While many fans are patiently waiting for the premiere of Fringe, the latest brainchild from J.J. Abrams (Lost), Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the team behind Alias and Mission Impossible III, some fans have already seen and enjoyed the FOX science fiction thriller.  According to USA Today, the pilot episode has surfaced online on file-sharing network BitTorrent three months prior to the show's scheduled premiere date.

Based on popular torrent trackers, the leaked $10 million episode is in high demand.  In fact, one copy of the pilot on Mininova has already been downloaded nearly 45,000 times since it the leak out earlier this week.

For those who are not familiar, Fringe is about the investigation of the passengers of an international flight that landed at Boston's Logan Airport where the passengers and crew have all died grisly deaths.  In due course, those who are called to investigate discover that “what happened on Flight 627 is only a small piece of a larger, more shocking truth.”  Fringe stars newcomer Anna Torv, Mark Valley (Boston Legal), John Noble (Lord of the Rings), Joshua Jackson (Dawson's Creek), Blair Brown (Altered States), Lance Reddick (The Wire), Kirk Acevedo (Oz) and Jasika Nicole (Law & Order: Criminal Intent).

The pilot leak-out doesn't really come as a surprise.  Highly anticipated pilots for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Dexter and Weeds have all been bubbled up on file-sharing networks as well.  Additionally, HBO's fall vampire drama True Blood has also recently become available for download through the popular sites.

Meanwhile, there are speculations over whether the pilot episode of Fringe was intentionally leaked by the network to create some early buzz.  On the other hand, publicity reps for Fringe at FOX and Warner Bros. have declined to comment before saying "they were aware of the situation and were looking into it."



-Kris De Leon, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: USA Today
(Image courtesy of FOX)