Comments on: Say Goodbye to Dollhouse, part II: The DVR numbers won't matter

By: Small Blue Thing

Small Blue Thing — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 11:19:05 +0000

I am as big Joss fan as anyone and I’m feeling quite shameful on some acts of faith.

I mean, I can agree True Blood is just silly softporn. And I’m watching, supporting Dollhouse even risking my legal rights _I live in Spain, if you know what I mean. Despite of Dollhouse has not reached balance in writing neither in acting.

But I am aware Dollhouse is NOT Buffy, NOT Firefly either. And there are lots of ugly, snob shows getting successfully renewed as good shows cancelled for whatever reasons. Dollhouse is not definitely a bad show but is not a masterpiece at all, and there’s no pain of failing, getting pulled, and moving on. I just hope it is not the last TV work of Joss & Mutant Enemy team.

And I cannot see the point of raging ‘Dollhouse Dollhouse Dollhouse!!’ comments. If someone hesitated of giving it a chance here, I bet they won’t after BJF procclaim.

By: squiggleslash

squiggleslash — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:48:36 +0000

Dushku just tweeted that she’s on Letterman and Fallon tonight (or maybe tomorrow night, I’m not sure how to read it.) I assume this means they’ve realized they really need to publicize the show, at last.

By: Vinny

Vinny — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:29:15 +0000

I think that after fox burns tmot and kn episodes they should move fringe to Fridays at 8 b4 dollhouse and make it scifi Friday and it might make dollhouse gain 1 or 2 mill viewers more and I think after bones at 8 they should put brothers then til death to make those two comedys gain 1 or 2 mil views more

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:17:19 +0000

Cody – Because FOX isnt going to waste the best performing drama on a low rated night and give up the monday competitiion. House repeats could air there but no originals.

By: Cody

Cody — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:35:43 +0000

Why not move House to Friday. Give 24 the 8:00 slot on Monday American Idol Tues-Wed with Fringe and Lie to Me to build up a larger audience and Keep Bones and Glee on Thrusday.

By: Cody

Cody — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:33:56 +0000

That’s what they tried with TSCC and we all know how that worked out

By: Get The Big Picture |

Get The Big Picture | — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 04:28:01 +0000

[...] come around in year two and find a bigger audience. So far, that hasn’t happened, and now TV by the Numbers says the future looks really grim for the [...]

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 02:55:59 +0000

Jon – Fringe + Dollhouse = Lowest rated fridays ever. Fringe moving to fridays would be the kiss of death. FOX wants Fringe to succeed so FOX should leave it on Thursdays. ANything else in the slot would just die.

By: Jon

Jon — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 01:32:15 +0000

I keep reading that Fringe is falling in the ratings, but somewhat stable. And with lesser competition last year, it did decently. It’s probably not a smart idea, in fact it’s a huge risk, but why not move Fringe to Friday at 8? I mean, it’s a science fiction show that is similar to Dollhouse, so the audience might stay put. And I think Fringe could gain more than Ghost Whisperer, so it couldn’t be that bad of an idea. Or try it with a re-run of Fringe if they can do that. I don’t know. They shouldn’t just pull Dollhouse out like that. Outside of trying to pair the show with a better lead-in, how about advertising it better? You look at some of these 15/30 second spots and you can’t tell what’s going on in anything. I read somewhere above about airing Epitaph One. That would probably be a great idea. I don’t know, I think Fox should do more to keep the show alive.

By: Nick

Nick — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:53:07 +0000

R.I.P. Dollhouse

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:00:46 +0000

Rock my pants and AO – to answer your comments

Mondays Jan-May
8:00 House
9:00 24
No changes at all.

Tuesdays
8:00 American Idol
9:00 Lie to Me (Jan-March)/Past Life (March-May)
FOX’s current schedule just has Lie to Me but its possible that Lie will air their for a little (if renewed) and then move to fridays at 9, to make room for Past Life

Wednesdays
8:00 American Idol
9:00 Human Target (Jan/Glee
Target prmeieres on Jan 20, 2009 and will air after Idol until March. It has 12 episodes produced so its likely most will air. Glee will have at least 9 eps to air March-May. Theres always a chance Target could be axed.

Thursdays
8:00 Bones
9:00 Fringe
No changes here.

Fridays
8:00 Brothers
8:30 Til Death
9:00 Kichen Nightmares/Lie to Me/Past Life
Any series could replace Dollhouse, but its not set in stone yet.

