You. Over there. Whining like a little bitch because FOX didn't pick up Virtuality. Quit your whining!
Minor spoilers below.
I'll let you in on a little secret, I watched Virtuality and I liked it. Mostly. Oh sure, there was that one glaring plot device. I'm supposed to believe these people are smart enough to create stunning virtual reality head gear, but not smart enough to go into the airlock with their space Suits already on? C'mon! But otherwise, I liked it fine and would've no doubt watched at least a few episodes of it had it been made into a series.
But cut FOX some slack. All this "FOX, you broke my heart again" talk is nonsense.
While I can't say why FOX feels the way about Virtuality that it does, how it felt about it was pretty clear when originally it was scheduled to air on July 4 between 8p-10pm (the good news is, by bumping it up 8 days, it's possible that FOX could still change its mind and make Bill happy by running a 'Til Death marathon on July 4).
July 4, the night when people go out to watch fireworks and celebrate our freedom to whine about networks not picking up TV shows that we don't pay for.
Why did FOX make the schedule switch to air it eight days earlier? Who knows? The switch was made well in advance of the deaths of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett. So it's not like FOX planned to have tribute competition (and it wasn't like the that competition hit the ball out of the yard ratings-wise either).
But given the numbers for Virtuality it's hard to predict it would've done any worse if they'd left it on July 4. Sure, I got about 18 e-mails (ok, only 2) along the lines of "See how great Dollhouse is! HA! Look at those numbers for Virtuality! Hahahahaha Dollhouse rul3z!"
But it's really not worth comparing a Friday in late June with a Friday in February, March or April. I'm not saying the numbers for Virtuality didn't stink, because they indeed were plenty smelly. But who knows if Dollhouse's numbers would've looked any better if it premiered on a Friday in late June with the same level of promotion Virtuality got.
Dollhouse's renewal is probably one of the reasons why FOX didn't pick up Virtuality. I'm not sure it's the main reason, but FOX had to figure "OK, so two science fiction-ish shows that hardly anyone will watch, but one we know we can get dirt cheap. Hmmmm which one do we pick?!"
I think another reason might have been something like, "Hey, doesn't Ronald D. Moore, creator of Virtuality also have another show (Caprica) that will be airing on SciiiiFiiiiii or whatever its called starting next year? And didn't the pilot for that show revolve a lot around -- wait for it -- virtual reality headgear?"
For that reason alone, I don't think there's any chance SyFy will pick it up. Do they really want two artificial intelligence / virtual reality themed shows? Is it in SyFy's interest to have Moore working on one two similarly themed shows that it (NBC Universal ) owns and one show produced by FOX? (edited: commenter "Peter Noble" is correct, both shows are Universal produced).
I'd be happy to see it happen. But I think that would require a miracle.
Dollhouse was renewed, so miracles can happen. And if you're rooting for that sort of thing to happen with Virtuality, I won't hold it against you. But if you're gonna go all "FOX, you broke my heart. Again. I need to know how this show ends. I HATE YOU FOX! I die a little every time I give a show on your network a chance!!!" on us -- well, I won't hold that against you either, but I will mock you.
Great article! You are so so right. Folks sure be grateful they got to see this pilot/mini-movie. FOX could of just not aired it, like the dozen of others pilots not picked up.
Wasn’t Virtuality produced by NBC/U for FOX?
Watching paint dry is more entertaining than watching Virtuality, it may be better suited for Sly Fry.
you are correct, sir. Both shows are universal produced. I’ve edited the post.
Good concept, not withstanding the plot device, appalling acting. There was nobody in the cast that you would want to see again. When they killed the captain, I wished the rest of the crew was in the air lock. For real. So none ofthen would ever get cast again in anything else.
What I would like to know, beyond TV numbers (as you said, of COURSE it got bad ratings, it was hardly advertised, and at a time when it’s not going to beat out the competition it no one knows about it), is: How well is it doing online? We hear all this crap about TV ratings, but truthfully, most of the people I know (granted they’re at the lower half of the 18-40 demographic, but it’s still a fair number of people) rarely sit down and watch their tv shows anymore. Why should they? If you wait a couple days, you can watch the same shows, at your convenience, and without the 20 minutes of commercials, online. So, what are the online ratings? How many people have watched it since it has come out? Because I think THAT is really what can be used to push for this show to continue, if those ratings are terrific.
Liz, regardless of how many people watched online on advertising supported sites (as opposed to p2p downloaded), those viewers mean pennies to the network. This show is as dead as King Tut (who arrived in San Francisco this week).
Actually, more dead, no one will be lining up to view Virtuality in a few thousand years.
I have to agree with Liz. I own a TV. I rarely watch network or cable, though. I think a lot of the younger generations are going to stop using TVs and starting using computers more and more. If networks don’t start taking this into account, a lot of good programming (and not just FOX) will get cancelled from bad ratings.
I think FOX is just a little over zealous. If you’re going to judge something based on its ratings, you should probably advertise. The only reason I caught Virtuality on Friday is because my other plans were cancelled at the last minute and there wasn’t anything else on TV. I think FOX needs to lighten up a little and take a chance on something. One episode, even one season isn’t necessarily enough to build a large fan base. It looks like they’re taking a chance on Dollhouse (good for them), but as you’ve said, a lot of people out there no longer trust FOX to renew the shows they get attached to. Word of mouth is pretty powerful, but it requires time.
