??-??-1994
Electronic Media
‘X-Files’ boosts FBC ratings, picks up momentum globally

Last year, Twentieth Television’s new “The X-Files” turned international heads at the Los Angeles Screenings, four months before the show even premiered to U.S. audiences.

Since then, the show has caught on in such international territories as Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and Spain, and has built into a Friday night ratings power for FBC.

The key to the show’s success, its creators say, is its blend of fact-based “weird science” and the universal fright appeal of the unknown. “There are some really creepy episodes of this show that get under your skin and turn you into a raving psychotic even though you know the two leads are going to get out of it OK,” says USA today television critic Matt Roush.

“In terms of the sort of ‘fantastic’ franchises out there, ‘X-Files’ possesses a sort of special kind of terror,” he adds.

“We haven’t seen that kind of scary anthology since the 1960s or 1970s . . . where the show really dares to get under your skin.”

Before FBC slotted the new “X-Files” into what had been a weak 9 p.m. (ET) slot on Fridays, the show had already created a buzz with international buyers.

“‘X-Files’ was a bit of a surprise, because we all knew very little about it upfront,” says Marion Edwards, senior vice president for Twentieth Century Fox International Television.

“The paranormal aspects of the show are fascinating to people of every culture. Even though it’s a strictly American-style, one-hour show, it’s really universal in its theme,” she said.

Internationally, “X-Files” is posting strong young adult demographics for such leading broadcasters as Spain’s Antena 3 TV, where it airs in Monday’s 10:30 p.m. time slot, and on Australia’s Network Ten, where it runs Thursdays at 9:30 p.m.

Domestically, FBC had dedicated much of its Friday promotional efforts to the new 8 p.m. Western spoof “The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.” early in the season, but since beefing up promotions for “X-Files” at 9 p.m., the show has taken off in the ratings.

In fact, its season finale on May 13 generated the best ratings for households and adults age 18 to 49 for any FBC series ever on a Friday night, scoring an 8.8 Nielsen Media Research rating (percentage of TV homes) and a 16 share (percentage of sets in use) and 7.2/23, respectively, in those categories.

“When people began hearing about the name ‘X-Files,’ there was a lack of awareness about what this show really is,” says Dan McDermott, FBC senior vice president of current programming and specials.

“Once people start to watch the show, what they find is that it’s one of the most original creative shows on television today,” he said.

“It’s a little bit sci-fi, a little bit paranormal, and involves the belief — or at least the acceptance of the potential belief — in the paranormal,” he said.

“What we do best is take the story and try to make it as believable as possible, and that’s where the big scare lies,” says series creator and executive producer Chris Carter.

??-??-1994
Boston Herald
Cult hit asks ‘Why not?’

Genetically engineered twins. A psychopath who starts fires with his mind. Aliens inside human hosts.

The latest edition of the National Enquirer? Tomorrow’s ‘Geraldo’?

Nope, it’s just another Friday night on ‘The X-Files,’ a 4-month-old Fox series that is developing a loyal cult following faster than you can say ‘Twin Peaks.’ ‘X-Files’ targets other worlds

And no wonder Network TV doesn’t get much weirder than this mystery-thriller-drama that’s one part ‘Twilight Zone,’ one part ‘Silence of the Lambs’ and one part pure paranoia. Each hour-long episode revolves around FBI agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), an agency outcast who spends his time investigating unexplainable cases. He’s aided – and sometimes hindered – by level-headed partner Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson). ‘The show is about the collision of the mundane world and extraordinary reality,’ says Duchovny, who played a transvestite FBI agent on three episodes of ‘Twin Peaks.’ ‘The tension and the excitement comes when one of the two worlds has to adjust to incorporate the other one.’

Mulder is the bridge between the two universes, an intelligent man whose willingness to accept the possibility that Something Is Out There originated during childhood, when his sister was mysteriously abducted. Since then, he’s been obsessed with all things paranormal.

‘He’s someone that could have had a very thriving career in the mainstream of the FBI,’ says Duchovny, ‘yet he’s chosen to pursue something that means something to him and has therefore given up everything and become kind of a laughingstock.’ Ratings for ‘X-Files’ are low by network standards, but the folks at Fox consider it one of their hottest new shows. That’s because it’s attracting a large percentage of the network’s target audience – men and women ages 18-34. Moreover, word of mouth from — both critics and audiences has been excellent.

All of which is good news to creator and executive producer Chris Carter, a former journalist who came up with the idea for ‘X-Files’ while researching examples of paranormal activity for a possible series.

‘I thought there must be a branch of the FBI that investigates these cases that involve unexplained phenomenon,’ he says. ‘The FBI doesn’t cop to any such branch, but I can’t imagine that it doesn’t exist.’

While ‘X-Files’ is clearly science fiction, its creator insists the phenomena explored in each episode aren’t complete fantasies.

‘All of them spring from some tidbit of scientific fact,’ says Carter. ‘Then we proceed on the big ‘what if?’ ‘