Clearly FOX’s original thinking is to air SoT on Sundays and short of some variation of “it’s dead” (Fridays, Sundays at 7p, etc) I’m not sure where else they could put it unless there are several unknown 90 minute episodes of Idol coming.

As for my thoughts on Past Life, FOX could go with the original plan and air the show post Idol beginning in January, its just a series order being cut doesnt always seem like a good sign. FOX may also be hesitant to launch two new series post Idol.

I could be completely wrong about all of this but the only way we’ll know about FOX’s plans is when they announce it.

http://www.fox.com/programming/fox10.php

but indeed, the mid-season announcements should begin rolling out soon.

As for Past Life, you are talking some very NUTTY scenarios. Past Life is irrelevant at this point. Why would you draw any conclusion other than FOX has given up on the show? ZERO chance of airing in a post Idol slot.

Monday
8:00 House
9:00 24

Tuesday
8:00 American Idol
9:00 Hell’s Kitchen

Wednesday
8:00 American Idol
9:00 Human Target (January-March)
9:00 Glee (March-May)

Thursday
8:00 Bones
9:00 Fringe

Friday (Jan-March)
8:00 Kitchen Nightmares
9:00 Dollhouse (January 8-22)
9:00 Lie to Me (beginning Jan 29)

Friday (March-May)
8:00 Human Target
9:00 Past Life

Sunday (Jan-March)
7:00 Til Death
7:30 Til Death
8:00 The Simpsons
8:30 The Cleveland Show
9:00 Family Guy
9:30 American Dad

Sunday (March-May)
7:00 Til Death
7:30 American Dad
8:00 The Simpsons
8:30 Sons of Tucson
9:00 Family Guy
9:30 The Cleveland Show

My guess is a new Hell’s Kitchen season will air post American Idol Tuesdays through the season. House/24 and Bones/Fringe will remain on Mondays and Thursdays from January-May. Wednesdays will have Human Target airing post Idol, however when Glee premieres Target will likely move to fridays for its remaining episodes along with Past Life (which I bet will premiere fridays. Before Past Life and Human Target air in April my guess is the remaining Lie to Me should air alongside a new Kitchen Nightmares season for fridays. Sundays from 7-8 will have double Til Death along with the current 8-10 lineup but March will likely see Sons of Tucson airing at 8:30 moving The Cleveland Show to 9:30 and American Dad to 7:30.

This is my best guess for the schedule until FOX officially announces it.

Actually airing it on a different day would have made a difference. Not saying it would be a breakout hit, but if TSCC can pull 5 to 6 million on Monday as a lead in to Prison Break, the Dollhouse should have been able to manage that number. The fact was that Friday is horrible for shows that aren’t established. Heck they’re horrible for established series. Okay well TSCC wasn’t exactly established, but it had 5 to 6 million so if the day isn’t the problem, then how come TSCC ended in the low 3 millions when switching to Fridays? The day is just wretched, but what can you do… Your presumed preface of the show being “woman repeatedly raped every episode for money”, is completely offbase. Rape is a strong word, I don’t see the justification there when some may be paying to genuinely feel loved as opposed to rape.

Monday
24
Lie to me

Tuesday
AI
Fringe

Wedensday
AI
Glee

Thursday
Bones
Human Target

Friday
HOUSE
Insert New Show (not dollhouse) here

I completely agree that the CW should have given up Friday and concentrated on Sunday. I think more people are at home watching TV on Sunday than they are on Fridays. Smallville and Reaper would have made a good Sunday combo.

I wouldn’t call Dollhouse smart in the slightest (not sticking up for House either), but it’s typical for Whedonites to say the only reason you’re not watching our program is because you’re too dumb. They did it with that televisual eyesore Firefly, and once again here.

Let’s look at Dollhouse. They establish that it costs six figures to hire a doll, then have without explanation have a college professor hiring the star active. They establish that Echo and Victor were used in an attempt to snare Sierra, and yet, Season 1′s premiere clearly shows Caroline walking around the DH in her induction tour with Sierra in the background? They establish that Adele is willing to rent her star Active out to be a mommy (and ignores the fact the father’s friends, family, and in-laws might wonder at the baby’s new mom in his life). They establish that an admittedly borderline retarded FBI agent can’t find the Dollhouse yet none of these clients seem to have the slightest problem. BTW, how fast did Echo get that arms dealer to get a ring on her finger? Clearly if you’re that hot you’ll not only marry well, you’ll marry fast.

