Why did Channel 9 axe Fringe? Australian TV does it again. A very Fringe RANT
I tuned in this week to watch a show I’m enjoying at the moment.. that show is J. J. Abrams spook drama Fringe. Of course this being Australian TV it should not have been surprised to see “The Mentalist” on and no Fringe. I searched the TV guide and no mention of Fringe anywhere. There were of course no adverts or warning from Channel 9 Australia to say they’d taken Fringe off the air, they just arbitrarily made that decision from on high and went with it… “screw you viewers you are NOTHING to me!”.
Fringe isn’t a great show, it’s a good show, but one that has accrued some fairly loyal viewers since it started and one that - despite falling ratings - wasn’t rating that badly overall. For a channel that is advertising re-runs of Will & Grace it sickens me they’ve pulled this show off air.
Firstly where is Channel Nine’s national loyalty and pride! The series is headed up by two Australian actors, Anna Torv (Olivia) and John Noble (Walter) , it’s pathetic they’d just whip it off the air. Channel 9 had advertised the hell out of Fringe a week or two before it aired (prior to that though they were pretty slack!), they did what Channel 10 Australia are good at, they put flashy adverts up with slogans like “Hottest series from the US” etc, then they simply took it off the air a month later.
Lame is not the word for Channel 9 Australia and their axing of Fringe, without warning or due care for the viewers they deserve far more ‘blue’ words. And the TV stations moan about people using torrents and internet streaming sites because it damages their ratings, well catch a clue TV Australia, if you never finish showing full seasons of shows people ARE going to look elsewhere to see what happens!!
Will Fringe come back to Channel 9 Australia? Good questions, the fatcats are saying it’s the fault of the US presidential campaign that led to it being removed, utter bollocks! A spokesman allegedly stated “fast tracked episodes are complicated by the US election.” Give me a break! It didn’t complicate this weeks episode being show on US screens did it?! Just get some juice and tell the truth.
Fringe allegedly brought in ‘measly’ 670,000 viewers for the last episode shown on channel nine, which by US numbers sounds rubbish, but let’s look at it another way shall we. The population of Australia is only around 21 million, so that’s a fair chunk of the populace Channel nine just screwed.
When did TV Stations start getting run by two bit politicians?
15 Comments
October 27th, 2008 at 2:29 am
I loved Fringe…missing it. Really annoyed that it was removed. So until the new series of 24 screens next year, there won’t be much TV viewing in my house.
Just wanted to correct you on one thing. Channel Nine is not screening re-runs of will and grace. That would be channel Ten. And that is a whole other argument.
Channel Nine however, is guilty of showing re-runs of CSI, CSI miami, CSI New York….seriously get some new shows on and stop screening the same constant nonsense.
Commerical stations are failing and if you look at all the shows that have been axed in the last couple of months, I don’t think they have any idea of what to do…eg 90210, Ramseys Kitchen that horrid dating show etc
October 28th, 2008 at 3:50 am
I was already to watch it to when it didn’t come on. They did air a 30 second grab ‘This episode will not air tonight coming dsoon or some rubbish’. I was really ticked because I delibrately decided Wednesday was the night to take off work to watch this show. My TV guide is usually the sunday paper TV guide and it had Fringe listed in it so it must have been a quick decision to flick it. Bugger!!!
October 28th, 2008 at 7:52 am
What utterly irritates me (other than most of what’s been mentioned above, though I do enjoy all the CSIs even in re-runs) is that the show is still featured on the drop down menu of the ninemsn website! There’s no mention anywhere of what they are doing to it (i.e. will it come back, or was it axed?)… Hurray for Torrents is all I can say!!! Plus there’s no annoying advertising in the torrents! They are shooting themselves in the foot (actually both left-feet at once!)!
October 29th, 2008 at 5:11 am
l think that they should have a good hard look at them selves. We all get sick and tired on the CSI series. There are so many that have been going on for to long and need to be taken off air. So why would they take of a program that brought that sometime special to us all and replace it with the mentalist…. Give me a break.
Lets hope that they give it another go soon.
October 29th, 2008 at 6:35 am
Fringe is only not on because the American network that airs it isnt airing it this week and we’re only showing it 6 hours behind them.
The network being Fox.
Obviously Fox either doesnt have the episode to air or doesnt want us to air it before them.
