The fight to save Fringe starts on Twitter, Damon Lindelof on those Star Trek leaks and Samuel L Jackson delivers the world’s first review of The Avengers , only in this week’s tweets
There’s a proud tradition of ground-level campaigns to save beloved shows in sci-fi fandom. Jericho had its “Nuts!” campaign (which actually worked), Chuck ’s impressive online support was a key factor in keeping it on the air as long as it was and Firefly has become the poster child for shows cancelled before their time because of the internet furore in the years since.
Fringe is a show that we all love at SFX , but one we’re loathe to admit probably won’t be around that much longer unless there’s a miraculous upswing in the ratings. The tragedy is that as Fringe has been getting better and better over the years, the ratings have been falling and falling. However, rumours began circulating last week that Fringe could be returning next year for a truncated fifth season to tie up loose ends and bring the show to a satisfying climax.
There’s still the small hurdle of getting the show renewed at all first though, and in an attempt to do their bit to help, fans who don’t own a Nielsen box (the primary method of obtaining a “representative” proportion of viewers in the States) have been taking to Twitter every Friday night to get the show trending. But not with a hashtag like #Fringe, which is used round the world everyday and would only experience a relatively minor upswing, but by tweeting episode specific hashtags during a concentrated period on Friday night (a good explanation can be found here . So far they’ve succeeded in reaching millions of Twitter users, and it was even trending in the UK for a while, despite the fact the episode doesn’t even air for a couple of weeks. Fans were also encouraged to thank the show’s sponsors, Nissan Leaf, in their first tweets of the night. Sci-fi fans are a polite bunch if anything. It’s not the first time a show has been saved by its viewers, and it hopefully won’t be the last.
The SFX Twitter Stream
@ NathanFillion My gamertag is a vague Firefly reference. When someone gets it, I do my best "Mal", %26 they tell me it needs work.
@ ManMadeMoon for those asking, no. dont think there should be a sci-fi Oscar cat. would be handy if there were a few more scifi directors voting though!
@ DamonLindelof The weird thing about that Trek photo is we weren't even shooting. Quinto just really hates Cumberbatch. #IHateLeaks
@ radiomaru RT if you think scott pilgrim should have been a miniseries on the syfy network instead
@ kateesackhoff Heading back to work... #Riddick I have my fight scene with #JordiMolla today. So excited
@ emmacaulfield wait a damn second. O'Brian went over to DS9? nerdknowledgefail
@ SamuelLJackson Saw a ruff of The Avengers!! Joss went IN on that MUTHAVENGER!!
@ theaarondouglas At the risk of being a foreigner commenting on another country's election.... Laura Roslin for President of the USA... #tweetthepress ;-)
