"Fringe" fans who are dedicated enough to check the show's ratings every week may have gotten a bit of a scare last week, when the mid-season finale delivered the show's lowest ratings ever, dipping below 3 million viewers. It's particularly worrisome given that in Season 1, "Fringe" drew an average of 10 million viewers.
(Shame on 7 million of you. Shame!)
The good news is that Season 4 has already been picked up for a full, 22-episode run, so we don't need to worry about this season being abbreviated.
As for a potential Season 5, TVLine did some digging into the future of the show, speaking to WB TV president Peter Roth about whether it's still realistic to hope for, at the very least, a 13-episode farewell season.
Roth assures fans that things may not be as dire as they seem. "This is a show on Friday nights that audiences love to DVR, and as such we shoot up anywhere from 40 to 63 percent, when you calculate the Live+7," he tells TVLine. "Hopefully that will be good enough for us to continue."
A short Season 5 would push the series over the requisite 100 episodes for potential syndication, which is normally a good incentive for a network to pick up extra episodes. Unfortunately, with a show as serialized as "Fringe," syndication isn't quite so lucrative. Even Joshua Jackson told us last season that at this point, they're making the show for the true fans -- not for those who can catch an episode here and there.
"It feels like we're making the show for people who are into the show now," he said. "We've moved away from trying to branch it out and make it easier for people to sort of dip into. Now it's just red meat for the fans, the purest form of 'Fringe' it can be. As all the actors will tell you, we enjoy so much more shooting the mythology episodes than the freak of the week episodes, because it gives you much more interesting stuff to do."
Weigh in below, "Fringe" fans. Are you hoping that the show gets another season, or do you think it's time to wrap it up this year?
