The ratings for last Thursday’s episode of Fringe – “The Man From The Other Side” was down 16% on the previous week, with 2.1 adults 18-49 and 5.9 million viewers. Whether or not FOX’s decision to air promos giving away the crucial plot reveal had anything to do with the drop is something we’ll probably never know. But certainly, it didn’t help. There lessons to be learned from this.
Head past the jump to view the graphical breakdown.
[via]
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{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
ick. not so good. but thank god it’s already been renewed for a season 3.
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What exactly is considered as “good” numbers for primetime ratings?
Also, how do that many people tune in to watch “Survivor: Heroes vs Villains?” I mean, honestly? I think I’d rather watch “Jersey Shore,” and I’ve never seen either show. Haha.
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Good numbers for prime time are generally considered to be in the high 2 (2.5 or above), or anywhere in 3 for adults 18-49. Above 3 is usually viewed as being a huge success. Below a 2 is usually seen as pitiful and reason to suspect cancellation. Everything I’ve heard is that total number of viewers really doesn’t count for much. So Fringe getting a 2.1 isn’t the greatest, though it’s still decent.
One thing that bothers me is that the competition Fringe faces on Thursday (Greys and CSI) have both been consistently falling, yet Fringe has still stayed with the same general level for the season. I would think that while the competition is losing viewers, Fringe would be getting better ratings. However, it’s also worth mentioning that I’ve seen several people point out that Fringe’s ratings seem to be most correlated to The Office. It seems when The Office does new episodes, Fringe usually gets low 2, but when The Office does a rerun, Fringe usually jumps up to the mid 2 range. Which surprises me because I wouldn’t have expected that much overlap for the viewers of Fringe and The Office.
I hope that we will see Fringe pull off stronger ratings here in the last few episodes, and again when it returns in the fall. Of course, it’s also a bit reassuring to me to see that ratings for other shows like Bones or Greys are getting lower yet they are still considered very popular, safe shows. It could be a result of most people just recording shows and watching them later, or simply watching them online the next day, so the ratings aren’t expected to be as high these days.
As for other shows, I also don’t understand how shows like Survivor can still get such huge ratings while an amazing show like Fringe is still struggling. I understand that everyone is different and has different interests and preferences, but I just don’t see the appeal in a show like Survivor. I would be fine with it getting average ratings, but the fact that it is consistently the top show on Thursday nights completely baffles me.
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Thanks for the explanation on the television ratings. Thursday night does seem to be pretty packed concerning programming options, but then again, it’s the only day of the week that I watch TV so I cannot be a good judge on the matter. Still, it’s nice that I don’t have to worry this year about having to witness the atrocious “American Icon” show overlapping the beginning of my beloved Fringe.
As for the popularity of reality shows – I too am quite bewildered on just how these shows continue to maintain their appeal. But I do very much enjoy watching them be lampooned on “The Soup.”
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Aaaaaaaaaaaaamen!!! Sometimes I just don’t understand…
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Two words: NFL Draft. It was in primetime Thursday night, so all orginal programming was down with the exception of the usual suspects like Survivor, CSI and The Mentalist, which from my understanding draws an audience out of the coveted 18-49 demographics.
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“all orginal programming was down with the exception of the usual suspects like Survivor, CSI and The Mentalist”
Just a minor correction here, but from what I’ve seen, all shows on Thursday were down, including Survivor, CSI, and Mentalist. CSI, in particular, has been falling all season and this last week it tied its lowest ratings ever for a new episode. So while it still gets high ratings, it’s definitely in decline.
Thanks for mentioning the draft. I’d forgotten that had been on this last week and it certainly had an effect on the overall ratings of the night. That said, I’m optimistic that this week will have higher ratings. Of course, after saying that, I remembered this week is the musical episode, so ratings will be different from usual. It could go up because the NFL draft won’t be on, and because it might attract some curious viewers, but at the same time it might be down because certain Fringe fans might be boycotting this episode since they think it’s a lame idea. So I guess this week is going to be another exception to the ratings…
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R2D2 on the license plate. C3P0 on the car Broyles was driving.