Sundays (By March)
7:30 American Dad
8:00 The Simpsons
8:30 Sons of Tucson
9:00 Family Guy
9:30 The Cleveland Show

Sons should premiere no earlier than March which means the show shuffling wont take effect until then. This schedule should last through May.

There could be a number of scheduling changes, but Mondays and Thursdays midseason should stay the same.

By: Bob

Bob — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 23:51:00 +0000

I think that the biggest problem with dollhouse is the time slot. Friday is a big night with a lot of shows all competing and some of them have a loyal following already. I sometimes think they don’t take into account the competition and it’s effect. Every network can’t have a hit two or three hit shows every night.

2.5 Million viewers if the cost per episode is not that high, is really not bad either. Anyway, before canceling they ought to consider a different time slot.

By: AO

AO — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:33:25 +0000

@ r0ckmypants,

Regarding Human Target and Glee, I think that Fox’s strategy was to air HT from January until the very end of March or probably the beginning of April and then air Glee for the rest of the Spring. By doing that they could fit both shows into that slot and avoid airing more than 1-2 repeats of anything. Their biggest problem would be if HT were to do well enough to warrant additional episodes, but that of course would be a nice problem to for them to have.

By: r0ckmypants

r0ckmypants — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:28:14 +0000

I really don’t understand how Fox’s midseason schedule will be feasible unless something gets canceled.

They have Human Target and Past Life both waiting for slots… Past Life is set to take the 2nd SYTYCD performance hour, but Human Target was scheduled for Glee’s slot in January (according to the Fox press release in May). Now that Glee has a full season, what will they do with the 12 episodes of Human Target they ordered?

Will they cancel Brothers and pair it with Dollhouse? Then where does Til Death go? Sundays, with Sons of Tucson? Will both Dollhouse AND Brothers get canceled to make the Friday line-up Sons of Tucson, Til Death, Human Target? Or do they save their midseason shows for summer and/or the end of other shows’ runs?

By: Dan

Dan — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 22:26:44 +0000

Cimmer – Thats why they gave it a second season, rare confidence as well as not wanting to get 110 million emails from fans. The fact that Dollhouse did badly on fridays was a give, FOX decided that when they premiered the show there. Its just if they knew Dollhouse would sink and had no interest in promoting it, why would thye waste $$$ on new eps. I think the eps will be burned off just to air out the series. Also the series isnt a freshman series that they just axe after a few eps, its a show that was renewed after doing badly.

By: squiggleslash

squiggleslash — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 12:01:14 +0000

Julia – doesn’t show the opposite conclusion because Fox didn’t do any advertising before the season started either. And there’s advertising and there’s advertising, I’m not seeing Dollhouse promos even when it’d be cheap to insert a ten second reference to the show.

In the last month I’ve seen only one Dollhouse ad on TV, outside of that everything has been on Twitter.

By: grr_argh

grr_argh — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 09:20:52 +0000

i’ll see y’all in part III of this post next season!

oh how i wish

By: Cimmer

Cimmer — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 07:55:04 +0000

I think one of the reasons Fox is giving Dollhouse such a long leash is because it’s Joss W. and they don’t want to be accused of a repeat of the ‘Firefly Incident’.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 07:34:20 +0000

Stephen, they do matter in terms of total viewers, absolutel.

Unfortunately everything we’ve seen leads us to believe they don’t matter hardly at all in terms of advertising revenue.

Last year, it made a bit more difference when Dollhouse had “remote free” limited commercial interruptions (fewer DVR viewers bothered to fast-forward).

By: Stephen

Stephen — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 05:56:59 +0000

Here’s the thing. The DVR numbers do matter. How many Sci-Fi fans don’t have a DVR? Think about it.

From everything I’ve read the only thing Fox wanted the Dollhouse team to do was make the episodes cheaper. I haven’t read a single article where Fox told them they need to get the ratings up.

I also find it weird that Fox doesn’t really promote the show. They have enough faith in the show to give it a second season yet they don’t feel the need to tell people it was on.

As for the Hulu numbers. Fox knows exactly what they are. They can probably even tell if you rewind or stop watching half way through.

It’s not like anything else Fox is doing on Friday is doing any better.

By: Dan

Dan — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 05:36:13 +0000

Connor – I think everyone (even FOX) new that Dollhouse would fail, They just didnt want to believe it.

Anil – I cant see how Dollhouse will get a full season being FOX’s lowest rated series. Til Death has a full season due to a syndication deal with Sony but its ratings are horrible.

