Fringe May Have One January Episode

Fox may be taking action to help bolster the popular but ratings challenged Fringe. In what would be an interesting tactic a new episode of Fringe may air on January 11th at 9pm. House was just moved up to return on that date at 8pm. This is being seen by most as an attempt to squash the momentum of Chuck which settles into that 8pm on Monday slot after having its third season premiere the night before.

Fringe was scheduled to be off until Thursday April 1st. According to the report it would air an episode on January 11th and then resume its break. Which brings into question how much of a bump the show would receive based on a single isolated episode that will have the benefit of the House lead-in and weak competition in Heroes. How would that carry over if Fringe is back to facing brutal competition on Thursday nights in April?

What this may be is Fox attempting to see how well the show holds up in a different environment. This could be essentially a test drive that would have it switch to a different night when it comes back. Thursdays at 9pm has it facing off directly against CSI, Grey’s Anatomy, and The Office. When one of those has aired a re-run Fringe has seen that benefit its ratings. It also has the highest % of gain from DVR viewings of any show this season. So depending on perspective it has either done well this season or needs to shift to a different night of the week to succeed.