Perhaps it was me who wasn’t going to rest until Dollhouse was numero uno on iTunes. And now it is. Perhaps it was the Whedon fans, or perhaps it was just destiny. But now, whatever happens with the ratings, no matter what the numbers say, we can be assured of hearing “but, it’s number one on iTunes!”
And as least of 5:30pm PT on Februrary 16, 2009 that is true.
Less than two days ago, a little over a day after Dollhouse had first aired, it was #19. By Monday Sunday afternoon it had climbed to number five, and by Monday Sunday night it was trailing only BattleStar Galactica.
Now it is on top, and now I’m done with these posts! 
It’s interesting how so many low rated shows are so high on Itunes…Gossip Girl and Mad Men are notorious for launching to #1 so fast!
I guess it would be note-worthy if these eps sold the same amount as the #1 song. I wish we knew…
we do kind of know. Even Heroes typically does ~50K in the first week after a new episode (it winds up with more over the course of time, with the most I’ve seen at ~180K after over two months). Among NBC shows that it posts some data for, Heroes is by far and away its number one downloaded show on iTunes.
On an estimate, 25K or even less downloads could’ve captured that number one spot.
Terminator! Noooooooo!
Family Guy and Desperate Housewives pushed it down…but not far. It’s currently #11
Maybe… Just maybe… My purchase can make all the difference!
I think your estimate is reasonable. I know of at least one show last year that hit #1 on itunes with fewer than 25,000 downloads.
Not exactly the same but similar: a friend of mine produced podcasts that were regularly #1 on itunes and averaged 20-25,000 downloads a week
Do these people realize you can see this on hulu for free?
I guess commercials are just too much of a pain for some people.
More profit for LOST… I’m happy.
Well stop keep saying hulu, hulu, hulu, people. We get it!! They probably do know why wouldnt they? They just wanna give the show’s cast and producer what they DESERVE.
or maybe they just want to watch it on their iPhone/iPod Touch or via Apple TV! Will many want to do that? No, not for any particular episode of a show. Again, we estimate that it probably took Dollhouse somewhere around 25,000 downloads to hit #1.
I’m sure the Hulu viewing is at least 10X as much, but that would still roughly be 50X less than those who saw it on TV, and with 1/8th of the advertising.
The question I have is.. how big do the downloads have to be before iTunes really does have an effect on the renewal/cancelation of a series. It may not help Dollhouse, but a couple years down the road it could be big business.
Add in the bit torrent traffic and dollhouse and battlestar win!!!!
Torrent traffic might as well not even exist… it’s worthless.
My question is: why dollhouse take so much advertising on this website? If you cover this then you have to cover Lost for example… #1 spot for four consecutive day at least.
@John T. Folden: it’s a good way to frame it. I think downloads being big business is probably more than two years out. Based on the current business models as I understand them, in very, very round numbers iTunes downloads would need to be much closer to one million downloads of a new episode in a week than 50,000. Hulu usage would probably have to grow by at least 10x of whatever it is, and they’d also have to add more advertising. I’ll do a post some day laying out more of a numeric framework for thinking about it.
Roland – to answer your question only because Dollhouse just premiered, its ratings were discussed nine months before that out of fear of bad ratings and cancellation and it was a slow, long, holiday weekend. Even though Lost’s ratings are down, at over a 4.0 rating with 18-49s, it’s in absolutely no danger of being cancelled. But if iTunes had a Top TV show widget, I would add it to the site
Dudes: they win over what? You do realize that more popular TV shows are also illegally downloaded too, right?
ITUNES doesnt really help that much
Blood Ties (Lifetime’s version of Moonlight (and it was made before moonlight)) was #1 on ITUNES and never got a real second season (the 22 episodes were shot as season one but were split and lifetime aired all of them except…the series finale lol)
It’s in second place behind Family Guy this morning.
Seriously… enough with the “Dollhouse-on-Itunes” “news”. I get that this site’s new purpose is to be as snarcastic as possible when it comes to all things Dollhouse, but it doesn’t HAVE to be mentioned every single day. It’s just odd how it’s acknowledged how meaningless iTunes rankings are, yet they are reported on daily. Maybe someone can setup a sister site – itunesbythenumbers.com. Everyone fascinated by iTunes sales rankings can go there, if they want… or just go to iTunes and look at the screen themselves.
dollhouse rocks in every category!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Brandon, no one is forcing you to read the ITunes related articles.
FOX should probably be patient with this show as its gotten Friday more buzz than other show has since Moonlight left earlier last year.
iTunes don’t mean anything but in the long run maybe networks should iTunes as a reference for when deciding to renew a show.
Does anyone have links to the most viewed shows on Hulu?
Getting on iTunes #1 list might mean more buzz for the show!
Whedon is fortunate because he does have an extremely dedicated fan base that will shell out the cash and put him at #1 on itunes. Unfortunately the majority of the people purchasing the episode are not new viewers. So I’m not really sure being #1 on itunes is going to matter all that much. The number of live viewers will probably be the same next week and I highly doubt the itunes pay out is going to be enough to influence the execs at Fox. I sure hope that the Doll House budget isn’t very high, because if it is, it’s not going to last very long.