The games have begun, Friday the 13th is over, but the Valentine’s day love has arrived. And by love, I mean the love of speculating on the Internet. So what’s the early read on the fates of FOX’s Friday night lineup?
The premiere of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse despite being lower than some already lowered expectations, performed better than the consensus expectations I saw from commenters on the blog when it came to 18-49 ratings, where the consensus was in the 1.8 rating range and it came in at a 2.0. Even some people within FOX weren’t thinking it would hit a 2.0 rating, so I think the premiere numbers may actually have been better than some at FOX thought they would be.
Both Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Dollhouse performed better with men, winning the 18-34 and 18-49 male demos against the competition at ABC, CBS, NBC (and The CW). But I’m not sure how meaningful that is. You could’ve put Summer Glau and Eliza Dushku in bikinis sunning themselves on chaise lounges and drinking fruity concoctions out of straws for two hours and doing nothing but product endorsements for geek gadgetry and it might have still won the male 18-34 and 18-49 demos.
But while the 18-49 demo for Dollhouse might have exceeded internal hopes, the numbers for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles must be disappointing. Many think the night overall isn’t a fair indicator for either show because even though Fridays in general aren’t the best nights for broadcast TV viewing this one might have been worse due to the theatrical release of Friday the 13th and early Valentine’s Day festivities hit harder than normal.
I’m not so sure because as is fairly typical, while there are fewer TV viewers on Friday nights, most of them aren’t watching ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and the CW. Last night between 8pm-10pm of all the people who were watching television, more than 75% of them were watching something else besides ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and the CW. But we’ll know for sure next week.
I haven’t been optimistic for a third season of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and the move to Friday didn’t make a third season seem any more likely. But now I am a little worried that it might not even see its full run the rest of this season. It could be argued that at least for another week there is reason to be (extremely times infinity) cautiously optimistic about Dollhouse. While its numbers were far from stellar, it’s not like a gazillion people tuned in and switched it off after 10 minutes. In fact, there were pretty much an identical amount of people watching the second half hour as the first.
But this optimism for Dollhouse actually makes me even more (if that’s possible) pessimistic for TSCC. Somebody at FOX is bound to think, “well, there might be some hopes for Dollhouse, but if there are, are we giving it the best lead-in we can with TSCC?”
It seems like a pretty fair thing to think and there are some other options for FOX. I’m pretty sure FOX won’t change up anything by next Friday (February 20), but if Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles numbers don’t perk up, and there isn’t much drop off from Dollhouse, I wouldn’t be very surprised to see FOX make changes with the 8pm hour. Entertainment Weekly is already reporting that FOX will air TSCC as Dollhouse’s lead in until it runs out of TSCC episodes and then air the final six episodes of Prison Break. But that was announced well in advance of last night’s premieres. If next week isn’t much different than this week for TSCC, I’m not sure FOX won’t change things up much sooner.
After weeks and months of waiting, we’ll likely have to wait at least another week to have a better idea of the lay of the land.
Dollhouse has so much potential. Dollhouse needs a better lead in, Sarah Conner is dragging it down with it’s stupid low ratings. TSCC should have been cancelled after last season.
I don’t think FOX will pull T:SCC of unless it completely bottoms out.
Like 1 mil viewers crash.
FOX has said they were going to patient. Two weeks isn’t patient.
So, does anyone actually think that new episodes of Prison Break are going to help Dollhouse any more so than T:SCC? Both T:SCC and Prison Break have had similuar numbers this year. Why would anyone expect this to change on Fridays?
“Why would anyone expect this to change on Fridays?”
Because Fox is Sucks!
well duh of cousrse it did good with males 18-49 beacuse what male dosnt want to see two hot chicks on tv
FOX needs to be patient with Dollhouse and just see how things play out before they bring the game shows back.
Looks like Jason’s record breaking $19 million opening night affected things big time.
$19 mil is record breaking for an opening night? I don’t think so.
record breaking? HAHAHAHAHA. That’s a joke right?
As for being patient. Fox has been patient with TSCC, it’s time to bail on the show.
“You could’ve put Summer Glau and Eliza Dushku in bikinis sunning themselves on chaise lounges and drinking fruity concoctions out of straws for two hours and doing nothing but product endorsements for geek gadgetry and it might have still won the male 18-34 and 18-49 demos.”
Might?? It probably would have won those demos for the entire week, let alone Friday nights.
FOX said they wouldn’t pull them — either of them — until they finished their seasons, and I believe them. If Queen Berman were still running the ship there, I wouldn’t. Aside from being a vile person, she is also a pathological liar. Kevin Reilly, for all his faults, tends to not make promises he can’t keep. (Granted, I’d be more inclined to believe it if it were coming from Ben Silverman and Marc Graboff. They don’t pull shows with 5 viewers, let alone 5 million.)
