| Scoreboard |  |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating/Share: Adults 18-49 | 2.0/7 | 1.6/5 | 1.3/4 | 0.8/3 | 0.8/3 |
| Total Viewers (million) | 8.32 | 7.07 | 4.95 | 2.15 | 1.83 |
The best episode (in my not so humble opinion) of Dollhouse to ever air on FOX….ended on something of a down note with less than a 1.0 adults 18-49 rating. Dollhouse averaged 2.147 million viewers and a .8 rating.
Medium was the night’s top show with adults 18-49 with a 2.2 ratings, edging out Ghost Whisperer’s 2.1 ratings. But both were up versus last week when they aired against game one of the ALCS.
Numb3rs pulled a 1.8 and CBS took the night.
Ugly Betty dropped 14% from last week and averaged a 1.2 rating with adults 18-49 and , and Smallville matched last week’s season high 1.1.
Here are the ABC PR bullets for the night:
- Despite moving back an hour earlier this year into the 8 o’clock hour, ABC’s Supernanny drew 12% more viewers than its year-ago Friday season premiere at 9pm coming out of Wife Swap (4.7 million vs. 4.2 million on 10/3/08). Supernanny topped its Fox competition in the time period (Brothers/’Til Death) by 2.5 million viewers (4.7 million vs. 2.2 million) and by 57% in Adults 18-49 (1.1/4 vs. 0.7/3).
- Showing solid retention of its week-earlier season opener (88% in Viewers/86% in AD18-49), ABC’s Ugly Betty built on its Adult 18-49 lead-in to defeat Fox’s established drama Dollhouse in the 9 o’clock hour by 50% (1.2/4 vs. 0.8/3).
- Building on its Adult 18-49 lead-in by 33%, ABC News’ 20/20 took second at 10pm, defeating NBC’s Jay Leno in the hour by 13% in the key young adult sales demo (1.6/5 vs. 1.4/5).
Full details:
| Time | Net | Show | 18-49 Rating/Share | Viewers (Millons) |
| 8:00 | FOX | Brothers | 0.8/3 | 2.35 |
| CBS | Ghost Whisperer | 2.1/7 | 8.46 | |
| NBC | Law & Order | 1.5/5 | 7.17 | |
| ABC | Supernanny | 1.1/4 | 4.70 | |
| CW | Smallville | 1.1/4 | 2.52 | |
| 8:30 | FOX | Till Death | 0.7/2 | 1.97 |
| 9:00 | CBS | Medium | 2.2/7 | 8.43 |
| NBC | Dateline | 1.8/6 | 7.91 | |
| ABC | Ugly Betty | 1.2/4 | 4.55 | |
| FOX | Dollhouse | 0.8/3 | 2.15 | |
| CW | America’s Next Top Model (R) | 0.5/2 | 1.13 | |
| 10:00 | CBS | Numb3rs | 1.8/6 | 8.05 |
| ABC | 20/20 | 1.6/5 | 5.60 | |
| NBC | The Jay Leno Show | 1.4/5 | 6.15 |
You can see TV ratings from other recent Overnight ratings reports here.
Nielsen TV Ratings: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.
Definitions:
Fast Affiliate Ratings: These first national ratings, including demographics, are available at approximately 11 AM (ET) the day after telecast, and are released to subscribing customers daily. These data, from the National People Meter sample, are strictly time-period information, based on the normal broadcast network feed, and include all programming on the affiliated stations, sometimes including network programming, sometimes not. The figures may include stations that did not air the entire network feed, as well as local news breaks or cutaways for local coverage or other programming. Fast Affiliate ratings are not as useful for live programs and are likely to differ significantly from the final results, because the data reflect normal broadcast feed patterns. For example, with a World Series game, Fast Affiliate Ratings would include whatever aired from 8-11PM on affiliates in the Pacific Time Zone, following the live football game, but not game coverage that begins at 5PM PT. The same would be true of Presidential debates as well as live award shows and breaking news reports.
Rating: Estimated percentage of the universe of TV households (or other specified group) tuned to a program in the average minute. Ratings are expressed as a percent.
