILL WATCH IT. AND THEN PROMOTE THE HELL OUT OF IT. Guess what? Teens GO OUT on Friday nights, not stay home and watch FOX. You'd think after having half a dozen great shows (many of them sci-fi) crash and burn on Friday nights you'd kind get the #$!@#$ HINT! Seriously, do these jackasses actually get paid to do this?
I think you're going off the deep end a bit here. Nobody at Fox is saying they want to CHANGE THE SHOW (or, as in your words, "give the show a complete face-lift"). Huh? They are saying they want to promote it differently – to play up the gore/horror aspects that have always been an integral part of this show and still are. (It's not ALL about zeppelins, you know.) Considering that that is how they promoted the show during Season 1 when it had its highest ratings, maybe this should be considered as a strategy worth trying to keep a beloved show on the air.
TV execs and TV bloggers are never going to see eye to eye, but I think the people at Fox who do support the show (surely not every exec does, but someone there sounds like they like it) ought to be cautiously commended, not trashed, for being bold.
Yeah they are wanting to change the perception of the show and skew it towards teens. It's all in the article. Think if they succeed FOX won't want the overall show to skew in that direction? Again, study Ad Age, TvBytheNumbers … there is no market on Friday other than for teens. Besides the reduced over-all viewership available, there are several other reasons advertising doesn't fetch a high price on firday – mostly because 'event' advertising (movie premieres, etc) target Fridays, for one, and the other is that the overall viewership is fatter in the 13-18 demo. If FOX is going for that demo, it's for a reason. They aren't going to leave the show as is next year if they are successful in courting the younger set. Enter the sly young hacker that joins the fringe team as they move the lab back to Walter's old high school…
Ok…this is a little off base but at least it's coverage nonetheless. I'm 20 now, but when Fringe started I was just turning 18. In fact, my 18th birthday was the day episode 1×03 aired. And I happen to have plenty of friends who are ages 13-19 (and older, too) that are Fringe fans so saing zero teens watch is very untrue.
And while they may make promos that will draw this teen demographic in, I have no qualms with it because it might draw them in with that, but I doubt they'd keep on with a show if all they liked was blood and guts and gruesome things. They'd become attached to the storylines and characters like we all have. The thing about Fringe is there's something for everyone to love. And there's no harm in trying as many methods as possible to get more viewers. Whatever makes them come and stay and watch live, spread the word and let the fans grow…
OH wow, OK that actually makes a lot of sense dude.
http://www.anon-web.edu.tc
I love how people are already dismissing the show all because of this article. I mean really, true fans would ignore TV bloggers like this one and see if the show is "dumbed down" just for teenagers. ( I will never understand why teenagers are always considered to be "stupid". There are SMART teenagers you know.
and to jose Rivera, why not WATCH the show instead of writing it off because of this article?
BTW, the person who wrote this article didn't even watch episode 10 so why should we take his word for it?
Episode 10? I've watched every episode of Fringe ever made and love the show. This article really has nothing to do with the show, but how it will be marketed – which is apparently by taking comments like ours out of context and feeding mainstream press writers the notion that we are 'hurting' the show. Nowhere do we insinuate that FOX is changing Fringe itself, just that they are going to be targeting teens. Frankly, the whole 'forbidden fruit' thing is laughable. They should be pushing Fringe on the strength of the show, not because they think kids might watch it just to piss their parents off. I totally agree that there are many many smart teenagers out there – Sam, who wrote the article they quoted, is a teenage. FOX isn't saying they are smart – they are saying they will watch Fringe just to tick their parents off.
Friday night might not be as bad as it seems just look at what BSG did with being on Fridays
Hmmm.. These must be the same guys infected and INVESTED in the recent Lunitic moves that infected SYFRY to cancel most of its NEW science fiction content and push more WRESTLING
Hmmm.. These must be the same guys infected and INVESTED in the recent Lunitic moves that infected SYFRY to cancel most of its NEW science fiction content and push more WRESTLING
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