Fringe Still on Outer at TVNZ
December 17, 2010 
3 Comments
Warner Home Video hopes to release the season two Blu-ray of Fringe here on February 9.
But that’s conditional on whether the season has completed its broadcast run – and that’s looking unlikely.
TV2 has still to re-schedule the rest of the series after dumping it and re-runs of The Mentalist for Tuesday night movies.
Why the network has squandered its potential while sticking longer with the toothless Vampire Diaries is as baffling as anything the Fringe team has investigated.
If you can’t wait until February, the Blu-ray is region-free and can be imported from Australia, the US or the UK.
Fringe also faces programming challenges in the US, where next month Fox TV will resume season three on Fridays – a traditionally low-rating night that’s regarded as where good shows go to die.
Fox has tried to combat this perception with humour by creating a promotion that laments “the assumed impending demise of the show” and uses taglines like, “You may think Friday night is dead, but we’re gonna re-animate it.”
Meanwhile, Kiwi Sam Neill has been recruited for Fringe co-creator JJ Abrams’ latest series pilot, Alcatraz.
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December 20, 2010 at 2:13 pm
Broadcasters should not be allowed to hold up DVD/BD releases. If they don’t get the ratings and pull the show, then that should open the door for the DVD/BD to be available. If they decide to reschedule and play out the rest of the season, that should still be permitted – they will lose some viewers but not all as some people won’t or can’t afford to buy the DVDs. Those who can afford will import them from Amazon etc anyway or, worse, download them. Another avenue is for the shows to be on iTunes, with each episode available two weeks after broadcast; if pulled from broadcast, the season can then be made available legally online. This may make the broadcasters think twice about just dumping a show. They might then explore other options such as a different day and time slot.
Unfortunately FTA networks in NZ don’t seem to like sci-fi these days. Witness MediaWorks putting the new eps of Warehouse 13 and Eureka on weekdays over Xmas at about the 3pm mark. More money to be made with crappy reality TV shows …
@ Paul W, it bewilders me that they put on W13 in the afternoon. I would think a 7.30pm slot on a Saturday would be perfect for this, where parents can sit with their kids and watch it, but junk TV rules.
We really need a sci-fi channel. Walking Dead will be next — that won’t have legs, either.