Let’s face it everyone was excited to here that a Jurassic Park sort of show was going to be coming out back when Terra Nova was first announced. The premise sounded great: the Earth is dying and humanities only hope is to go back in time to restart civilization in an ancient and alien land. Cool! But what we got was not so… cool.
Instead of having an entertaining science fiction series about a new civilization fending off giant dinosaurs we got a family drama set on what looks like a low rent Hawaiian resort. Despite the fact that it had a lot of potential it doesn’t mean that the network it airs on (FOX) should give up on another one of its science fiction shows, namely Fringe.
You see Fringe has not been doing so great, rating wise, since it was moved from Thursday to Friday nights; better known to most TV watchers as the Death Slot. Most people have things they would rather be doing on Friday nights rather than watching the TV. And as a result, Fringe is mostly watched by people who set their digital recorder in order to snag it for viewing at a later date. That’s assuming they even remember it is on. Even on its worst day Fringe is far superior to Terra Nova. Which begs the question why wouldn’t Fox executives just move Fringe to Terra Nova’s Monday night slot and use the money they would have spent on Terra Nova to improve upon Fringe?
After watching what Fox’s moves have been over the past decade or some when it comes to its programming one thing becomes apparent. They think it’s easier to lure viewers to shiny new (probably terrible) shows than it is to draw viewers back to an existing series that has lost its appeal but is still of high quality. Most highly advertised pilots do get a few weeks of high ratings even if the show is obviously a Lost clone/wannabe that is going nowhere fast. Does that sound familiar (cough)… Terra Nova.
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