Fringe, the sci-fi series from superproducer J.J. Abrams, may have scored nine million viewers in its first episode, but on a Fox network accustomed to scripted blockbusters, the next few weeks will be crucial.

Trying to carry on the legacy of The Simpsons, 24, and even House, combined with a long-running marketing campaign created high expectations for the series that's supposed to be the linchpin of Fox's fall lineup.

And while Fringe performed respectably, with a debut audience of 9.1 million on Tuesday, September 9, and 5.7 million viewers for Sunday night's encore showing, it didn't quite generate the audience network executives were hoping for.

The big question: Will Fringe suffer from fan erosion over the next few episodes, undermining the network's investment (the pilot reportedly cost $10 million) and proving a rare failure for Fox?

Shari Anne Brill, senior vice president and director of programming at New York media agency Carat, says additional character development in episode two will help clarify the show's shot at success—and that the audience numbers for the premiere might be on the low side because it aired before the start of the official fall broadcast season, on September 22.

In Fringe's favor, says Brill, House, currently the network's top-rated scripted series, premiered to abysmal numbers—"six or seven million, insanely low"—in 2004.

"It was only when the show was relaunched in midseason, behind American Idol, that the numbers took off and doubled what they were in the fall," she says.

Tomorrow, House will have its season premiere on Fox, and the network has slotted in Fringe immediately afterwards to give the new show the kind of boost that benefited House back in 2004. And the series certainly has other things going for it.

The sci-fi theme will attract dedicated male viewers of the kind that made Fox's '90s show The X-Files a cult hit. The blond lead female investigator sure won't hurt with male fans, either. And a woman lead might make the science-fiction subject matter more palatable to female viewers.

Abrams has hits such as Felicity, Lost, and Alias under his belt, and the network has put on a glitzy promotional campaign, even filling the streets of Midtown Manhattan with cows, a Fringe motif, after announcing the show at the upfronts last spring.

On the other hand, if Fringe does prove a bust—and trade reviews, like one in Variety, have not minced words with negative opinions—the network will have an expensive flop on its hands.

Brill believes that the show's subject matter could ultimately determine its fate.

Fringe deals with mythology and fringe science, topics that normally attract niche audiences, "but Fringe is supposed to be more accessible," says Brill. "The idea that big business is corrupt and in cahoots with the government"—a concept that is unfolding as one of the show's central tenets—"is not that outlandish," she says.

While that's a sad conclusion, if enough viewers agree, Fringe might stand a chance after all.