'Fringe' makes ratings leap

UPDATED: The second episode of Fox's supernatural science thriller "Fringe" jumped a stunning 59% in the ratings Tuesday night.

"Fringe" (13.2 million viewers, 5.1 adults 18-49 rating and a 13 share in the national Nielsen ratings) climbed significantly  in the adult demo compared with last week's two-hour premiere. The 9 p.m. sci-fi drama retained 91% of the adult demo rating from its new lead-in -- the debut of Fox's returning hit medical drama “House.”

According to Fox, the "Fringe" spike is the largest ratings jump a new series has made from Week 1 to 2 on any broadcast network in more than a decade. That gain comes despite some increased competition from NBC, whose latest installment of "The Biggest Loser" (7.9 million, 3.2/9) premiered slightly better than last season’s debut.

Yet the news was not all sunny for Fox. "House" (14.7 million, 5.6/16) helped fuel "Fringe" but was down 28% from last year's premiere and was the lowest-rated Tuesday original of the drama since 2005. Last year, the show aired  at 9 p.m. and during the official broadcast premiere week, so it had a more effective launch period.

If “Fringe” and “House” are able to roughly maintain this week’s level of popularity, a softer “House” number will be irrelevant. Fox's goal is to have two winning hours on Tuesdays this fall instead of one. If these two syringe-and-microscope dramas can hold steady against the gauntlet of increased competition during the next few weeks, Fox will gain a formidable Tuesday-night beachhead.

In its third week, the CW's "90210" (3.3 million, 1.7/5) managed to halt its ratings plummet after last week's steep drop. The teen drama stopped at a number similar to "Gossip Girl." The show even improved slightly among the network's target women 18-34 demo. The fate of "90210" was likely aided by a lack of competition from ABC Family's hit soap "Secret Life of the American Teenager," which aired its finale last week.
New CW drama "Privileged" (2.4 million, 1.1/3), however, failed to improve its meager debut rating at 9 p.m. and sunk a tenth in the adult demo.

Fox easily won the night. NBC placed second with a "Families" edition of "Loser" (which, it should be noted, also faced greater competition this year going against "House" and part of "Fringe"), plus a repeat. ABC and CBS tied for third, with CBS airing the season finale of "Big Brother" (7.6 million, 2.7/7). ABC ran a 90-minute season finale for "Wipeout" (6 million, 2.0/6), which was a combination of a clip show and original material, followed by a "Primetime" special (5.7 million,1.9/5).

Comments

[NLP]

Interesting that House is down 4 mil. There could be a myriad of reasons for it, or those many reasons all contributing to it. I'll pick a few. First, any change in time slot makes a difference. To the extent that there is still supposed to be a distinction in adult content in the 8-9 hour, it is SO not an 8 pm show. I've gotten my 82-year-old mother to be a fan of the show, but I regularly cringe a number of times during any given show for the things they say. Personally, I love it, but . . . . Second, with the way USA is going nuts running multi-episodes of the show, that’s got to affect people’s desire for House. Stripping an existing show surely must affect the ratings of those ongoing new episodes. Third, there seems to be a universal consensus that the huge cast is too unwieldy. Regardless of how much “House” is Hugh Laurie’s star turn (and rightly so), has there EVER been a successful show that unnecessarily dumped 2 of its 6 regulars when only in the 3rd season? A lot of us who have been regular fans from the start are ticked off with the way they’ve marginalized Cameron & Chase. There’s an awful lot of fans out there who really want to see the “new team” dumped.

[ahawks]

Fringe is the best new show on television this season!