Share (of Audience): The percent of households (or persons) using television who are tuned to a specific program, station or network in a specific area at a specific time. (See also, Rating, which represents tuning or viewing as a percent of the entire population being measured.)
Time Shifted Viewing – Program ratings for national sources are produced in three streams of data – Live, Live+Same Day (Live+SD) and Live+7 Day. Time shifted figures account for incremental viewing that takes place with DVRs which are currently in approximately 24.4% of all U.S. TV households. Live+Same Day (Live+SD) include viewing during the same broadcast day as the original telecast, with a cut-off of 3:00AM local time when meters transmit daily viewing to Nielsen for processing. Live+7 Day ratings include incremental viewing that takes place during the 7 days following a telecast.
For more information see Numbers 101 and Numbers 102.
What more can we say? The fans love the show, the critics are starting to love the show, and yet no one else cares.
Poor Ugly Betty, 1.2?
Good for Smallville
Bye, Bye DollHouse!!!!
Bye, Bye, Ugly Betty!!!!
CBS wins again!
What about L&O’s numbers?
CBS has won every Friday
law & order
A18-49:1.5
VIEWERS:7.2
thats not good news for ugly betty !!
and it was so good episode!!
smallville works well for cw fridays!1.1 its good for them!!but w18-34 not that good!how the game performed on w18-34 last year??better than 0.7 or not???
Thank you, George. I think the L&) numbers are consistent with last week’s performance (may have ticked down by one). Still competitive … ever so hopeful for a 21st season!
Whoa….Ugly Betty is dangerously close to approaching DOLLHOUSE levels…eek.
Can’t really blame anyone though – the episode was reallyyyyy boring last night.
Why, oh why, does no one watch Dollhouse live?
*sigh*
I am surprised that Medium was the top show last night. As much as I love the show I found last night’s episode practically unwatchable. I had to skip through 97% of it.
Folks, Ugly Betty is already dead in the sense that this is certainly its final season. It will have enough episodes for ABC to syndicate, and the current ratings results, although woeful, are unlikely to get ABC to remove it from the schedule.
GW 2.1
Medium 2.2
Numbers 1.9
Law & Order 1.5
Dateline 1.8 (THIS is why Southland is not returning)
Leno 1.4
Supernanny 1.1
Ugly Betty 1.2
Brothers 0.8
Till Death 0.7
Dollhouse 0.9
Smallville 1.1
ANTM 0.5
(all courtesy of PiFeedback)
So impatient, Anonymous, but thanks. but the table of data now included above (with viewer info) and Marc had (sadly) the wrong number for Dollhouse.
Robert, Supernanny has its season premiere last night, not Ugly Betty.
Thanks for being awake early on a Saturday.
Ok, I’m with everyone that Dollhouse will most likely be cancelled, there’s no sugar coating it, BUT, something that i haven’t seen anyone discuss here is the December scheduling. Let’s assume, FOX continues it’s pattern of not promoting it. I would hope at least during the House/Bones reruns it will, i’ll be incredibly surprised if there is a single solitary promo during the World Series. Anyways, my point about the December scheduling…
What if, the ratings at 8pm are better than 9pm? And, an even bigger what if, the ratings hold into the 9pm hour. What would that mean, even if it’s a small uptick, say a 1.2 in the 8pm and a 1.0 in the 9pm, especially if it holds like that all December?
Would Fox keep it at 8 when it goes back to single episode airings in January, or will they kill any momentum, no matter how small it may be, by throwing it back to the wolves at 9 and yet another new lead in?
If the 8pm airings play out like above (and they keep it there in January) would FOX say “Even small growth is growth, lets see if it can be built on.”
I think the Table is wrong, Last night wasn’t the season premiere of Ugly Betty.
cbs is soo smart they save medium and now medium is the nights top show
Since people know or at least suspect that Dollhouse is on its way out, why bother watching any more? It’s going to keep losing the regular viewers and won’t be picking up any new ones.