And anybody who thinks “Dollhouse” will ever do that “well” again is deluded. This was a series premiere. Of a lousy show. That most people who watched and commented about didn’t like.
Julia/Jimmy, it may well be a February record or a Presidents Day weekend record or record for a horror remake starring some guy from the CW record or….
TSCC: If it doesn’t jump to a 1.5 next Friday then we may see COPS or something else in its time slot in the near future.
DOLLHOUSE: I expect a drop to 1.8 next episode, but the C3 numbers will likely keep the show the 2nd or 3rd highest Demo grabber for the night on Network TV. That is enough for it to be renewed. That is a success for FOX. It also fits in their hopes of giving DOLLHOUSE time to grow.
Riff, that was before they knew TSCC would get a 1.3 in the demo.
to julia and jimmy. 19 million is a record breaking Opening night for Friday the 13th. It boasts the #1 Opening Day ever for a horror movie. It holds the top spot for #1 Opening Day ever for any February. It looks to have the #1 President’s Day Opening ever beating out Ghost Rider’s Impressive 45 million.
So yes, Friday the 13th broke many records last night.
As for the television ratings. I loved Dollhouse and Terminator last night. Dollhouse may even be given the chance of a post-idol slot for one special episode if it continues a 2.0 range to see how it can do on a “real” night. As for TSCC, I hope Fox will air all the episodes of the season and make sure the series finale is good. Same with PB, I think Prison Break deserves a good series finale to finish on a good note, instead of two crappy seasons back-to-back
Shea, while I don’t know about #1 horror movie or Friday the 13th movie (though a friend of mine told me it came in 2nd, though I cannot verify that) The Passion of the Christ opened in February with $26.5 mil. That was a Wednesday, so I suppose that doesn’t count? (Even though its Friday box office was over $22 mil.) We’ll have to wait for Monday to see if Friday the 13th beat Hannibal for best Friday opening in February, but so far it’s trailing. Hannibal was nearly $19.3, to Friday the 13th’s $19.05.
Oh, and it turns out I do know about horror. It’ll come in third behind Signs and The Village.
Edit: Passion of Christ has OW february record. My Bad.
And F13 has a better chance to beat Hannibal because of VDay attached to its saturday, plus President’s Day weekend to go along with it. But, Right now if it beats Hannibal, then it will be the #1 Horror OW ever and #1 President’s Day OW
Edit: I’m sorry Julia, didn’t mean to brag numbers. I was wrong with this one. I was going off of the original post from Nikke Finke from Deadlinehollywooddaily.com, but she edited the record breaking numbers out, except for #1 Best OD for PD weekend.
I ususally know numbers for Movies and TV because I love numbers like that and Movies and Television.
Sorry Julia, I’ll recheck my sources better next time.
(PS I usually use Boxofficemojo.com, futoncritic.com, tvbythenumbers.com, and deadlinehollywooddaily, for most of my information.)
Check out boxofficemojo, its a good site.
Yes, I was using BOM. I was just referring to opening day, since that’s the only part of the weekend that could have affected the Friday ratings.
I think Fox will give Terminator another chance because of the T-4 movie coming out in May. Even though they’ve done nothing to tie it in, the obvious possibility is that if T-4 is as big as they say it will be, the possibility of a “surge” in viewers for the series is there.
If the show picks up a bit over the next couple weeks, at least back up to the 5 or 5.5 million it did on Mondays, I think Fox will keep it. Especially if it finishes the season strong.
The problem with the first 13 episodes was the edict to have more “stand alone” episodes, which damaged the intensity and progression of the overall story arc, no matter how Josh Friedman says it was because he wanted to dole it out slowly. When you don’t know if you’re going to get another season, you don’t dole out your best stuff slowly.
In the back nine, allegedly that edict has been lifted and we are promised a lot more action, more resolution of things from the first part and even season one, and a strong finish which will supposedly leave fans panting for a third season.
So we’ll see. Personally I feel this show could, if it added more realism and pushed the envelope a bit, could set a high water mark for sci-fi on broadcast TV that would last for a decade. So far, they haven’t measured up – but the potential is there.
i think that deal with salvation cant even save this show.They had the potentional ecept they will never use it to its full potentiol because they think what they are doing is right when the ratings and other wise say other wise.I gave this show a chance ecept after this season i say its better to just let it go.
TSCC is just plain AWFUL, it’s fans are all 15 year old misfits that have identified with the show. Richard wants more realism and for a boy to start having a romance with a SEX-BOT. Josh said that is the one thing he would never do , to bring this hallowed franchise even lower. Thanks for something.