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In this economy, where a lot of people my age can’t afford $100+/month for television service, I wish they would start counting the people who watch Fringe episodes (multiple times) via Hulu or DVR.
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Same here! This was only the second episode I’ve watched “live” out of the entire series, the other being somewhere in the middle of season one, and I’m big enough a fan of the show to actively comment on this site. Since I watch the show with my parents and my sister, we just don’t have the time to watch it together at the same time. We like watching shows as a family, and my dad goes to bed early, usually somewhere around eight, because he has to get up for work at 5:30 am. When this series comes on at nine we just aren’t able to tune in, so we normally wait until we can all sit down and watch it together. In fact, we actually watch ALL our regular shows prerecorded.
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Because it’s turn your brain off and just watch people undermind, scheme and scam each other. It’s lowest common denominator television. You don’t have to really invest or think like you do with a show like Fringe. Granted, I have my guilty pleasure shows like anyone else, but “reality” tv has never really been one of them. I quickly lose interest.
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Yeah, I guess I could see it as being a guilty pleasure. Everyone has their own individual preferences and tastes. You’re right.
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“Bones” had 2.3. “Fringe” had 2.1. This is in line w/ the ratings from last week.
The NFL Draft was the key. Personally, my family watched “Survivor”, DVRed “Bones”, flipping to the draft when “Survivor” went to commercial, but since our team (Arizona Cardinals) didn’t pick until #26, that was no problem for us.
At 9 ET, we DVRed “Fringe” and watched the NFL Draft Live, being rewarded when AZ picked DT Dan Williams, which I don’t expect will mean much to anybody reading this, but it was big for us, and big for AZ.
BUT, we watched “Fringe” 2 times on Fri. and 1 more time on Sat., and still have it on DVR.
Then
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…sorry…so, they should definitely start counting DVR.
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at least we’re doing better than Vampire Diaries. Ick.
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“Elaine — Because it’s turn your brain off and just watch people undermind, scheme and scam each other. It’s lowest common denominator television. You don’t have to really invest or think like you do with a show like Fringe. Granted, I have my guilty pleasure shows like anyone else, but “reality” tv has never really been one of them. I quickly lose interest.”
No, it’s not a “guilty” pleasure. “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race” are the only “reality” shows I watch. On “Survivor”, for example, Russell thought he had Pavarti as his “right-hand woman”, but she was using him. Now, we knew that Pavarti had the upper hand. Russell is an idiot, in that he uses lying and backstabbing out-in-the-open, so he will never get the vote for a $1 million dollars.
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Case in point. And just for the record, I’m not suggesting that anyone who does watch those shows is somehow less intelligent…I’ve watched both of those shows at one point or another, and I consider myself a relatively intelligent person. But you have to admit, outside of seeing who comes off victorious, neither requires much in the way of thinking as a viewer.
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That WAS pretty awesome! LOL XD
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inappropriate comment removed.
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Who do they really count for these ratings?? I don’t know ANYBODY who is a Nielson family, does anybody else?? They certainly need to update the way they do business, yes viewers watch on multiple platforms now and DVR shows that they can’t watch live. I think the whole system is flawed and doesn’t reflect actual REALITY.
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I agree. This ratings system realluy doesn’t mean anything. It’s all scattered numbers. yes, I sit down and watch fringe when it comes on, but then I watch it online, too. Do they count that?
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Actually, we’re doing really good at DVR ratings.
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“Elaine — Case in point. And just for the record, I’m not suggesting that anyone who does watch those shows is somehow less intelligent…I’ve watched both of those shows at one point or another, and I consider myself a relatively intelligent person. But you have to admit, outside of seeing who comes off victorious, neither requires much in the way of thinking as a viewer.”
No, you’re missing the point. case in point — three seasons ago, they had a High School Physics teacher who won, b/c he used his knowledge for the challenges, and made two fake “immunity necklaces” that looked real. Everybody, including Jeff Probst, was surprised. When Jeff asked him about it at the end, he explained that he picked up things from every little place that he could so he could make fake immunity necklaces.
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something about how the person didn’t watch shows without mystery, that fringe was the favorite of the user, and that the soap operas give everyone a sense of being, where mysteries allow those who need to explore to do so.
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