David, like all networks, FOX picks up some pilots and not others. Networks don’t always or even usually air the pilots of shows they don’t pick up. But in this case, given it was a two hour pilot that it had paid for anyway, I guess it figured why not air it. The decision on its fate was made by the May schedule announcements. It didn’t get picked up. Though some people seem to think FOX airing it last Friday instead of July 4th meant FOX was given it another shot to see what would happen, it seems very unlikely they had any hope for an upside ratings surprise on a late June Friday.
Thank you, Robert, for saying, “See how great Dollhouse is! HA! Look at those numbers for Virtuality! Hahahahaha Dollhouse rul3z!” I skimmed over the rest of it, but this part is clearly the best part of your post, because it’s SOOO true!
Dollhouse returns in 81 days! It rul3z!
Robert,
FOX has stated that the show was too complicated (the actual word used was “dense”) for its viewers and that’s why it was passed on.
I also heard it was bumped up a week because FOX’s option doesn’t expire until Wednesday.
As you can be certain Ron Moore and Michael Taylor are not happy with FOX–they never received any answers on the state of the show until they heard about the “movie” as advertised by FOX instead of what it actually was–an open-ended pilot.
Forget about the viewers, it’s a bad thing when FOX TV has a bad rep among the creative community.
As a SciFi fan, if this would have been pitched to me via a commercial during Fringe, I would have had awareness and probably sat down and watched it. Instead, I had no idea it was on being no current Fox shows are in my late spring/summer sphere. Maybe Fox needs to start playing a few moves ahead rather than counting on DVD sales in retrospect to fuel its business model with this type of programming…
Apparently I’m in a minority (of sorts) here because I really didn’t enjoy the Virtuality pilot at all and am actually quite thankful that Fox didn’t pick it up.
Bacchus:
Virtuality is up on Hulu and FOX On Demand, if you are in the States.
Having watched this on Hulu, I immediately looked for more episodes and came across the reality of the situation. I would have spent the rest of my day watching further episodes of this. I’m tired of the lack of “density” in just about everything I watch, and enjoyed what was at first kind of an odd beginning in a civil war / sci-fi flick. Having seen NO advertising for it whatsoever I was taken aback. It was a fun, almost a “choose my own adventure” book from my youth that took me in to the stories and left me wanting.
I hate to see it not continue, HATE. :_(
JBF, since I made no declaration of the awesomeness that is Joss Whedon, I wasn’t sure you’d catch that.
Andrea, yeah I read about the dense comments. I’m not sure I buy it, but maybe that’s what the tests indicated.
As for a bad rep among the creative community, maybe. I don’t think it’s a great rep to have, but that’s the sort of thing that seemingly manifests in blog posts and comments but doesn’t wind up mattering much anywhere else. Joss Whedon was willing to work with FOX again even after Firefly! Though I’d guess you could probably find comments like that about almost every studio/network, there are only a very limited set of shops around to sign the paychecks and like everyone else, the creative people want to get paid too.
I agree with myself.
FOX has stated that the show was too complicated (the actual word used was “dense”) for its viewers and that’s why it was passed on.
Yeah, cause fringe is pretty simple what with the alternate reality storylines and both of the male protagonists being, for lack of a better term, criminals.
Sci Fi on primetime has always been limited, hell who remembers space: Above and Beyond – I do – 10 times better than this and FOX gave it little support and cancelled it too early – but if no one watches no one watches – the people who post on blogs like this are NOT THE AVERAGE AMERICAN TV VIEWER – the nielsen system, archaic and broken as it is is the arbiter of what will live and what will die.
Besides, why have quality tv that might require the average (moron) american to think when you can put together more reality shows that let the average american think it has a clue what ‘talent’ is.
Robert,
I agree that online comments can exaggerate things, but based on what Joss, Michael Taylor, others have said in interviews is what puts up the red flag for me. Joss really had to be massaged to come back to FOX; he said it was a different set of people working there, and they were willing to give him creative room (after initially pulling on the restraints) as well as a second season–although there is still room for things to go seriously wrong with that.
I’m not so sure Ron Moore will come back to FOX–or the guys who made “Back To You”.
BTW, why do you think FOX may have passed on Virtuality if not it being too sci-fi?
Wow, another post whining about fans who whine. I love web sites who show contempt for their readers by accusing them of behaving like humans.
Here’s a clue – fans whine when someone takes their candy away. It’s not rational, it’s often pathetic, but it is what it is. People don’t like losing something they enjoy, knowing they will never get it back.
It’s possible to make the case that Fox gave Virtuality a fair break (in my opinion, they did – barely) without being abusive and condescending.
Andrea, but Ron Moore didn’t do the deal with FOX. He did the deal with NBCU and apparently neither NBC nor SciFi wanted to order a pilot. In situations like that, I think it would be rare where they get “but Fox is interested in ordering a pilot” as a response and say “Nah, screw that!” But perhaps it isn’t as rare as I think.
I *do* think FOX passed on Virtuality because its sci-fi but I doubt it was any more sci-fi before they ordered the pilot than it was in the pilot. The question I have is, why did they order it in the first place? I can’t do anything but speculate and not knowing things like how much FOX paid for the pilot, it’s hard to do anything but wildly speculate. Another day, perhaps.