Fringe TV Series

There are reports that the Screen Actors Guild and a rival actor’s union may call a strike after 30 June. While the strike is unlikely, this would be disastrous for TV coming right after the writer’s strike just a few months ago. Here is the potential effect for Fringe:

Even shows that started production early will have only a handful of segs in the can before the June 30 deadline. Fox faces a big decision in the next few weeks on whether to forge ahead with plans for a marketing blitz on frosh drama “Fringe,” which has a Sept. 9 preem date for its two-hour pilot. A production start on that show is apparently skedded for early next month.

Due to a potential strike, we may see Fringe get limited advertising next month instead of a major promotion for July. This would be terrible killing any momentum Fringe has going at the moment.

Other major shows have been effected also:

As a result, skeins like NBC’s “Heroes” and ABC’s “Dirty Sexy Money” were able to start shooting in early May. Several procedural dramas barely took a break before firing things back up in May, including “CSI,” “Without a Trace” and “Cold Case.” Other shows that never really shut down or didn’t power down cameras for long include “House,” “ER,” “Brothers & Sisters,” “Chuck” and “Law & Order.” CBS comedy tentpole “Two and a Half Men,” resumed production on Monday, as did the net’s “The Big Bang Theory.”

Then there’s the case of “24,” which skipped a season because of the writers strike, allowing it to bank several episodes for this year. Because “24″ won’t return until January, the show could conceivably weather an actors strike without any effect onscreen.

Fox reduced commercials from 18 to 10 minutes for Fringe and Dollhouse

Fox has announced that it will be cutting the ad time on Fringe and Dollhouse nearly in half from 18 minutes to 10 minutes. This is great news as you will get 50 minutes of Fringe vice the standard 42 minutes you get with other shows. Fox has termed this change Remote Free TV in an attempt to draw back viewers that have left due to the writers’ strike. Since Fox lead last season with the highest ratings they can make a move like this because they will have no trouble chargin higher rates for the much anticipated Fringe and Dollhouse TV shows.

“This is a huge risk, but we have to do a better job for our viewers,” said Jon Nesvig, Fox’s advertising sales president. Most advertising analysts see this as a good thing with less spots equalling more demand and higher ad rates for Fox. If this pays off you can expect more of this in the future until viewership returns to pre-strike levels. Either way it is a win for Fringe viewers!

Fringe will air on Fox on 26 August, 2008 at 8:00 PM EST on Tuesday. If you haven’t figured it out yet Fringe is the next big TV show from the creator J.J. Abrams who brought you Lost and Alias. The show has a great cast of actors. The main actor is Joshua Jackson from Dawson’s Creak and the beautiful Anna Torv from the video game Heavenly Sword. This site will be dedicated to providing readers news and information on the show leading up the the new TV series and during each Fringe season.