Fringe to Become Fringe Viewing

TV2 is soon to resurrect Fringe in a new late-night slot.

The stylish paranormal hour will resume its second-season HD run next month at 10.30pm on Thursdays.

The demotion comes six months after TV2 squandered Fringe’s potential by teaming it with incompatible re-runs of The Mentalist opposite TV3’s HD juggernaut line-up of Outrageous Fortune and Nurse Jackie/Californication.

Even more frustrating for Fringe fans is the rescheduling will delay the Blu-ray release of season two until mid-year.

Broadcast holdbacks are understandable when a broadcaster is still committed to screening a series in peak-hour but aren’t justified when it consigns a show to late-night.

Meanwhile, Fox TV in the US has just switched Fringe to a Friday night slot that’s perceived as killing its prospects of renewal, even though executives implored critics “not to write the eulogy prematurely”.

It seems their gambit may have paid off. Entertainment Weekly reports the first episode to play in the “death slot” posted higher ratings than where the last original episode aired, which The Hollywood Reporter reckons “marks a promising run for the rest of its season”.