Dollhouse could improve by two ticks and 360K demo viewers from last night in future 8 p.m. airings and still be in last place in the hour, based on the table.
i saw dollhouse yesterday (live) and i thought it was the best episode so far.. and i already started watching it with the second season. what a pity this is going to be cancelled.. stay tuned people!
Less, I don’t think most viewers have any idea what the ratings for a particular show are. I think more viewers may be aware that Dollhouse was in danger of being canceled at the end of last season, but now that it’s back I’m not sure how many realize the situation its in.
I’m very sad to read these ratings for Dollhouse, as last night’s episode was one of the best hours of television I have sat through in a very long time. I keep crossing my fingers that a miracle will happen. I mean, we got a 2nd season didn’t we?
so will we see season 10 of smallville
call me crazy but I still don’t see the syndication angle perfectly. A show like Ugly Betty is getting bottom of the barrel ratings first-run, what makes ABC think it will bring in big bucks in syndication? Same thing with Til’ Death, if it does so poorly first-run what makes it worth keeping for undoubtedly terrible syndication?
Less, I used to think the same thing. But it was pointed out to me, and rightly so, that the average viewer doesn’t know what’s going on with Dollhouse. I bet you 3/4 of Dollhouses viewers don’t even know that the show is going into Hiatus. They see it on their onscreen guide or they don’t, that’s the extent of their knowledge on the shows fate. So I doubt that explains the bad ratings trend.
nice to see Numbers back up
i have notice that Cbs shows are growing eatch Friday
Like I said, the beginning of last night’s Dollhouse had the same issue as S2E2, it spoke to the existing audience only. I know many people here were big fans of last night’s episode, but they still need to show some discipline crafting each episode and recognize they’re starting with a audience that needs more work to be interested.
Honestly, the rating doesn’t surprise me. Combine the misdesigned lead, the week hiatus, and the difficult subject matter, and you’re going to have a much lower audience than you did for the last episode, which was, in many ways, a completely perfectly crafted episode.
jon, say they can get Lifetime or Oxygen to buy Ugly Betty in syndication. They charge X amount for each episode, so the more episodes they have of the show, the more money they can make. Some local affiliates often buy shows in syndication as well. Now your question is a good one about whether those shows will work in syndication. But look at Arrested Development, the ratings weren’t good, but the show does well in syndication.
Smallville = Awesome.
Viewers = Not so Awesome
Renewal = Absolutely.
On friday October 30th , fox is going to air the 2 hour season 6 premiere of House and i think FOX should air repeats every friday because the ratings ‘ll be higher!
Tommy – the numbers in the table were right, but yeah the “season premiere” was a vestige from last week.
“News” about show fates aren’t closely watched by the average person. The percentage of people in the USA who know that FOX announced a November sweeps lineup with Dollhouse on it, and then change its mind probably rounds to zero.
Squiggleslash — it’s too late for that though, they are not starting with an audience that needs more work to be interested. They are really only playing to the audience that already is interested because that’s all that’s left.
Last night episode was perfect , and nothing else can be done for the show to make people watch it , people hates Dollhouse and thats it
Last night was a proof of how much USAian doesn’t care about the show , the show was amazing , dark and packed and yet the ratings are still bad and worst than that , a series low :S !!!! WTH
I really which we can get a 9 episode back or even been picked up by SyFy or whatever , i am not a die hard fan , but a series which makes episodes like “Belonging” is soooo much to lose
I just want to ask the admin’s of this website “Robert” , can by any chance SyFy pick this series of FOX dumps it ?
Tommy and Bill -
Happy to be wrong about folks giving up on the show because the networks have given up on it. I was really hoping there was a reason for failure beyond that of the show’s content itself.
I am guessing the numbers for “whitecollar” will be up at some point? Or do I have to look for them somewhere else?
Just curious how well it did … seemed like a good first episode for a new show to me.
Too bad for Eastwick and Ugly Betty. They could be great for CW but I guess they are too pricy for the network. Or aren’t they ? Does anyone know how much an episode of these shows cost ?