Its also all the foreign input from illegal torrent viewings that have muddled the water for what the true American Terminator Fans wants. If your not from the USA, we don’t care what you think!
Terminator is a show you can watch once a while and that’s enough. The end of each episode doesn’t entice me to watch the next, so I DVR Terminator and try and save it by watching it same day but most of the time i sleep when it’s on, although Prison Break is a entirely different genre, it seems a better fit for Dollhouse and there is the consensus that Prion break fans are more loyal, in a way I think that’s true. I really think Fox should be looking to giving Prison Break the 8pm slot earlier than planned as Prion Break is a different genre from everything that is on Tv on Friday nights and it could perform better than some expect due to it being more male driven and different to what’s on other networks that night.
FOX might aswell air all the eps. i mean why bother airing repeats of house or whatever. its a pity Josh Friedman didnt write this yr finale as a series finale. it will be hard to watch the episode knowing the series wont have a proper ending.
Steve, the reason they would bother airing repeats of House or whatever is because they could get similar or better demos for less money.
This is most definitely a show that SCI FI would be interested in though. I’ve already begun to hear that “buzz,” (and not from fanatical fans).
Nick C, where have u heard this?
I can see why Nick’s a fan of “Dollhouse.” His posts have moved into the realm of science fiction.
If Reilly is lying (it’s happened) and one (not both) of these shows is pulled before all the episodes have run, which one do we suppose it would be? The one which FOX premiered with an NFC playoffs game as its lead-in? With truckloads upon truckloads of promotion? And initially aired on a night that wasn’t their equivalent of dead air? A night it would surely still be on were it not for the fact that it tanked? Or the one which FOX intended to premiere on a night that wasn’t their equivalent of dead air before dumping it on Friday with little promotion — with the aforementioned show that tanked as its lead-in? Because nothing says “great internal support” like the latter.
I can tell you one way Reilly clearly was lying. By trying to get people to buy that Joss Whedon’s latest pile of vomit wasn’t written off by FOX before it premiered. So written off that the ratings are irrelevant. To anyone who bought that, I’m sure he was a bridge somewhere in Brooklyn he’d love to sell you.
Riff, you’ve now entered the realm of fantasy. DOLLHOUSE had “little promotion?” That is fantasy. It averaged 2 commercials an hour and sometimes as many as 3 during all of the big FOX shows: HOUSE, AMERICAN IDOL, BONES, FRINGE, etc. They massively promoted the premiere.
The real question is which one will they drop the one that ISN’T making them money or the one that IS. As long as TSCC is in such low demos FOX is not happy.
Reilly wouldn’t be lying either. Since he made an agreement with Warner that all of it would be shown as LONG AS. Since it isn’t meeting its agreement, that isn’t lying.
I’m not a “fan,” of DOLLHOUSE. It’s average TV with some above average to good episodes coming. Thats it. I am a fan of Friday Night no longer being a death sentence on FOX (and other networks).
Nicks absolutely right.
Did somebody say Summer Glau in a bikini????
@Nick C: “This is most definitely a show that SCI FI would be interested in though. I’ve already begun to hear that “buzz,” (and not from fanatical fans).”
To which show are you referring? Terminator or Dollhouse?
Rachel, TSCC. It’s got a low cost and getting 1.5M viewers would be more than acceptable for them.
Whoa, really? So Sci-Fi is actually considering picking up TSCC for future season(s)? Suh-WEET!
Rachel P, considering picking up? Not yet. Showing interest in the future of the show, yes. It’s still a FOX show. People from Warner have asked around at Universal about the prospect. There is interest. So no serious talks yet.
Ah, I see. Thank you for explaining.
I’m a bit confused though… Is what your saying though that the ultimate result could be that new episodes of TSCC would air on Sci-Fi?
how sure of this are u Nick? ur not just messing with us are u?
Nick, I can’t recall the last time I saw a single promo for “Dollhouse” that wasn’t tied in with “Terminator.” (“Terminator,” of course, had a standalone promotional campaign when it premiered.) I saw comparatively few during “American Idol. Nothing even close to what they ran for “Lie to Me.”
Didn’t pay much attention to Reilly’s tenure at NBC, I guess. He cancelled hits. He renewed flops. He tried to kill “The Biggest Loser” — which is now NBC’s highest-rated show. His network-speak for why FOX sent “Dollhouse” straight to Friday without giving it so much as a single airing out of “Idol” (or anything anybody might watch) said it all as to what FOX thinks of it. Which is to say, nothing.
But, by all means, keep on throwing a banner celebration after one whole airing. Clearly, all the negative reactions to the premiere aren’t going to negatively affect the ratings or anything.