Tue 20 Oct 2009
DOLLHOUSE Why Is FOX Letting It Live? (Or How Invested Is FOX With Joss Whedon?)
Posted by Nick C under Dollhouse, FOX, Joss Whedon
[34] Comments
DOLLHOUSE returned to abysmal numbers. The hope that it would pick up fans over the summer died when the first Nielsen Ratings came out. Despite all this the show remains on the air, and firmly on the calendar to play out. Why?
FOX Friday Nights are a grave yard. In addition DOLLHOUSE is up against more solid counter programming than it was last season. It has a weak lead in that holds nothing if any holdover of fans as those who watch TIL DEATH aren’t likely those that will stick around to watch DOLLHOUSE. Still the numbers aren’t even really acceptable. Game Shows did better. Of course those game shows get much less in advertising revenue and don’t get DVD sales.
Yeah, but it’s pulling a 1.2 in C3s on average. They wanted a 1.5 minimum. The answer is an easy one. Just go to TV BY THE NUMBERS and look at their articles about DOLLHOUSE. They expect it canceled, etc. yesterday.
So why isn’t FOX canceling the show?
Joss Whedon. Summer Glau. Eliza Dushku. Those are three main reasons I’ve heard bandied about in the FOX hallways. So lets examine Whedon. The previous FOX brass did a good job of alienating Whedon and his normally strong following. DOLLHOUSE while the idea of Whedon, wasn’t really entirely his “child,” so to speak. The new FOX brass love Whedon. They want him to develop a certain show for them in the future. They can’t do that if he hates them. So they give his show an extremely safe 2nd season when in all rights it should have been canceled. The show is making money, so it’s not in the red. That is important. Whedon is even going to be directing an episode of GLEE, a show FOX is extremely happy with. FOX wants to work with Whedon, so they’re trying their best to win him over. The argument of “we did all we could,” and it not being a lie…. that will mean something to Whedon.
Summer Glau is expected to be on the show and she herself has a big following they believe. The hope is that her appearance will boost ratings and get new fans. Those new fans may be enough to push the show back into the “acceptable,” range for ratings for Friday Nights on FOX. It’s an interesting bet. Glau fans might not even turn in if the show is virtually canceled. So FOX has made a statement that the show will play out.
Eliza Dushku is loved by FOX. Why not? She’s hot, fun to be around, and has an extremely magnetic personality in person. So what isn’t to love? Well the ratings for her show for one. However if she and Joss had gone to FOX with FAITH THE VAMPIRE SLAYER they may be sitting on their Friday Night hit show what with the popularity of Faith in the past, and the extreme popularity of Vampires right now. Joss you should pitch that show ASAP. Still FOX loves her and hopes that the Glau episodes can catch some new viewers. If the show is pulling a 1.5-1.7 in C3s it has a slight chance of a back 9, put in the 1.8+ and it’s getting the back 9 and a sure renewal.
Faith was popular, but vampires are really popular.
To further aggravate TV BY THE NUMBERS I hear some scripts are likely to be ordered to show some more love towards Whedon and hope for the DOLLHOUSE fans, to keep them around for the upcoming Glau episodes.
34 Responses to “ DOLLHOUSE Why Is FOX Letting It Live? (Or How Invested Is FOX With Joss Whedon?) ”
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I said before the return and even after it that I’d be surprised if Fox pulled Dollhouse before all episodes had aired and whilst I’m a little less confident about that now I’ll stand by it. They renewed the show at these kind of levels (by the end of the run) so its hard to see why they wouldn’t keep plugging away with it at these kind of numbers as well, they can’t be a surprise especially not with all the other networks actually giving the impression of trying on Friday this year, whether they actually are or not is another matter.
Personally I think if Fox is serious about Dollhouse they should order a third season and air it during the summer. If they can make the show profitable at a 1.0/1.2 (C3) then its hard to imagine that it won’t turn a profit during the summer. Pair it with the So You Think You Can Dance results show and see what happens, if the audience grows then you can always slot it back in mid season the following year or just keep chugging away with it as a summer series.
And I’m officially making no predictions on the back nine.
I figured Fox wanted Whedon on their good side for a reason…wonder what that reason is?
Of course, arguably FOX is doing only the bare minimum necessary to be able to say “we did all we could” with a straight face.
Doing all they could would include actually advertising the show effectively. The ads haven’t been especially awesome, and they tend to be slotted during breaks the local affiliates preempt to advertise the news, so no one ever actually sees the ads.
Technically, FOX can say ” we did advertise the show” and not be lying. But one can not be lying and still misrepresenting the truth.
If Dollhouse was more like the straight to DVD, Episode 13 of Season 1, then it might be a hit show.
But as it airs now its a mess and basically a doll of the week, leading to some big ending.