By: Anil

Anil — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 05:06:33 +0000

I second that, Aaron.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 04:10:06 +0000

So the point of this website really is about the excitment about how many people watch a show and not really about the show itself. I know you can find anything on the internet but why is this in the top few results for a show you search for in google news? This is like X factor for tv shows then. Eeewwuuuu. Oh wait, i just answered my own question. Up there in the top 5 most pathetic websites i’ve ever visited, and yet i’m sure that now i’m aware of it i’ll be back here every dsy. Please tell me you people are aware of how sad this is? At least give me that!

By: Maria

Maria — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 03:05:14 +0000

You are saying this without the numbers being posted. Besides, Nielsen ratings are no longer the most accurate numbers there are. Mybe they did their own count. I have never believed Nielsen ratings to be true. They don’t ever coincide with the 18-34 yr old numbers. Why is that?

By: Julia

Julia — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 02:33:55 +0000

Fox still isn’t doing any serious advertising for the show. If they were that concerned about ratings, wouldn’t they at least be trying to attract more people to it?

Not necessarily. Advertising takes money. If they have no faith in the show, why advertise it? The lack of marketing almost points to the opposite conclusion.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 02:03:45 +0000

Uh huh. Just like it wasn’t going to come back for a second season. As I said before, you have ZERO credibility.

By: squiggleslash

squiggleslash — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 01:58:20 +0000

Nick – I’d love to believe you’re right, but only if the other eleven episodes that are definitely confirmed are much, much, better than Friday’s.

I really feel that next week the ratings are likely to be poorer than this week, I’d love to be proven wrong however.

There’s one tiny, tiny, barely plausible bit of evidence that kinda sorta backs up Nick’s contention that the current ratings are “OK” as far as Fox are concerned: Fox still isn’t doing any serious advertising for the show. If they were that concerned about ratings, wouldn’t they at least be trying to attract more people to it?

By: Aaron

Aaron — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 01:37:38 +0000

arguement! -> and that argument i have to stop posting while drunk. Im not going to re-read this comment. I could be here all night.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 01:32:09 +0000

because I’m aware of how stupid people are. -> Cos thats like of sad.

Yep that undermines my arguement!

By: Aaron

Aaron — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 01:24:24 +0000

I can believe people are slamming Dollhouse but only because I’m aware of how stupid people are. Last nights episode was fab. It really got across the ethical issues involved and while it didn’t expand on the mythology of the show it was definately the best stand alone to date. I was a fan of TSCC but seriously why are so many fans of that show blaming Dollhouse for its cancellation. Everyones a sheep, ironically this is what Dollhouse is about. For a while it was cool to love Whedon, now its cool to hate Whedon. Dollhouse questions whether current and future events are a direct result of, along with genitics, our past, and whether or not the brain is just a complex computer. TSCC was on its way to being a great show, but get real guys, it was light science fiction, but awesome none the less. Why it struggled in ratings is because of the science fiction element not because of insufficient drama. Dollhouse is proper science fiction now. Its ratings are going to suck, and the more intelligent it gets the more the ratings will plumet. TSCC fans should recognise that trend with their show. Never been on this site before. Do people here actually like television or do they JUST like to talk about shows ratings? Cos thats like of sad.

By: Drew

Drew — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 01:06:49 +0000

JBF’s back!!!! And silly exuberance! Over a show that just nudged out TB-less Entourage!

But leave True Blood out of it, JBF.

By: Anil

Anil — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:56:44 +0000

Call me crazy but I think it will get canceled in May with a full season. Yes, I AM aware of the numbers.

By: Connor

Connor — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:25:55 +0000

I knew Dollhouse would fail. It never had great numbers since the day it premiered. One of the good things about TSCC was that the writing was amazing! No matter what, there was always something going on with the Connor’s that was worth watching, and they had a fantastic cast that could actually act. I love Eliza Dushku, I always have, but Dollhouse doesn’t justify her acting ability.

By: Dan

Dan — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:11:44 +0000

Goodbye Dollhouse R.I.P.

February 13, 2009 – December 18, 2009 (projected)

By: Charles

Charles — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 23:01:52 +0000

I think the next episodes ratings will decide if Dollhouse will be airing its remaining episodes of season 2. There taking a week off for baseball so there’s enough time for FOX to chose a show to put re runs at that time.

By: aboutmetrogoddwinmayer

aboutmetrogoddwinmayer — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:56:09 +0000

TrUsT KripKi!!

