Fringe was supposed to be big, Fox broadcast it thinking that since Abrams was involved they could expect the same viewing figures as Lost. Boy, they were wrong. For those who didn’t see it or are unfamiliar with the show Fringe is a more science orientated version of The X-Files with a pilot episode rumoured to have cost $10 million to make. Unfortunately for Fox however instead of getting the 19 million viewers they were expecting to get as a result of a high profile, and yet confusing advertising campaign they only had 9 million viewers.

There are a number of comments going around the net with general net users providing possible answers to why the ratings were so low even with positive reviews. The main explanation comes down to the Nielsen ratings system being out of date and not including those who watch the programme after into the totals with Tivo type setups.