The words "death slot" were unavoidable from the moment Fox announced 'Fringe' was moving to Friday night.

How could the beloved sci-fi show survive airing in a time slot known as the place where Fox's cult-favorite genre shows go to die? It happened with 'Firefly,' 'Wonderfalls' and again last year with 'Dollhouse.' Could 'Fringe' be an exception to the rule?

Now, after three weeks in the seemingly doomed time slot, the prognosis for 'Fringe''s future is leaning toward the positive ... we think.

"I'm so psyched about it," Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly told Entertainment Weekly. "It does go to show you the loyalty of the genre audience when you get the right show. I'm so grateful to that audience, I'd like to shake their hands. We have a lot of passion for that show here."

Well, it looks like my initial concerns regarding Fox's low ratings for the Friday night sci-fi double feature might be unfounded. It looks like the new Live+7 DVR data has given a 30% boost to Dollhouse's ratings and a 36% boost to The Sarah Connor Chronicles. The gains are considered very high, particularly for a Friday night.

This is a bit of a relief to me because it sends a signal to Fox that another season of either show (both of which I enjoy) would be a good idea. If anything, this information is further proof that the current ratings system is obsolete and should be replace by something else (damned if I know what, though. The trick is to get advertisers to trust whatever new system they adopt).

It's also a sign that, unlike myself, some sci-fi fans actually go out on Friday nights and can wait until later to watch their favorite Friday night shows. Good for them.

The verdict is in, and it looks like both Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Dollhouse did pretty poorly in the ratings.

Did anybody expect otherwise? Given the timeslot and the relative lack of publicity (no matter how cool the trailers actually are), the shows still did pretty well. Hopefully the additional views from DVRs that are watched during the week will increase the ratings enough so Fox doesn't cancel within three episodes.

I can only hope that Joss Whedon's statements about Fox are true and they were expecting low initial ratings for the series and that they hope to make up for it in DVD sales and increased ratings over time. If this sort of programming succeeds over time, then folks like me will have a legitimate excuse to stay in on Friday nights.

Let us not forget that success stories such as The X-Files started on Fox on Friday nights. I'm not giving up hope yet.