I think the show would have worked better as a Post-Apocalyptic world with flashbacks of the dollhouse’s work…. just saying…
B!x, of course they’re doing the bare minimum. They brought back a show that had no reason to be brought back in terms of numbers. Sure, it was cheap and thus easy to profit on… but it was still a flop in terms of viewers.
FOX wants to work with Whedon in the future so they’re trying to give the show a chance at life. I personally think that Joss should go pitch FAITH today, and be green lit for next Fall, complete with trumpets and massive publicity.
Then again, I know FOX wouldn’t mind something in the FIREFLY realm if CASTLE gets squashed.
What’s the status on Castle? It seems like Eastwick and Forgotten will be toast soon.
I was going to write something up about Castle here in a bit. I have seen every episode of both seasons thus far, and find it very entertaining. I’ve also seen every episode of The Forgotten so far…and I don’t find it very entertaining. It’s not a bad show, it’s just not very good.
Wow, how good would life be if we could get the FireFly and Buffy verses back onto TV? Glad Fox is wanting to stay friends with Joss…
Looking forward to the CASTLE article… it’s hard to judge what will happen with CASTLE besides it getting a full season. I mean it has poor NBC 2008 like numbers, but is also the best show in that time slot for ABC. If ABC goes the NBC route and gives up on the time slot, then CASTLE is doomed, but I see CASTLE getting a 3rd season right now just because so far they have nothing for that time slot. That could change with the midseason pickups though. So I just know CASTLE will remain on the air for this season, after that is a toss up.
As a big fan of the show I love the idea that Fox might want Firefly back. But while Nathan Fillion is certainly a necessary prerequisite to it’s return, he’s not the only one. Here’s what I believe to be the current status of the cast:
Nathan Fillion – Castle
Morena Baccarin – “V”
Adam Baldwin – Chuck
Gina Torres – Seems Available
Jewel Staite – Seems Available
Summer Glau – Seems Available
Sean Maher – Seems Available
Uncertain whether or not they would be needed:
Ron Glass – Seems Available
Alan Tudyk – “V”
The above two would depend on whether or not a new Firefly takes off from the end of the Series or the Film. Though Whedon has said that if they were to continue it then he would find SOME way to incorporate Tudyk, whether as a clone or something else.
A lot depends on what happens with Castle, but the futures of “V” and Chuck also seem very relevant.
Are people really willing to root against Chuck in order to see Firefly return?
Regarding Castle,
The tie-in book seems to be selling reasonably well, I’m wondering if that will have any effect on the show’s chances?
The One True b!X,
I agree with you that the content of the Dollhouse ads has stunk, but in my long experience with Fox’s advertising department (as a viewer) then their efforts here seem par for the course.
There have been several shows that I have been highly encouraged to avoid (such as Firefly) based on their ads which often seem devoid of any intelligence. Imo, if Fox really wants to improve their ratings then they should start by firing that department.
I’m just curious about a few things. If Fox wants Joss to work on a new series for them, would they want him to do both the new series and Dollhouse (if Dollhouse’s ratings are able to pick up) or are they more keen on being able to dump Dollhouse and get him on board with something else? If they do dump Dollhouse, do you have any idea what would happen to Eliza? I’m more of an Eliza fan than a Joss fan and I’d be gutted to see Dollhouse and Eliza gone while a new Joss show takes its place without Eliza. Would they want Eliza on the new show with Joss or not?
Artemis, they have a multi-show deal with Eliza. So if it doesn’t work out, they’ll have another show with her shortly.
I just don’t get what’s the big deal about Whedon? Granted I never seen any of his creations, but I take that Buffy was a huge hit. But that’s the only one I can recall that can clearly be classified as success. Angel (which I’m not so sure about the ratings), Firefly, and Dollhouse garnered unsatisfactory ratings, resulting in cancellation. To say that Whedon has a HUGE following is an exaggeration. If the group is big enough, why were/are these series on life support?
Same goes for Glau and Dushku. You just can’t use a small sample of internet fanatics to represent the mass population.
Sure they have fans, but to assume that each have a “big” following is just misleading.
Thanks for the info Nick! That’s news to me. I thought Eliza’s contract with Fox already ended this past August and she’d go back to making indie films that take years to come out like she was doing pre-Dollhouse.
AO, if there’s a real chance for Firefly to return than yes.
Audrey,
ANGEL was also a success. I seem to remember that it actually had better ratings than the BUFFY mothership during the time they were both on at the same time.
You are correct about FIREFLY not doing that well hence why it was cancelled. It’s a bit more complicated than that though. The general consensus is that Fox screwed up big time. Firstly by interfering with the making of the show, and then by showing episodes out of order (the actual first episode was the last one aired), and then by cancelling it too swiftly. Best evidence this was a huge mistake? The huge numbers of DVDs sold, out of all proprtion to what they should have been for a cancelled genre TV show. Good enough in fact that a feature film got made of the back of the strong DVD sales. It’s also perhaps the best evidence that Whedon has a following.
