Hey, remember how yesterday I wondered about the overlap between the audiences for American Idol and my beloved Fringe? Well, that overlap occurred last night, in a couple of ways. Idol viewers saw numerous shots of a serene bald man in the Hollywood studio audience. It was Michael Cerveris, the actor who plays the creepy, he’s-everywhere Observer on Fringe. And since that hoggish Idol spilled over into Fringe’s time period last night, it was only right that The Observer should be there to patrol this unusual event, as he does so many unusual events on Fringe.
Many of you also responded to my blog entry yesterday asking whether you watch both Idol and Fringe. I’m happy to report (or you can easily see for yourself in the comments section here), that there are indeed Idolators among the Fringees (Fringe-ites? Fringalators? We have to come up with a good nickname, comrades). As one poster, Warren, asks, “Is Idol part of The Pattern?” He’s referring, of course, to the show’s tied-together, largely-unexplained events thus far. And Warren, maybe you’ve hit on the reason Kara DioGuardi exists: She’s an alien sent to subvert Idol!
It was a great episode of Fringe last night; did you enjoy Walter Bishop’s boogie-down to Al Green’s “Love and Happiness”?
For more on American Idol: Simon’s Spontaneous O!
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I haven’t watched my recording of Fringe because that stupid Idol show ran 10 MINUTES OVER so the end of Fringe wasn’t recorded. I wasn’t going to bother to watch without the ending. I’ll try to catch it online sometime today. Gee, what a great way for Fox to tank one of its own shows. Just cut off the last 10 minutes of a show for the significant portion of people who use DVRs. Much more of that and people will quit watching the show altogether.
Thanks Idol. Thanks for ruining my Fringe experience by running late. Luckily I have the Central Time and West Coast feeds, so I was able to DVR the replay. I’ve yet to see the final scenes. I hate all things Idol, and now I hate it even more now that they’ve messed with my Fringe!!!
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Unfortunately, I am not one of those who watches American Idol. I guess my DVR isn’t either, because neither of us knew about AI’s extended episode so I missed the last 5-10 min of Fringe.
Forget Michael Cerveris – Rob Dyrdek, right behind Kara & Randy!! I noticed Cerveris right away, but I spent more of my hour+ of Idol watching to see what Dyrdek’s responses would be, and clapped happily along with him – fingers fully extended, palms only.
Thats fine for “Fringe” to plant him in the audience – especially since AI ran over 10 minutes. (Seriously – cut out all the pre-taped interviews and just get to the performances. It would’ve fit in an hour.)
I watch both idol & fringe. I love Walter, he cracks me up!
That dude is the creepiest looking guy on the planet. He should team up with the Hunter from Heroes, and they should do a buddy comedy together.
I am on cable recording. I also record Idol. I watch them about a hour late on each one. Well i have been waiting-it seems like forever-for Fringe to come back on. Last night i watched Idol and was so excited to watch Fringe,but what happened,my recorder stopped at the end of the hour. Last night it was not the end of the show. I am really mad that shows are doing that now,running over 1-2-5 minutes over. Last night on Fringe i missed the most importantthe end. Guess i will have to record the show after.
Dunno if you guys noticed it but during the SuperBowl the bald dude was filmed standing on the sidelines for a quick moment…
The boogie down was the best part of the whole episode! lol
like mikerman, i LOATHE all things idol, so when it ran over, i cussed up a blue streak. …then thanked the baby jesus that my local news didn’t cut in on the tail end of the show. fringe is back, baby!!!
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It WAS the Fringe guy! My husband spotted him and made me rewind AI. It was totally creepy seeing him there, but what a way to tie Fringe into “real” life.
Ken, in yesterday’s post, you said there were some Pattern info in last night’s episode. Aside from the Junior Observer, I didn’t catch any Pattern info. What did I miss?
Hey Ken – your favorite dentist suggests “Fringophiles”. Keep up the good work!
Yes – I do watch both shows – and last night Idol was an INFRINGER. They “made it their own”, all right. Damn them.
Like many others on DVR, missed what happened to the feral empathic albino child. And I really wanted to know because that writing upside down thing was way cool.
I was lucky enough to realize that I needed to set my DVR to record the show after “Fringe.” It was ridiculous for “American Idol” to run so long, particularly as it deprived many viewers of the brilliant twist ending to a strong episode.
I was lucky enough to switch to my Fringe recording while the show was still live so I tacked on 10 munutes. If I hadn’t done that I’d have reason 10054 to hate reality TV!!