Leo, you will only see them today if USA issues a press release today. Cable ratings do not come out as early as broadcast ratings, but USA should have access to them somewhere between 3p-5p ET. If we don’t see them today, I’m sure the numbers will circulate on Monday.
Too bad for Eastwick and Ugly Betty. They could be great for CW but I guess they are too pricy for the network. Or aren’t they ? Does anyone know how much an episode of these shows cost compared to a CW show’s budget ?
I find it odd that some people here believe that a good episode would garner good ratings. Isn’t it more probable that a good episode would garner good ratings for the following episode?
Let’s look for Dollhouse’s ratings next week. Oh wait…
leo, we won’t get White Collar ratings directly until Tuesday, but I would anticipate a press release or press report before then with the numbers.
Oops, messed up a bit.
You know. I havn;t seen a commercial for Dollhouse in a long time.
How is it suppose to gain people, if you don’t advertise.
but maybe it’s not worth it
“people hates Dollhouse and thats it”
or sci-fi fans watch sgu and sanctuary on friday nights?
Smallville beat FOX and tied with ABC in the demo, so CW must be happy with that.
Hopefully GW and Medium could grow to 2.5 and Numb3rs to 2.0 eventually.
I just Betty will not fall below 1.0 and ABC will allow it to air for its entire run. It’s done, hoping for a proper closure for the show at least
Undoubtedly the best DH episode in a good while, tragic then that so few people saw it.
As for “why watch it if it’s on its way out”, well it’s precisely because it’s painfully obvious that it’s on its way out. Means the writers have time to wrap it up nicely, and everyone loves a conclusion.
(My appologies for the “it” spam.)
I love Medium. Last night episode was a huge miss though. Next week’s looks insane though so that’ll be good. And I’d like to add it beat Jay Leno, just for the sake of some NBC bashing.
I just noticed that 20/20 is the only 10pm ABC show that grows from its lead in. It just makes UB’s ratings look even more bad
So basically the only way that Dollhouse could survive is if CBS picked it up? Kidding. Ive always watched Medium and know it was jerked around by NBC the entire time it was on that network. It always gave them solid ratings and they always moved it around. Wouldn’t it be NBC’s top scripted show with those ratings?
Kind of makes you wonder what kind of ratings other shows on other networks would be getting if they were on CBS. What kind of ratings would Heroes pull in after CSI? What kind of ratings would Modern Family get between 2 and a Half Men and Big Bang Theory? What would Greys Anatomy do in the same timeslot on CBS? Shudder to think what kind of ratings they could rake in with American Idol or Dancing with Stars.
as i say there will be new scriped to try and show always has to come to end and for that matter i will be fan intill the bitter end
I am confused. Are there any people who watch Dollhouse and don’t comment on this cite, because if there are I can’t see them in the table.
Dollhouse really hit a very very catastrophic ratings.
It’s not an appropriate day for dollhouse , on Fridays is rather for “the old” (+49) , friday is incompatible with the 18/49 rating
I think Ghost Whisperer is getting surprisingly stiff competition from L&O. In its dotage, L&O finds a spring in its steps, or is this the thrashing just before dying. It’s being DVRd well and that hints at a potentially bigger audience out there. With Trauma getting the silent cancellation, NBC could be relocating L&O to Mondays at 8 pm, and shifting Heroes back to 9 pm. They’ll probably stock Friday 8 pm with a Deal or No Deal $100,000–on the big networks it would be $1 million–for November sweeps. NBC is pennypinching to the point of abusing the penny, and putting L&O on on Mondays will save a couple of bucks, since L&O is syndicated already.
I loved the first episode of White Collar. Great cast, interesting premise and most of all, a well told story.
I liked last nights Medium. They never have a bad show. Fridays are tough on my dvr. I record four shows at 8 pm Smallville, ugly Betty, medium, and doll house. I record SGU at a later time Friday night. I love all these shows hate to see any of them leave.
John, you’re missing the point- the problem is that Dollhouse is doing badly in the 18-49 demo COMPARED TO OTHER SHOWS IN THE HOUR.
