Friday Ratings: Fringe certain to be canceled

Against NCAA Basketball, “Fringe” fell to a series low 1.3 in the ad demo and 3.8 million viewers overall. It landed in third place in its times lot. With this latest update in the season-long ratings saga for the beleaguered sci-fi drama, “Fringe” is now nearly certain to be canceled. While Fox President stirred the pot by saying “Fringe” might see a fourth season if it held 80 percent of its Thursday ratings, it has not done so, and its ratings have now sank 40 percent.

It’s time slot lead-in, “Kitchen Nightmares,” outdrew “Fringe” with a 1.5. “Kitchen Nightmares” is a reality show and thus far less expensive to produce.

CBS Friday was devoted to to the NCAA Tournament; those numbers are not final yet. ABC aired “Supernanny” and “What Would You Do;” NBC went with “Dateline” and a re-run of “Who do You Think You Are.”

Since most of the night was repeats, the Tourney or Reality, network averages are below.

CBS (Preliminary): 1.5 demo, 4.5 million viewers

Fox: 1.4 demo, 3.7 million viewers

ABC: 1.3 demo, 4.7 million viewers

NBC: 1.2 demo, 6.1 million viewers