Hi
I HAAATTTTEEEEE American Idol!!!!!!!! If any one every asks you who would you like to see eaten alive by crocodiles or put feet first through a meat grinder on TV give them the names of anyone connected to that moronic, vapid, brain dead, idiotic, narrcistic, numbskull, asinine,foolish, imbecilic, banal,insipid, tedious, dull, boring,cretinious,mindless,
gormless,buffon inspired, scum bag of a program. People who watch this show should be turned into soylent green. I lost that last ten minutes due to some neanderthal, hairy arsed, knuckle dragger who actually believes that they will become someone we would be interested in paying money to see. They should have their likenesses put on targets at the shooting range. AAARRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!
Well,… now that I got that off my chest I feel much better.
I do watch Idol and have for several years now. The concept is good.. Please respect and at least acknowledge some of the true talent that has been extracted from this show. i.e. Carrie Underwood (amazing singer) David Cook (again a great artist selling albums hand over fist) and how many albums have gone platinum for Kelly Clarkson. Really these people likely may not have been discovered without this show… this is to name a few. The show running over is unacceptable ! The folks at Fox need to get this resolved NOW to not infringe others viewing preferences. My opinion is Paula needs to sober up or resign and Kara DioGuardi is an extra time consumption however She has proven to be an asset with her talent as a song writer. We need to keep in mind also this year and additional contestant, and additional judge and the corny introduction of the judges (which was not present last night). I have funny feeling this may be the last year.. But AT&T is banking soooo.. so FOX please !!
I loved last night’s epsoide. Great writing.
I was on the fence about whether or not I wanted to get back into this show, and FOX made the decision for me by cutting off the ending. I could easily catch it online, but a part of me wonders if this is some News Corp plot to inflate viewer numbers. I guess I’ll just settle for a summary on Wikipedia someday.
I was going to give Fringe a try last night, but when I turned it on Idol was still on. I can’t handle Idol, I feel my brain cells committing suicide anytime they catch a glimpse. I had to change the channel and watch something else, not giving Fringe that chance. Thanks, Fox!
Hey, if we can gripe about AI running over time, let’s do it with sports events, that they have to finish the game by show time and if they don’t whoever has the highest number by that time wins. Look people it’s live tv, it happens, get over it and if you have the internet you can always downlaod the full episodes. Go Allison and Adam. Bye bye Lil.
Is there anyplace I can go to get a recap of last night’s Fringe – including the ending that was cut off? The only online viewing that I have sucess with is for NBC shows. I have problems with the rest.
@ robert j: American Idol might be live, but it is not the same circumstance as live sports. AI has MUCH more control on scheduling performances and keeping things running on time as scheduled than a sports game would. Big difference.
Meanwhile bc the powers that be can’t schedule Idol properly, we now have several minutes of the ending cut off from the following show, and that’s a big no-no. Esp since Fringe just came back last night from being gone several weeks. I was very disappointed, and all because Idol has to be the bully of TV and push all the shows around just because it can.
Bald Guy from Fringe – was he also at the Superbowl?? I missed that. I SWEAR I saw him right before kickoff of in either Giants Stadium or at the Linc in Philly last season. He was on the sideline, just standing alone. I LOVE THE FOX CROSSOVER EASTER EGG HUNT. Thank you JJ ABRAMS. So cool!
Last night’s “Fringe” was good, but this show follows a predictable- mind the pun- pattern. We got such an uber-download of mythos from the previous episode, I just knew this one was going to have absolutely nothing to do with it. And neither will next week’s; it’ll probably be at least three or four eps before we hear from David Robert Jones again. But that’s cool. “Fringe” is much more episodic than it’s kindred spirit, “LOST,” which is serialized and where every episode divulges new and important bits of mythology/furthers the overarching plot.
To MikerMan: Yes that was the Observer at one of the conference playoff games (forget which). A closeup view of him on the sidelines. Very cool.
I tuned in for Fringe, found American Idol & went to CBS to watch ‘The Mentalist’, which is a great show. I also emailed Fox & told them as such & called them on letting AI run over, but I’m sure they don’t care either way what MY viewing habits are.
To be honest, I think Fox let American Idol run over on purpose. One of their biggest shows, Fringe, is returning after a very long break & you let a live show you have absolute control over run long? Doesn’t make sense unless they are trying to artificially inflate AI with the DVR #’s for people who were trying to record Fringe or Fox is just trying to reel in more viewers the only way they know how, a captive audience. It was unprofessional and very annoying.
None of the ’stars’ AI has ‘found’ have impressed me much at all. It all is pretty much packaged crap. I did look into Kelly C. online & her best stuff was My December, which was panned by her producers. AI & Fox, new frontiers in banality.