Nick C's Behind the Screens

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Less than a week after they announced their sweeps schedule FOX has already pulled DOLLHOUSE, ‘TIL DEATH and BROTHERS from Friday nights which will now be home to repeats of HOUSE and BONES.

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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?

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Uh oh. With Fox giving the go ahead for 3 additional scripts of LIE TO ME (bring the Season up to 16 episodes if they turn into real episodes)…

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Friday is the day most networks decide to let shows ‘go’. Given that NBC has already canned Southland – what do you think might go today?

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Ever since I made a statement on TV BY THE NUMBERS of “FOX is in negotiations on DOLLHOUSE,” and I said it was real negotiations they were leaning towards renewal if their requests could be met I’ve heard a lot of comments.  Everything from I was full of it to FOX is insane and the most popular response “I’ll believe it when I see it.”  Just days later it was official:  DOLLHOUSE was renewed for Season 2.  I won some bets, and even made the Live Strong Foundation some money.  After the renewal the question became “Why Fox?”

DOLLHOUSE is the least watched scripted drama to ever be renewed by a major network in the last 20 years.  At least that is what I read some where.  It dropped to a 1.0 in the 18-49 Nielsen Ratings Demographic.   At the time I said (I’m paraphrasing here) “If FOX renews DOLLHOUSE now, everyone should be fired that had anything to do with the decision.”  Why?  Because it got a 1.0 in the 18-49 demo!  That is inexcusable for a scripted show on a major network whether it is Friday or not.  If the show is renewed that means it had to be renewed for a good reason.  That reason is they believe it should be doing better.  Which means the people who chose to renew it didn’t do their job right in the first place (thus my reasoning for firing them).

The good news is that technically someone was fired over it.  FOX Broadcasting has changed their Peters.  Pete 1.0 was recently replaced by Pete 2.0.  Pete 2.0 believes that DOLLHOUSE should be doing better.  He was a large part of why the show was renewed.

If they ever teach a class on how not to nurture a drama, the primary example will likely be Joss Whedon’s FIREFLY.  There was a show that was well written, well acted, and extremely entertaining.  It had Studio fingers in the pie, but the final baked product still impressed.  So FOX gets worried about what people want to see, so they decide to air the episodes of a semi-serial program out of order.  In fact the last episode aired was the 1st episode!  A secondary example would likely be DOLLHOUSE.

DOLLHOUSE had its pilot rewritten and reshot.  The studio forced the storylines down some rather absurd paths.  The result was a pilot that wasn’t entertaining and wasn’t quite engaging enough to substantiate repeat viewing.  If Whedon didn’t have a good reputation I argue that the show would have flopped immediately.  However to make matters worse FOX let their dissatisfaction with the first scripts and pilot to go public.  They also changed their scheduling plans.  Instead of the show airing in a cushy Monday evening timeslot with 24 it was pushed to Fridays where they’d already sent TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNER CHRONICLES (TSCC) to die.

In FOX’s defense they promoted the hell out of the pilot.  This was around the time when Pete 1.0 was starting to get in trouble, and Kevin Reilly gave the ok for Whedon to allow the show to be more conspiracy heavy.  They knew they had some episodes that were down right awful but by midseason the show would do a massive turn around in quality.  All they needed to do was keep the audience around.

That never happened.  The show debuted well for FOX on a Friday and even did a decent job of holding on to its audience for the 2nd episode.  The 2nd episode was no better than the first and the audience numbers continued to bleed out.  By the time the shows aired that were good it was too late.  The show had faced bad PR before it ever aired.  The media’s response to the show was “bad show, won’t live long.”  In fact many articles predicted a short life for DOLLHOUSE.

Pete 1.0 was fired and replaced by Pete 2.0.  Pete 2.0 liked what he saw in DOLLHOUSE but didn’t like what he saw in the C3 ratings.  Whedon had provided much better product, but the ratings were horrible.  The DOLLHOUSE brand was tarnished.  Pete 2.0 wanted to keep working with Whedon.  So they invited him to pitch season 2.  They loved the pitch.  So the problem arose.  How can they justify renewing a show nobody was watching and the media had labeled a failure?

Simple:  Lower costs to make it financially viable.  Scripted shows demand higher premiums than game shows, etc.  So by lowering the cost of the show they could make more money off renewal.  This would take some serious budget trimming.  However Whedon had toyed with internet properties and had a good handle on how to do things for less money.  So the show got renewed. It was profitable.

