Fringe Series Finale Date Set For January

All good things must come to an end, and Fringe fans would probably categorize the sci-fi-drama among "good things." Fox has set the finale date for Fringe for January 2013. What's more, the series will close out its fifth and final season with two back-to-back episodes.

Beginning with tonight's episode, Fringe starts its 9-episode countdown to the series finale. All of this will culminate to the show's two-hour conclusion, which is set for Friday, January 18, 8:00-10:00 p.m. And since it's technically two episodes, that final hour will mark the series' 100th episode. It's a milestone most show hope to achieve and Fringe is doing it with its last episode. Here's part of the release announcing the information about the finale and mentioning tonight's episode, "An Origin Story."

The fifth and final flash-forward season of FRINGE is set in 2036, when the “Observers” have become ruthless rulers of a dystopian society. As the battle for the world’s future continues to unfold, the Fringe team is in the midst of making its final stand to save humanity. In the aftermath of the devastating loss of Peter and Olivia’s daughter, ETTA (guest star Georgina Haig), the intensity escalates as the combat continues and Peter makes a pivotal and game-changing move in the all-new “An Origin Story” episode airing tonight (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.

With 9 episodes to go, it's probably too soon to expect a lot of details about the series' final episodes, but at the very least, fans now have a date to look forward to, or dread, depending on whether or not they've accepted the series' fate.

Created by J.J. Abrams, alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, Fringe stars Anna Torv, John Noble and Joshua Jackson and follows a Fringe team brought together to explore mysterious occurrences, including or involving parallel universes, doppelgängers and other bizarre threats that the rest of the world may not be equipped to deal with. The series premiered in the fall of 2009 to an audience of 10 million viewers. The ratings have dropped steadily over the years, but the show still has a loyal following and while those viewers may not love the fact that the show is on the way out, it seems likely that they're excited to see how how this series will end.

Kelly West
Assistant Managing Editor

Kelly joined CinemaBlend as a freelance TV news writer in 2006 and went on to serve as the site’s TV Editor before moving over to other roles on the site. At present, she’s an Assistant Managing Editor who spends much of her time brainstorming and editing feature content on the site. She an expert in all things Harry Potter, books from a variety of genres (sci-fi, mystery, horror, YA, drama, romance -- anything with a great story and interesting characters.), watching Big Brother, frequently rewatching The Office, listening to Taylor Swift, and playing The Sims.