Defying all conventional logic, Fox has renewed Fringe for a 13 episode fifth season, after successfully negotiating a lower licensing fee.
The JJ Abrams series is popular amongst critics and a small cult of fans, but receives very low ratings, averaging about 3 million viewers a week, which is bad even by Friday standards (Grimm, which airs in the same time slot, pulls 4.5 mil.).
The 13 new episodes will bring the total episode count past 100, which will allow the producers to shop it around for syndication.