Axiom's Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy

By John J. Joex

ABC has to be encouraged by the numbers that V pulled for its debut this past week. The series generated a 5.0 rating in the 18-49 demographic and right at fourteen million viewers for its first installment. That is the highest rating for a an episode of a Science Fiction and Fantasy show since the debut of Lost Season 5 in January of this year and the highest total number of viewers in several years. If the series can maintain anywhere near those numbers, then ABC may have finally found a genre series to take up the mantle once Lost wraps up next year. However, the show will go on a hiatus after November and not return until March which could lead to some viewer apathy.

FlashForward continues its slide as it dipped down to a 2.6 rating and just under 8.5 million viewers, and this week it did not have baseball to contend with. If it continues this trend, the series could become a one-season wonder. ABC has already picked up the back nine episodes for its first season, but it is doubtful they will order more unless the series sees an upward swing in its numbers. Fortunately for fans of the series the producers plan on wrapping up many of the show’s story arcs by season end. I am not changing the Cancellation Alert on this yet, because currently that reflects a show’s chance to make it through the end of 2009 without cancellation and FlashForward is already safe in that respect.

Fringe took a serious hit to its numbers after getting pre-empted two weeks in a row by baseball. FOX has to see that this series is just dying in the warzone that is Thursday nights and really needs to move the show to a friendly timeslot. They have to know that people are still watching the show because it regularly posts significant gains from DVR viewing. But if they continue to let it languish on Thursdays, the show could suffer irreparable damage. (For more on my thoughts of Fringe’s fate, see my most recent Cancellation Watch column).

Other points of interest from the week: Heroes saw a slight gain as it seems to be slowly drawing back some viewers, though that’s most likely too little to late. Eastwick slipped again and seems sure to continue that trend. And while Ghost Whisperer and Medium continue to win their timeslots, CBS can’t be happy with the year over year attrition from the former series. The fact that the network recently cut back the episode order of Numbers, which airs at 10 PM on Fridays, could indicate that they plan further shake-ups for that night. It might seem like an unwise idea, but CBS has not been a genre friendly network for quite some time.

Here is the full breakdown of the numbers for all of the Science Fiction and Fantasy shows that aired on the broadcast networks this past week:

Source: TV by the Numbers

Previous Results: No Home Run for FlashForward

For more on the Cancellation Alert for each show, see our Cancellation Watch column