FRINGE: End In Sight? Season 5? Warner Bros. Assess Show’s Future

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Given the dip in ratings, should Fringe fans prepare for the end, or is there life beyond season 4? Warner Bros. TV president Peter Roth weighs in.

Speaking to TV Line, Roth claimed “it’s too soon to tell” if this will be the show’s final season:

“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. Hopefully that will be good enough for us to continue.”

That’s obviously a big “hopefully”, but I don’t expect him to say anything different. Everyone who enjoys Fringe hopes that the time-shifted ratings will help it across the line, and into a fifth chapter. But as important as that is, other factors will also have a large bearing on whether or not Fringe lives beyond season 4. Here’s just a few:

• The live+ same day ratings (the further north, the better the show’s chances).
• DVR ratings (as mentioned above, this needs to remain strong).
• DVR commercial viewing (can this increase, making Fringe more attractive to advertisers, and therefore FOX?).
• The licensing deal/syndication carrot (will WBTV offer FOX an attractive enough deal to take the show into another season?).
• The story (linked to engagement and ratings).
• Performance of other shows on FOX’s ‘bench’. (i.e. Alcatraz, Touch, The Finder etc. Fringe needs to compete with other shows that could potentially take its slot).
• The network’s desire to keep a quality serialized show/faith in its direction.

Can these and other key factors work in Fringe’s favor? Or should all concerned prepare for the end?

To my mind I don’t think the story, as it stands, can be satisfactorily resolved by the end of this season. An ending could be constructed — and I’m sure the producers have ideas in mind — but I don’t think it would be an organic end as there’s still so much ground left to cover. Even if this season ends with Peter getting ‘home’, I don’t think that’s the natural end-game the producers have in mind.

I’ve long thought Fringe needs at least 5-6 seasons to tell the story it discovered midway through season 2. Obviously time and patience is not something many serialized shows are afforded, especially on broadcast where ratings are all the more scrutinized and less ‘risks’ are taken.

So, while I’d personally like the show to get more time to tell its story, I think it’s important for the producers to get as much feedback as they can from FOX on their expectations for the show (that’s not to say this doesn’t happen). Of course, it’s not quite as simple as that — from a business standpoint FOX might not want to wrap the show too early, just in case.

It’s not impossible that the numbers will rise to healthier levels next year, and the network may want to see how the rest of their ‘bench’ performs before making any fast decisions — at least publicly. As mentioned, their midseason entries, Alcatraz, Touch and Bones spinoff The Finder, may have a bearing on Fringe, as will their development plans for next season.

But I’d like to think that the producers would be given as much time as possible to end the series if things aren’t looking too rosy. It’s not ideal — and I think it was the right decision to follow-through with the Peter storyline rather than creatively rolling over — but if a fifth season begins to fade, a conclusive ending would be the next best thing.

That said, I still believe there’s a lot to play for. Like last season, things will become a little clearer when the show returns from its winter hibernation.

Source: TV Line

Fringe returns, Jan 13, 2012. Watch a teaser below:

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Tagged as: fox, Fringe, ratings, wbtv