That said DOLLHOUSE isn’t his best work (though far from awful), and apart from a few rabid fanboys he doesn’t get a free pass to produce anything he likes and people will still watch it.
I kind of feel sorry for Fox when it comes to Dollhouse, when Whedon and Dushku teamed up for a show they must have been crushingly disappointed when Dollhouse and not the aforementioned Faith show was the result.
As it is it seems relatively obvious to me that Fox would love for Whedon to return to the ‘Buffyverse’ over Dollhouse or anything else for that matter because right now vampires equal ratings and giant piles of cash. I’m pretty sure Whedon could use the words Buffy and spin-off in a pitch for anything and get it green lit by just everybody right now, so maybe he should try and work that into a season three or back nine pitch for Dollhouse? A giant reveal that it all takes place in the Buffyverse and that Echo/Caroline is really Faith..? Small the ratings!
Having said all that if Whedon wants to continue working in television after the inevitable death of Dollhouse I’d be surprised if he didn’t give up on stubborn refusal to do a Buffy spin-off. Hasn’t he killed off at least two of them since Buffy ended one of which was the Faith show I believe? The only one he seemed to be remotely interested in making was Ripper, which died because of funding issues on the BBC’s end more than anything else. He seems determined to prove he’s more than just Buffy and failing rather spectacularly.
On the subject of the success of Buffy and Angel its important to remember they aired on The WB and UPN so their ’success’ is relative to those channels.
Firefly was brilliant – but Fox failed – that they are keeping the inferior Dollhouse on life support in now way compensates for that.
The ratings problem is Whedon is missing a layer in his cake. Usually its 3
layers: Actions for the idiots, funny for the average people, and pretentious ruminations for the highbrows – but this time the middle layer of funny is missing.
@NickC
“Summer Glau is expected to be on the show”
Wow you are not paying much attention are you *g* They shot her scenes, Fox are running promos. Short of an extinction level event, she’s is going to be on the show.
“Eliza Dushku is loved by FOX. Why not? ”
She can’t act?
“Whedon is even going to be directing an episode of GLEE,”
As a consolation when they cancel Dollhouse?
@Some Guy Named John
“I think the show would have worked better as a Post-Apocalyptic world with flashbacks of the dollhouse’s work”
I agree, Epitaph One was the only fairly good episode – of course it was Duzhku light *g*
I disagree that Dollhouse would have worked with the post-apocalypse setting of Epitaph One, as bad as the twelve episodes that came before it were Epitaph One works because of them not despite of them. Its only an interesting episode (and I think its been praised out of proportion) because it provides a glimpse into the future and where the Dollhouse takes the world. I think if you jump right into Epitaph One without seeing anything else first you don’t care. It could work as a pitch for future seasons though.
The real problem with Dollhouse was and still is the characters, none of them are likeable, all of them are two dimensional and half of them have absolutely no personality and a character that changes every week. Of course the audience don’t feel compelled to watch every week, Dollhouse didn’t catch on for the same reason Heroes died, they screwed up the characters.
During the original run I repeatedly said that at least the first half of the season should have been spent outside of the Dollhouse and with the FBI agent trying to track it down because that character is/should be the only constant of the show. With the other lead (Echo) being a different person every week and having no real personality of her own the audience simply can’t relate to her or care about her, so we have to care about and relate to Ballard. The problem is Whedon and co. didn’t do a good job of casting or writing the role so instead of being the likeable hero we root for every week he’s cold, distant and incredibly two-dimensional.
Looking at the direction they’ve taken with season two I’d expand on that and say that the entire first season should have been told from Ballard’s point of view. That way when you end the season with him ‘joining’ the Dollhouse we have a better chance of understanding his motives and you have a stronger hook for season two, we finally get to go inside the Dollhouse and see how it works. It also makes Ballard’s attempts to bring the house down from within more compelling because we spent the first season with him and actually care about him and his goal.
That set up also helps to solve the other major issue of the show – everyone is, at best morally ambiguous. Whilst shades of grey are fun and can add depth to characters and a show when absolutely everybody on the show exists within shades of grey there’s nothing to care about and no one to root for. As cliché as it might be there needs to be a hero and a villain somewhere, even the head of security they had during season one (who was the closest thing they had to an out and out villain) was moved into shades of grey half way through the season when he was revealed as the CIA mole. I suspect the ability to cast the Dollhouse and those who work there as the villains during season one would have made sections of the audience feel much more comfortable with the concept and the show.