It’s now up to FOX to polish the Brand.  Comic Con is going to be a big event for DOLLHOUSE.  Fans need to give copies of the DVD sets to friends and especially to friends who might have given up on the show.  You may want to tell friends to skip certain episodes (the one where Echo protects the singer immediately comes to mind).  They also need to air some of the better episodes over the summer.

I think FOX made the right decision.  Whedon seems to have an entertaining vision of the future of DOLLHOUSE and since they seem more likely to give him free reign with this lowered budget then that can only mean the better.  Keep their fingers out of the pie, and perhaps Whedon can deliver us something special.  His shows generally improve greatly in their 2nd seasons (too bad FIREFLY never saw one).

Still this is a major gamble, and FOX is going to have to do their best to get interest back in the show.  If the show can rebound and pull 1.5 in the 18-49 demo and slowly grow then they made the right decision.

2nd Update:  Some people have the problem with the word “lie,” in the following post.  There are questions about whether it’s a loaded word and question its accuracy.  My take is this:  FOX is mad because the site provided false information that they further implied was official.  To me that is lying.  Was it malicious in intent?  No.  Was it false?  Yes.  Did they know it was false?  No, but they knew it wasn’t official but they still provided the information as if it was.  That is by definition lying.  Again it wasn’t malicious in intent nor intended to hurt the show.  The point of the following article is it was supposed to be noticed for the irony that it is.  FOX hurts Whedon show, FIREFLY, fans try to save it.  This time fans hurt Whedon show, FOX tries to save it.  It’s ironic.  I don’t believe Dollverse is bad or meant to do anything bad.  I’m leaving this up in its original form to remind me to choose my words more carefully next time so as not to confuse people.

Update:  I’ve had it explained to me that Dollverse claims they confirmed with FOX about EPITAPH ONE’s airing and were convinced they were right because FOX assured them “every episode will air.”  However Dollverse never found out that FOX had never licensed EPITAPH ONE.  So their source that it was ever scheduled and that it would be pre-empted was just plain wrong.  Which is what FOX is upset about.  I take the email from FOX (which should have remained private) to mean “In the future please confirm with us about air dates,” and that means FOX is willing to confirm air dates for them.  Still the Dollverse people are taking this as an attack on them and their rights.

Original Posting Follows:

There is a website called “Dollverse,” and it’s a fan site for Joss Whedon’s DOLLHOUSE.  The chain of events that lead up to the very appropriate bitchslap is very convoluted.  The simple answer is FOX ordered 13 episodes, made them shoot another pilot and chose not to air the original pilot.  FOX Studios ordered a 14th episode for the DVD set.  FOX Broadcasting never bought the 14th episode.  Kevin Reilly (and others) keep making the mistake of saying “We’re going to air all 13 episodes,” and the Dollverse people took that to mean EPITAPH ONE (the 14th episode) would be aired.

The problem is FOX never had it planned to air.  So here is what Dollverse did:  They claimed FOX decided to pre-empt the airing of the 14th episode.  The problem?  They were lying.  This turn of events caused DOLLHOUSE fans to think the show was certainly canceled, etc.  In fact many (myself included) feel that Dollverse cost DOLLHOUSE bad PR and the idea the show had no chance of coming back.  I tried to say on TVBTN that it wasn’t part of the equation but I don’t think anyone believed me and honestly I don’t blame them.  When you’re lead to believe a show was pre-empted with no plans of airing, that is bad.  I later found out they never licensed the show and wanted it for Season 2 like I reported on TVBTN weeks ago.

So FOX sends Dollverse an email.  The email states posted an incorrect airdate schedule for the remaining season one episode stated as fact that “Epitaph One” would air on May 15, then May 22 – which was never announced by the network – as we never licensed that episode for air.

Moving forward do not make any further announcements on your site regarding network scheduling unless you receive notification from the network that scheduling is confirmed – you are doing a great disservice to the show and your own site. Clearing up your misperceptions of the show has become very time consuming and frankly takes away valuable time that could be spent actively marketing the series in the proper way.”

So how does Dollverse respond:  Dollverse was recently told by FOX it can not cover something about the TV series Dollhouse, in perhaps a watershed moment in terms of a network attempting to control a fan site output.

So their response is that FOX is now trying to control them!  Lets not forget the fact that they flat out lied about the show airing on May 15th and May 22nd.  FOX had never licensed the episode!  Dollverse is trying to twist this into a Big Brother situation when the correct response is:

“We,re truly sorry.  We will not in the future post scheduling information unless it is confirmed by FOX.”  How hard is that?  Obviously too hard for the bruised egos at Dollverse…

Here is the complete take by Dollverse:

http://www.dollverse.com/2009/05/epitaph-none-fox-and-dollverse.html