TV GUIDE: Ask Matt: AMC, BBC America, Hetty on NCIS: LA, Switched at Birth, Warehouse 13
Jun 11, 2012
by Matt Roush
Send questions and comments to askmatt@tvguidemagazine.com and follow on Twitter!
... Question: For the last couple of years, I have cursed Fox for how they handled certain shows, often canceling them without any warning or under-promoting them. In the past they have shown episodes out of order like Sliders and Firefly or have under-promoted others. Which brings me to Fringe. I believe they have done a pretty good job on handling this show. Other shows with such low ratings would have been canceled without fanfare. But Fox has held on to Fringe for dear life. Their only real misstep was moving it around from good time slots to the dead zone which is Friday. They did show one episode out of order, but nothing to mess up the flow of the series. If Fox didn't care, this show would have been gone a season ago. It is one of my favorite shows and to me is one of the best shows on Fox, but I have to ask why has Fox kept pushing for Fringe when it has given up on so many in the past? — Mike K
Matt Roush: It's a fair question, but I'd like to think some shows are just too good and too special to be thrown on the trash heap without a fight, and Fringe is one of those. (Community is another, but after three seasons of anarchic bliss, that may be a case where it might have been better for the network and studio to just let it go.) With Fringe, the network always stood behind it creatively, even when it became clear it was never going to play it safe in an attempt to gain a larger audience. In a smaller way, it was Fox's Lost, and letting Fringe continue to its natural end point in its fifth season is a rare achievement, made possible by what seems to be extraordinary cooperation between network, studio and production team. Sometimes it's best not to ask "why," and just enjoy the miracle while you can...
Fringe season five premieres Fall 2012 on FOX.
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