October 29th, 2008 at 6:55 am
I’m sick and tired of australian T.V. The majority of channel 9’s progamming are either re-runs or stupid crime shows. Give us some variety and stop feeding us utter rubbish!!! No wonder us young people don’t watch T.V and you noobs lose your ratings especially when it’s so convenient downloading our trusty torrents!!!
Boycott comercial television altogether and join the download revolution!!!
I loved FRINGE by the way!
October 31st, 2008 at 5:01 am
Channel 9 like the rest of th?e tv nobs deserve the future that broadband will deal them…
Rock on torrents.
…besides who want’s the ads anyway
November 3rd, 2008 at 10:51 pm
i dont watch much tv. there arent many shows on anymore that are interesting to me. they seem to all be about the same thing.
it gets boring.
when fringe started my husband and i were so excited to have a sci-fi based investigative show on and we looked forward to it every week.
i am absolutely disgusted that we were really getting to know the characters, loving the humour in the show, and starting to get extremely engrossed in the mystery of the show. and without warning, it was taken off air!!!
yes it may not have been everyones cup of tea. but what show is?
booo!!! channel 9 u really suck!!!
April 16th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
[…] Fringe It came. Then it went. Why did Channel 9 axe Fringe? Australian TV does it again. A very Fringe RANT Then it came back. Then it went. Gone: Fringe (again) : TV […]
April 29th, 2009 at 1:22 am
I live in the USA and as an Australian are horrified of the prospects of returning to the lucky country. Not only are the networks here able to show a range of programing but you can viiew it on demand moments after it begins to air. My advice to you download everything that you might want to watch. Let all the pre historic tv management morons there go bankrupt. They can’t even transmit real hd let alone show a third of the programing that exists. I have over 60 hd chanels. No recycling of the stars or yet another boring Australian version of some horrid reality show.
If you want to change it stop watching it. They will die along with the totally outdated concept of network tv through an antenna. The only reason you don’t get VOD is becuase you are prepared to pay $100 a month for rerun television. Oh don’t they call that foxtel. A friend told me they have a few demo hd programs now for another $100 a month.
Now returning to fringe. It’s an awesome show. What you don’t know is that it is being broadcast in 6 parts at a time and then few weeks off. The last eppisode of the current season that you will likely get in Australia in 2025 is amazing, they have just begun to open the story up, massive dynamic is behind vfd. Oh sorry you have missed all of that.
May 7th, 2009 at 6:12 am
Australian TV totally sucks!
Fringe was a great show. It was smart, gripping, funny and it was something new and fresh.
Then, out of nowhere it just dissapeared. And now all i can watch are those other crappy shows and endless re-runs.
Just great
May 17th, 2009 at 2:40 am
A lot more sucks in Australia than just the TV networks - it seems that we just missed the plot (figure of speech) somewhere on the way - and our country is so full of apathy and so ready to be ripped off at every turn…but another story. Yep Fringe is a brilliant show and I have managed to watch up to episode 19 - I am sure the Networks wont go broke anytime soon therefore if you watch TV you will just have to put up with there crap but I cant be bothered - Internet Rocks.
June 30th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
If you’re serious about watching TV shows, you’ll completely ignore the free-to-air channels and either get Foxtel, buy the DVDs or download the shows you like. If you really want to stick it up the studios, you’ll probably choose the latter. I’ve long since given up trying to watch any shows that I like on FTA. Anything that has a semblance of storyline invariably gets royally screwed by the whims of the programming gurus. Even the American networks are guilty of it - just look at what they did to Firefly.
The only way to teach them a lesson is to stop watching altogether. Money and ratings are the only languages these people understand. Complaining won’t make any difference at all.
August 7th, 2009 at 10:10 pm
Those who moan about channel 9 ought to be subjected to WIN TV (9 affiliate) WIN axes shows much more frequently. It destroyed Babylon 5, Voyager, DS9, and Enterprise by putting them on at 2am and moving their air date every few weeks without notice. WIN runs its ghasthly local news as a repeat at midnight, that’s right repeats the boring LOCAL news at midnight, stuffing around ch 9 schedule meaning the people of Canberra get treated like hicksvill. WIV TV is hicksvill nothing but sport and cheap as dog’s droppings, reality TV. I wish Canberra had 9 not WIN.
October 5th, 2009 at 5:03 am
I love Fringe! Now I’m just stuck with watching it online all the time.
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