From: seanc130@hotmail.com   
      
   "Sean Carroll"  wrote   
      
   > The ratings also *still* do not take into account people who DVR shows to   
   > watch them later, despite widespread recognition that this is a *crucial*   
   > omission of a *very* important demographic.   
      
   And I just found a page that says estimates indicate that 'Fringe' was   
   DVRed, instead of watched live, 'at a higher percentage than any other major   
   broadcast show aside from Friday night geek-friendly series "Dollhouse."'   
      
   You can thank FOX for its consequent official ratings decrease. They put it   
   on Thursday, which is so jam-packed with other big shows -- not only 'CSI',   
   but 'Survivor', 'Grey's Anatomy', 'The Office', '30 Rock', 'Supernatural',   
   'The Mentalist', and 'Private Practice' -- many of which are watched by the   
   same kind of people who would be watching 'Fringe' if they didn't have so   
   much else to watch on Thursday.   
      
   Now, I don't watch any of those shows myself, so I kinda like having the   
   'Bones'/'Fringe' lineup on Thursday. But it's totally unfair to think that   
   'Fringe''s ratings losses, which immediately followed the move to Thursday,   
   have anything to do with it becoming unpopular. They have much more to do   
   with it being thrown up in competition against a boatload of shows with   
   long-established major audiences, which are *entirely* unfair competition.   
      
   'CSI' and 'Gray's Anatomy', particularly, have been around for years,   
   establishing some of the biggest audiences in all television. Putting   
   'Fringe' on in the same time slot as both of them is essentially giving it   
   the finger and shooting it in the head. Virtually NO show (short of   
   something like 'American Idol') could POSSIBLY succeed against that kind of   
   competition! It has no reflection at *all* on whether enough people like the   
   show to make it successful. A lot of people have probably reluctantly   
   dropped 'Fringe', merely because they're being forced to choose between too   
   many shows to watch on one night, who would still be watching it if they   
   weren't forced to make that choice by the idiotic network scheduling. And a   
   hell of a lot of others have *certainly* been forced to DVR it to watch   
   later because of all those hit shows crowding the schedule -- all of them   
   fans of the show, despite being completely ignored by the official ratings   
   calculations.   
      
   --   
   --Sean   
   http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?id=1062439264&ref=profile   
   http://spclsd223.livejournal.com   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)