Anna Nicole Smith, eat your heart out.

Etc, etc. Never mind the disgusting concept, the writing’s got more holes in it than a six week old mouldy Swiss cheese.

But then these sort of plot holes are far from uncommon of a Mutant Enemy production. Really, who are the dumb ones, the ones who ignore or don’t see these errors? Or the ones who don’t watch because the subject matter so disgusts them that having the name ‘Whedon’ attached is no inducement to watching?

Just this, throw in generally uneven writing. I wouldn’t be watching, but for a liking for certain cast members, but quality wise it stinks.

Its ratings fell from the first episode and didn’t stabilise at episode 6 (where Whedon claims he took control and by the way, one of the things that FOX execs forced him to pull back on was the sex, guess they knew something huh).

Feel sorry for the cast though, the creators on the other hand are getting what a pretty disgusting and poorly written show deserve.

What exactly about DOLLHOUSE is smart? People keep calling it smart and I have no idea what they’re talking about. The smartest thing about it is that the dialogue is sometimes– *sometimes*– witty. That’s it. There’s nothing intellectual about it. It’s science fiction about brainwashing and it’s plot has more holes than Swiss cheese.

And to call HOUSE devoid of subtext makes me think you’ve never seen an episode. It’s a better show than DOLLHOUSE in every single way– the writing, the acting, everything.

“The only problem is that the CW didn’t have the development slate to cover all its time slots (let alone have backup material). So instead of having a solid Friday lineup, they have half a line up”

I think renewing Everybody Hates Chris and the Game would have been better then repeats of ATNM. Putting a repeat of a show that has no crossover potential with SV definantly doesn’t help SV in the ratings.

If SV lasts one more year the network really needs to find a new show to put after it that can take over the Friday 8PM slot when SV leaves(going over the CW list of potential shows in production, there is one about people(my guess is young “hot” horny people) in outer space that might be a good fit)

One other thing about the Cw, I think they might have been smarter to drop Friday night programming and concentrated on Sunday nights instead

Kripke isn’t contracted past the 5th season (both leads are), but Kripke has absolutely no say on when the show ends. And in fact this year as stated that he is open for a 6th season. Whether that means he personally is going to sign back up (if offered) or is just letting people know that the show could continue is anyones guess.

Joselito
It’s true that SN has never reached 4 million in viewers on Thursdays at 9pm.

But it isn’t true that SN has never reached 4 million viewers, far from it. But it has had audiences over 4 million before. In fact it has had 9 episodes over 5 million in viewers. When it aired at a different day it only scored under 4 million twice (3.962 and 3.86). And had demos higher in both women and men then what VD has ever reached. But moving to Thursdays at 9pm immediately cost them over a million viewers and 1.5 in the female demos.

Now after 5 seasons I wouldn’t expect SN to do VD numbers (in viewers or demos, well at least female demos), but I do suspect that it would score higher during the 8pm hour (based on the times its reruns ran at 8pm both during the spring season against Idol, and during summer reruns where it out performed Smallville’s average (and this summer any of Smallville’s Summer). But the reverse is also true I think VD would lose considerable steam if airing during the more competitive hour of 9pm (which is more competitive in both female demos and male demos). I think it would of course beat SN viewer total and of course its female demos, but it would be much closer.

Leading off Wednesday would have been a smarter option for ABC than to shunt it to the Friday graveyard.

And no — it’s not always smart for a network to shift a show to Friday to let it die. Sometimes a show needs a shot in the arm as opposed to a kick in the pants.

As for Leno…
His show comes in around 400,000 per and they can produce a full week of shows for less than the cost of one “scripted” show !!!!

Bottom line…
The average rating for each of these shows is not that much different…

So…Why would anyone at NBC want to dump leno’s show that comes in at 2 million per week and instead spend 10 million per week for new (untried) scripted shows that could be gone in less than 13 weeks.
Do the math.
If NBC wants to replace Leno…
then they would be much better off ($$$$$$$) wise by producing more and more unscripted shows….
LIVE WITH IT ….
SCRIPTED SHOWS ARE DEAD !!!! IN PRIME TIME.
The viewer pool is too small and the costs keep going up.

“Zubair – I am just taking a wild guess but I expect the Bulls game to be anywhere between 100-200k. But that is just random speculation based on nothing”

Well, some context here:

http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/62322

One might idly speculate that any gain from being on WGN might be compensated by the Friday airing.

Maybe Smallville should change its name to Metropolis.