By: Laurence

Laurence — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:35:33 +0000

Before anything, let me say that I love Dollhouse.

That being said, I don’t think that Fox will give DH a back nine order. We can just look at Oct 2nd’s ratings: it did worse than a The Forgotten repeat! Of all shows ABC could air at that time slot, they chose The Forgotten just to see if Dollhouse could beat it. And it didn’t. Since Ugly Betty has yet another week to start, ABC will put another repeat on Fridays and, to humiliate Dollhouse a little longer, they will put in either Eastwick or a The Middle/Hank combo.

But I can see other people’s point (remember: I DO like Dollhouse): it’s cheap to produce, it’s a sci-fi show on Friday (difficult genre AND timeslot), it’s a Joss Whedon show (I loved Buffy, Angel and Firefly), etc, etc… So, long story short, I don’t think Fox will give DH a back nine order, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did.

PS: The “fall of a cliff momentum” was hilarious! We should make something with all these comments. The are legen – wait for it… – dary!

By: Lisa

Lisa — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:18:04 +0000

These Dollhouse posts always bring out hilarious reactions. JBF is still my favorite, but tar with the malfunctioning shift key and the amazing run-on sentence was also special. Plus Harold’s ‘momentum from falling off a cliff’ observation.

By: Harold

Harold — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 21:15:56 +0000

leo says at October 3, 2009 at 2:05 pm:

“Dollhouse … Too bad they couldnt do something better to work off last years momentum.”

I don’t know quite what to make of that statement. I suppose if something falls off a cliff, it does have momentum, but it’s not in a direction that allows you to work off it.

By: Tar

Tar — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 21:15:36 +0000

what you fail to understand is that ratings really do NOT matter for Dollhouse you said it yourself you cannot find a reason why it got a season 2 with its horrible season 1 ratings FOX renewed it when it was getting horrible ratings for a reason = it can accept terrible ratings from Dollhouse because at the end of the day it is profitable for them i agree with Nick C all 13 eps will air for sure and its more likely than not for it to get a back nine order..and soon.

By: Gina

Gina — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 21:06:15 +0000

RE: Smallville’s budget. When Tom Welling was directing an episode, he said he jumped at the chance because it was the only time anyone would get a $3 million budget for their first episode.

By: leo

leo — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 21:05:14 +0000

Dollhouse has started out very slow. Too bad they couldnt do something better to work off last years momentum. Plus the unaired episode hype must have subsided by now … seems like they couldnt take advantage of that either.

By: Kermonk

Kermonk — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:59:17 +0000

Well, if Nick C says so I guess its gotta be *g* – he’s wrong about Anna Torv but he’s probably right about this.

People are going to be shocked all over *g*

By: Kermonk

Kermonk — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:48:24 +0000

“Will Dollhouse be pulled off the air before all 13 episodes ordered air? At the beginning of the season I wouldn’t have thought there was much chance of that. ”

Oh go on, you have expected it all the time

By: Anthony

Anthony — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:47:46 +0000

Oh and Dollhouse was decent last night. I wish they would show Epitaph 1 around mid season and use the rest of the season to expand on that episode. It won’t help the ratings but they can save some money and also inject some real life into the show for the fans who watch it on Fox and on DVR and Itunes etc. I hope they slow down with the customer of the week bit.

By: Anthony

Anthony — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:45:36 +0000

Fringe has been a pretty entertaining show. And the ratings are fine for a sci fi against good competition. Besides there is no way they will jeopardize their relationship with JJ Abrams unless the show was really tanking. Expect at least 3 or 4 seasons of Fringe. I love the 2 leads (Torv is amazing to look at, something about her face heh intrigues me) ( Walter as well to be honest ) so to each their own, yes?

By: Julia

Julia — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:12:08 +0000

Pink, please.

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:11:03 +0000

Julia, you want me to send you a:

Dollhouse! Dollhouse rules! “True Blood” drools! Dollhouse! Dollhouse! Dollhouse!

shirt?

What color?

By: Julia

Julia — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:07:56 +0000

Also, I’ve decided that the worst consequence of Nielsen’s new rules about deleting ratings articles over 2 weeks old is that we lost so many JBF pearls of wisdom. I would have liked to collect them all and print each one up as a t-shirt.

By: Julia

Julia — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:05:44 +0000

I believe the number usually cited is 1 original airing and 2 repeat airings, which networks almost never achieve in today’s world. It actually is more cost effective to repeat shows since you’ve already paid for the rebroadcast rights, so any advertising money you get is free money, pretty much.