Dollhouse and Terminator continue to struggle
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I haven't seen any of Dollhouse yet and I'm already wondering if I should just wait until it hits DVD, or should I just keep letting them pile up on my DVR for a while, at least until the final episodes of the first order have aired and the series gets canceled.Because that's where it's headed.
Fox got what Fox wanted, a series that was dead on arrival. You just don't premier a new show that network on a Friday night and expect anything other than an abortion. 4.7 million people watched the premier which is hugely disappointing by itself, but only 4.2 million came back from the second episode. This show isn't viable at 4.7, much less 4.2. Maybe seven or eight million, but not four.
... not four.
I can't say if that show is any good, having not seen it -- I'm a huge Joss Whedon fan so I'm sure it's better than most stuff -- but I'm fairly confident saying that Fox crippled it launching it on Friday night. Nothing good has come out of Friday night since The X-Files. Just look at Terminator, that show was doing 5 million and ticking up on Monday night, but it lost like 1.5 million when it came back on Friday. SCC did gain a few viewers last week (I don't have numbers for this week) but there's just no way that Fox will keep pouring money into either of these shows.
An interview I read with Joss suggested that the first seven or eight episodes were not really the kind content and quality that he's known for, and that the show steadily improves later on, but with such an itchy trigger finger that Anchor Woman was canceled last year after airing just a single episode, I don't see how Fox is going to give it a chance to improve. Nor do I really think they want to, after forcing Whedon to re-shoot the Dollhouse pilot after pulling the same bullshit with Firefly.
Love 'em or hate 'em, it's time to write both these shows off because regardless of quality, no network except CW would keep them around with these numbers. Not even NBC, which I hear is run by an empty suit these days in Ben Silver.
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