...just in case.
It was fun while it lasted. I wish Dollhouse had a good chance of being renewed, but it doesn't. There were several episodes I enjoyed quite a bit and I am looking forward to the season, and very probably series finale. I'm not as certain about Dollhouse as I was, say NBC's Life - another show I enjoyed that isn't coming back. I'm almost as sure, but I'll cut the tiniest sliver of a chance because it's on Fridays.
Given the ratings performance, being on Fridays gets its chances up to about .5%. And because Eliza Dushku is growing on me and Dichen Lachman in the role of Sierra was great at nailing multiple personalities, and Enver Gjokaj in the role of Victor was good at the multiple personalities too, I will say 2%. I don't really think it has any real shot at renewal, but the 2% is just to differentiate -- however slim its chances are, they do seem a tiny bit better than the prospects for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.
My bet is that neither come back, but Dollhouse has a slightly better chance. Some people make a lot of noise over the percentage increases via DVR, but they don't really boost the adults 18-49 rating enough to matter, and no matter how you slice it, it's ratings decreased from the premiere. It had seemed to level off in the 1.4-1.5 range live plus same day adults 18-49 rating, but then after a week off it returned last week with a 1.2 rating. James Hibberd has a graph of the 18-49 performance and the trend is not Dollhouse's friend.
Sure, if the finale pulls a 2.0 adults 18-49 rating in the overnights, I will revise my thinking, but that doesn't seem realistic. If it goes back to the 1.4-1.5 range, I don't think its fate improves any. Either way, we'll hopefully see the numbers sometime Saturday morning.
I wonder what we’ll see there next fall — Til Death? New shows? 5th Grader/Don’t Forget combo?
Why Would this show have a tiny bit better chance at renewel than TSCC? TSCC was at 1.3 for its final few weeks but this keeps going down.
i too watched all the eps and 2 eps were ok. eps 6 and 8. but the rest were just horrible.
Goodbye dollhouse… great idea but not so good show.
Jack, FOX produces the show, and Dollhouse got the “remote free” treatment, and there isn’t anything to suggest TSCC wouldn’t have fallen even further. The Dollhouse drop from 1.4 to 1.2 was after a week off the schedule — it had been in the 1.4-1.5 range steady for the four weeks before that. So I think its prospects are a tiny bit better. But we’re talking tiny…
Jack, Terminator just kept dropping for 2 seasons. It did moderately well its first season, then did crap on mondays last fall and did even worse fridays, Terminator has no chance. Dollhouse would have a chance if FOX liked the series but at this point theres really no solid reason to bring Dollhouse back.
Anonymous, most likely we will see the Fifth Grader/Lyrics combo on fridays which performed the best in my opinion.
Both series (Terminator & Dollhouse) are gonna be axed.
Wow, Robert agrees with me on Dichen, there’s hope for him yet.
She really impressed me, way back from the pilot. It’s a shame she doesn’t have the name recognition like Dushku, because she’s no doubt the better actress between them.
TSCC’s only hope is if every new Fox pilot bombs, which they won’t. There’s very little room for either show, and the rest of the scripted programs are well above the cut.
Human Target, Maggie Grace (sp?), and Virtuality are likely. The last of which is given a bizarre July 4th premiere. (Or around the holiday.)
OOps.. I got the actress name confused with the Fox show “Maggie Hill”. Sheesh… I was getting mixed up with the other hospital drama called “Mercy”.
I’m really mangling stuff today.
More likely the finale will be another 1.2 or even lower. Here’s why:
1) I’ve yet to see a Finale Episode on this site for seasons or series actually increase it’s viewership by an appreciable margin. I doubt Dollhouse is THAT different from other shows.
2) I believe Star Trek will have a negative impact upon viewership this weekend. Yes, we didn’t see this with Wolverine last week, but the buzz and critical acclaim surrounding the two films is very different. Wolverine had a leaked work print and poor word of mouth both from online and from review sites. It’s the opposite for Star Trek. Star Trek also has the biggest SCI-FI fanbase in the world, a fanbase which doesn’t exist to the same degree as it does for the X-men movie franchise (I say movies because the comics are another matter)
3) Prison Break is still airing in front of the show. FOX finally found something worse for a lead in, and Prison Break is it. I doubt Dollhouse will build well on a show that has been pulling 3.1 million with a 1.0 18-49 demo on average, especially since I doubt they share the same audience.
TSCC obviously has a better chance, so here is yet another anti-TSCC OPINION piece that has no grounds in reality. Terminator got better ratings on Monday than Dollhouse ever did, FOX fridays have just gotten worse since TSCC finished its season, and Dollhouse is not part of a successful franchise either. Dollhouse also has a much smaller fanbase than TSCC and is overall just a much weaker show. For all the criticism you people direct at fanboys regarding their lack of a sense of reality, you are just as irrational in your dislike of TSCC.
Uh, Chad? Fox is going to broadcast Virtuality as a special on July 4th, specifically Saturday Night July 4th. That’s what networks do to pilots they don’t pick up, they broadcast them as summer Movies Of The Week. And it’s on the worst night possible in the summer too. You can scratch that off the list.
Your main point is still valid, but FOX isn’t going to pickup Virtuality.
Pretty misleading title for a news post imo…
If it’s not officially canceled, the post title shouldn’t imply that it is.
JJ, it’s grounded in reality. You just don’t like our view of reality:
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/05/06/theres-no-drama-at-all-in-foxs-renewal-announcements/
Uh, JJ, I’m another TSCC fan, and even I don’t think the chances of renewal are good. I think they’re better than Dollhouse’s, but they’re still poor. That’s about the only point I disagree on with this post.
(Waiting to get jumped by Trolls now…)
Goodbye Dollhouse
From the beginning I couldn’t understand why this show seemed so strange to me. Then I read an article by Alan Sepinwall, and he talked about the “ick” factor in the premise of the show, and that nailed it. “Dollhouse” is about sex slavery, and far worse, the victims don’t know they’re be brainwashed into it. Just because the show coat it with a layer of voodoo sci-fi mumbo jumbo schtick doesn’t negate that this show is about a few hapless souls being abused week in, week out.
JJ, if you’ve been paying attention to ratings then you know that, comparably, TSCC’s ratings on Monday where just as bad for that day as they were on Fridays even with it’s lowered expectations (I’m not saying that it had the same ratings but rather that expectations are higher on Monday so it’s bad ratings there don’t help it any, even if they were a little higher than the Friday numbers).
Also, The Terminator franchise may be successful but the TSCC TV series is a bomb this season. You can thank the show runner for that.
@Kozy: I would like to live in your black & white world! Sounds very rigid and entirely unbendy.
I have to agree with JJ. TSCC is so much better than Dollhouse. I know it’s subjective but I got real board with Dollhouse after the first 3 episodes. I’d leave the episodes on my DVR for weeks and would finally erase them. TSCC on the other hand has maintained my attention and I am dying to see what happens to John if the viewing public happens to receive a miracle from Fox and they allow the story to continue.
Kozy, the show doesn’t coat it at all, it practically bathes in the ugliness, which is part of the problem with the ratings (but the part of the appeal for myself and many others).
Hell, they’ll probably confirm tonight that Saunders is a doll, and “Whiskey” will never be given her life back. Add that Alpha apparently stole all the dolls’ personalities, and could thus “murder” them all, and there’s no grounds to say that the show coats over the ugliness.
That said, I’m predicting a 1.0 to 1.1 rating. There’s no reason to suspect a jump from the first half of the finale, especially with Star Trek and better weather this weekend vs. last. And yes, that will definitely kill any chance the show had for renewal.