Fox is delaying a decision on the fate of House, Terra Nova and Fringe.
The network’s entertainment president, Kevin Reilly, told reporters at the Television Critics Association’s press tour that he and House creator David Shore “agreed mutually to put it off until after the first of the year. We haven’t had that meeting yet.” Reilly acknowledged that he’s been “avoiding” a firm decision because “it’s hard to imagine the network without House… It [is] going to be a close call.”
Should this be the last season of House, Reilly insisted that fans will get a satisfying ending. “It’s not going to be an unceremonious finish,” he assured. Reilly all but ruled out the possibility of a spinoff. “That time has come and gone,” he said.
Regarding the status of fellow bubble show Terra Nova, Reilly said a decision will have to come down in the coming weeks. “We’ll decide very soon, because it does need to get back into production in the next month,” he said. “If [it doesn't come back], we made money on it [and] the audience enjoyed it.” Reilly acknowledged that the show “was hunting for itself creatively through the season.”
As far as Fringe is concerned, Reilly conceded, ”We lose a lot of money on the show. At that rating, on [Friday] night (in the US), its impossible to make money. We’re not in the business of losing money… [But] I’m not doing the soft cancel here. That’s another decision we will have to make.
“I do not want to drop the ball on the end and let the fans down,” he added. “Please don’t start the letter writing campaign now. I can’t take it. … We haven’t even sat down with the producers and the studio.”
“The answer to that question is the same every year,” Pinkner started when asked if and when they’d need a heads up to wrap things up. “Worst case scenario, if this were the last aired season of Fringe — and as we’ve said before, there are other outlets where we could continue our stories, be they graphic novels or webisodes — we know what the end of this season is going to be, and it can function as a series finale.”
Pinkner said that last season’s capper likewise could have served as an apropos out for the sci-fi saga. “Had Peter, the lynchpin for the reason the show existed, been the one to sacrifice himself heroically to save the two universes and the woman he loved, it would have been a very authentic end.”
Fox president Kevin Reilly, when fielding questions about Fringe‘s fate, said the show has been a “point of pride” for him, as boss of a network that famously has let down genre-TV fans. Alas, Fringe is “an expensive show” that is not yielding a profit, he noted, “and we’re not in the business of losing money.”
Reilly said that conversations with Fringe‘s creative team and production studios have yet to take place. But Abrams, for one, says he’s “crossing [his] fingers” that the story of Peter, Olivia, Walter et al “gets to continue — and if not on Fox, maybe somewhere else.”
Source TV Line
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