As it is I actually think there’s a good show to made with the Dollhouse concept but that Whedon’s execution has been horrible. I also think there’s a brilliant global political thriller waiting to be made with Dollhouse, the idea of sleeper dolls etc. is an excellent one that has endless possibilities. There’s a lot of good stuff here but Whedon just doesn’t/didn’t know how to handle it.
Kermonk,
Totally right on the humor aspect (or lack thereof) on DOLLHOUSE. I find it a very atypical Whedon show overall.
I don’t get the Duskhu love either. If the part & the show hadn’t been created for her I’d be questioning the decision to hire her for the part. She’s an actress with a somewhat limited range trying to play a part that requires her to play a different character every week and make them all have a believable internal life of their own. A good character actress would have found this a challenge let alone Dushku. It shows a curious ego on her part to think she could carry it off.
Alex,
Missed your latest post while I was typing mine. I think you’re analysis is spot on, in particular about the lack of a central character for the audience to hang their hat on.
“Summer Glau is expected to be on the show and she herself has a big following they believe. The hope is that her appearance will boost ratings and get new fans.”
Yikes. FOX thought and made the same with TSCC too. They aired promos full with Summer and then we saw those crazy Sarah episodes.
Fox really thinks Summer Glau has that kind of a pull to raise the ratings???
I’m a huge fan of hers, but I fully realize that to the mainstream public she’s pretty much an unknown. I can’t wait to see her episodes, doubly so after seeing the promo pics, but I don’t expect the ratings to rise just because of her.
I’d definitely watch Faith the Vampire Slayer.
NeilG, Eliza is far from being egotistical about her acting skills. She wanted to challenge herself and have the opportunity to play characters she wouldn’t normally get cast as. Joss is the one who came up with the concept and toted about how much he believes in Eliza’s range as an actress. Fox obviously believes she can act, Joss thinks she can act, other people in the industry think Eliza can act too. So really? It doesn’t matter that fans/critics can’t look past seeing her as a bad girl and see that she actually has done a terrific job in Dollhouse. I’ve seen her change her tone of voice, inflection and pitch, and her body language/mannerisms for *most* of the characters she played on Dollhouse. I don’t think she’s been successful with every role she’s taken on in the show, but I’d say that about 80% of the time she’s been fantastic and nobody ever wants to give her credit because they’re so keen on hating her for whatever reason. I’m a theatre major myself so I’m not just speaking as a fan. I know how to critique acting as I’ve spent four years doing it!
I certainly don’t hate Eliza Dushku (or anyone else), and I don’t in fact think she is an awful actress. The problem is that she isn’t good enough to carry off all the parts she’s required to do on the show.
You say she’s fantastic 80% of the time. That still leaves 20% when she’s not by your own admission. I would say it’s actually lower than 80% but that’s just my opinion.
If the show wasn’t struggling then I doubt we’d be talking about this at all, but as it is I do think it’s a valid area to look at to try an explain what’s gone wrong so far. It would be a strange ommision if we somehow just overlook the lead actor who the show is based around.
Dushku’s acting is not bringing down numbers the premise is. I know many who believe it’s a show about whores. Seriously.
To me, there are two types of audience ‘hooks’ that a show can have. Character or premise/plot. One or the other has to grab you right away and pull you into a show. For example, the Mentalist, has both: Jayne – an extremely likeable character AND an easy-to-grasp CBI investigations plot. If a show has at least one or the other, Flashforward, for example – neat premise — then it can build the other (its not — how boring are all the characters?)
Dollhouse has neither. There are no likeable characters — we don’t even know any of them (except Topher and if he was more of cuddily genius, he might have served as an anchor)and so don’t care much. (As I’m thinking about it, Topher doesn’t either – that might be part of the problem, hmmmm)
And Dollhouse has a difficult premise. Human trafficking? Its OK if they don’t remember it! The Dolls signed a contract! Yeah, yeah, I know — its an insightful commentary on modern life — the next important chapter in Joss’ girlpower treatise. Or its just an excuse to dress Dushku up like a hooker. Either way — that people AREN’T watching in droves — doesn’t surprise me. Kinda sad though.
I completely agree that Dushku isn’t the main problem. As I said, if the other real issues on the show weren’t there then I probably wouldn’t even have mentioned her.
It’s potentially an interesting TV show and there are some really great concepts on it. Some of the episodes are brilliant and Mo Ryan’s review of the next two episodes sound great, but a lot are just very mediocre. As I said I agree with Alex’s summary of the issues with the show.
I think Dushku is part of the problem but not necessarily because of her performances, although I agree that she’s horribly miscast and out of her depth in the show she’s not so bad she makes it unwatchable. The real problem with her is that because she’s the ’star’ of the show she has to be the focus and therefore Whedon is tied into the engagement of the week scenario because there isn’t any other way to structure the show with Dushku as the centrepiece.