FOX Gives Fringe Full First Season Order

Well this is certainly good news for TV sci-fi fans — the FOX network, notorious for yanking shows before they’ve even been given the proper time to gestate in the public consciousness and pick up steam, has given J.J. Abrams’ new show Fringe a full first season order, which means no matter what happens, fans of Fringe will get a full season’s worth of their TV show. Of course, FOX could always end up screwing the pooch later on, as they did with Firefly by destroying the show’s cohesion by broadcasting episodes out of order, or the way they did with the underrated Space: Above and Beyond, which FOX shuffled across the schedule so much that it was nearly impossible to figure out when the episodes would even air.

Reuters has more:

After an OK two-hour premiere August 26, the show jumped significantly in Week 2 when paired with Fox’s top-rated drama, “House.” Both shows took a hit when competition increased during broadcast premiere week, then demonstrated stability by increasing their audience slightly Tuesday night.

Season to date, “Fringe” has averaged a 4.2 rating/11 share among adults 18-49 and 10.7 million total viewers and ranks as the top freshman series in the adult demographic.

“Fringe” executive producer Abrams, who was a co-creator of “Lost,” said that “as with many new series, ‘Fringe’ is just starting to find its groove. Knowing we’ll be around beyond the first thirteen episodes means we’ll get to realize the full potential of the show, and for that we are extremely grateful.”

I don’t want to undersell this news, because FOX is simply notorious for canceling shows on a whim, especially sci-fi/action shows that shows promise with the genre fans. More often than not, FOX ends up shuffling the shows around to other nights in some odd, illogical pattern that only they seem to understand, but which never seems to work. Hopefully Fringe will remain behind House on Tuesdays until Season 2 to ensure that it gets the most eyeballs.