The source of this terror? The fact that Fox is moving Fringe to Friday nights beginning next week, which, with the exception of The X-Files back in the '90s, hasn't exactly been a safe haven for genre, the highway to that particular night littered with the corpses of such shows.
"As a fan of the genre and the show," offers Abrams while attending the TCA press tour, "I'm hoping that fans will tune in. I certainly can promise that it will be worth their while. The episodes that are coming up are spectacular. I guess you can just be hopeful and say that, if the work is good enough, it will find the audience. I think they’re doing better work now, even in the second half of Season three, than they’ve ever done on the series. I’m just crossing my fingers that fans of the show, show up.
"I don’t see an upside [to the move]," he adds, "because the audience on Friday nights is harder to find. But, that’s not to say that they aren’t there and that we might not be able to make it there. Certainly, I would be lying to you if I said I’m thrilled about the move. But, what I am thrilled about is that the network has been incredibly supportive and, despite its move to Friday, they’ve been nothing but encouraging of the show. It’s still on the air in its third season, and it’s not easy to do that. It’s not easy to get to Season 3 of anything. They’ve allowed the show to become truly great, I think. The question is, will audiences find a great show on Friday nights? I pray that they do."