Fringe fans, the move to Friday hasn’t been too bad now has it? Ratings are holding steady (actually they’re not, see below), and it appears that the loyal hardcare fanbase is sticking with it. And according to FOX execs that’s all they need to confidently renew the fantastic sci-fi series thereby granting it a fourth season. This week producers Jeff Pinkner and J.H. Wyman shared some intriguing thoughts about the near-term future of the show. “Largely this season has been about the march to war, and it will continue to be so, driven equally by the relationship of Peter and the two Olivias,” Pinkner tells TVLine. “But we’ve got more stuff coming.” Wyman teases, “We can definitely guarantee that the last stretch [of episodes] is going to be very complicated, because you’re going to understand our show in a different capacity. It’s going to stretch your mind and make you think, ‘I never saw that coming.’ We have a few cards to lay down that I don’t think anybody expects. That’s what we feel we owe the fans.”

If you couldn’t process this before, they clearly they have another season on their collective mind. The May finale “will be as much as anything about setting up next season,” says Pinkner. Adds Wyman, “It’s like when you read a great novel and you finish a chapter, you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, something happened that’s going to propel me forward!’ That’s something we desire to emulate.”

Bring it. Fringe airs Fridays at 9PM on FOX.

Update: Looks like Fringe isn’t exactly maintaining viewers like I had previously thought. Let’s take a look at the trend since it moved to Friday. “The Firefly”, Fringe‘s Friday debut, attracted 4.8 million viewers (1.9/6 in 18-49 demo); that was up 12% from its last original Thursday airing. Great start. The following week FOX aired “Reciprocity” and the ratings held steady at 4.6 million viewers (1.9/6 in 18-49 demo). The next episode “Concentrate and Ask Again” started the rocky spiral descent; viewership dropped 16% to 4.2 million viewers (1.6/5). And that brings us to last night’s episode; “Immortality” garnered 3.7 million viewers (1.4/6)–that’s a 13% drop from the previous ep. This is certainly a cause for concern when it comes to thinking about season renewal. The hardcore fanbase needs to stick with this show if FOX is going to pick it up for another season. Obviously these early numbers do not take into consideration DVR numbers (Fringe typically picks up the slack in time-shifted viewership), so these low figures may increase over the next few days. The bottom line is this: if Fringe wants to see another year to live, YOU have to tune into the show when it airs Fridays @ 9PM. Plain and simple. If you must, DVR it and watch it later. Tell your friends about it. The producers have promised they have “years of story left to tell” so it would be nothing short of a catastrophe if FOX eliminated it from its schedule prematurely.

Update 2: Recently FOX entertainment president Kevin Reilly shared his thoughts on Fringe‘s early surge when it first moved to Friday nights. He said, “I’m so psyched about it. 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.” Even though Reilly released this statement before last Friday’s dip in ratings, it does go to show his massive amount of support behind the show. If ratings can pick up again and begin to level out, I have no doubt in my mind Fringe will return for another season next fall.

[Via TVLine 1, 2; EW]