White Collar was good i have to agree with you i havent Found one i didnt like on USA cant wait for Burn Notice in JAN
Was White Collar right in line with the rest of USA original programming and despite being a drama it relys on a comedic element?
I watch Psych, Burn Notice, and Royal Pains and enjoy them but I really think that the formula is getting tired. Royal Pains was okay but started to get old by the time the season was ending. Psych does the humor aspect better than any of them and Burn Notice does the best at blending the humor with the believable dramatic aspects.
I did not like “In Plain Sight” at all and was only able to last about 6 episodes before giving up.
could fox at least sneak in (at least a) 15 seconds spot for dollhouse during house or bones or any of their “hit” shows, i’ve never seen any single promo of dollhouse for a long long time!
Ugly Betty is finally dead.
It was basically a hit in the 2006 season that failed miserably in 3 years, just like Heroes.
Til Death dropped from Brothers? Wow, I wonder how Fox will handle that show.
forg: like it always does. Indefinite hiatus. Bill may yet get his wish of an Independence Day ‘Til Death marathon!
thanks guys .. for the whitecollar news.
I agree psych has good humor but, I think you have to kind of have a good general knowledge to get all the jokes. I am sure many of them sail over my head because I dont get the reference.
Burn notice has a good formula. I havnt seen royal pains. Monk is getting kind of dull … probably a good thing this is the last season.
whitecollar seemed to have a good blend of comedy. The main character(Guy from chuck?) looks like he is going to be really good. Very likable.
These shows on the “lesser” stations/networks are starting to become more interesting overall than the “big” station/network shows. I wonder how they would do if they were on cbs nbc abc or fox.
On this side of the pond we’ve been tracking Dollhouse as well. Ir shows runs on Scifi UK. The problem is singular – Elizha Dushku. The woman cannot act but unfortunately she is the producer. Add that to the split personality merry go round that was Season One and its waning popularity becomes a lot clearer. I went into the show with some interest but was gone by Episode 6 of Season 1. As a viewer I don’t much care who’s responsible for the rubbish. I simply won’t hang around.
There does seem to be an assumption here that Whedon is much-maligned and deserves to be watched. If a show is actually good enough it stands a chance of being watched. In Dollhouse’s the numbers i.e. popularity suggested it should never have got to Season 2.
LAw & Order down for last week byt still in the seven million. Hope it will get renewed for a 21st season and will at some point beat those awful ghost shows on CBS. I hope it moves to a better timeslot and can at leat get in the nine or ten million mark.
It looks Leno is affected by baseball a lot. Last week with baseball, Leno hit a record low at 1.2, but this week he was back in the normal Friday range and beat everything on ABC and Fox with the exception of 20/20 although Leno had more viewers total. Even this past week, he was overall lower especially on nights Fox had baseball. But when baseball is off, he’s back to his normal rating.
What Collar is two words … my mistake , sorry about that
2 things…
1. 5$ says dollhouse wont come back after November sweeps (fox says “IDK where the tapes went, they must have just dissipated”)
2. Is fox contractually obligated to show all of the remaining episodes of till death?
The sad thing is that if Dollhouse were on the CW and got ratings like that, it would be considered a success.
Kat, actually Dollhouse got worse ratings than Smallville.
The CW only have three shows that hit over 2.0 mil in the ratings on a regular basis. TVD, SPN and SV.
Plus 1.1, while it is better than 0.8, is hardly awesome in itself. Not if you compare it to before SV’s move from thursdays.
How could 20/20 have a higher rating than Leno when Leno had MORE viewers??
Leno had 6 million viewers to 20/20’s 5 million.
Would there be a possibility that next season ABC would shift “Ugly Betty” over to their cable network “ABC Family for new episodes?” Just a thought. If the show is flat on cable, then it could milk the reruns for awhile.
Neal, 20/20 definitely had a higher 18-49 rating. While Leno had more overall viewers, it didn’t have more viewers who were 18-49.
Greg, with ratings like it’s getting – and having enough episodes for syndication after this season, I don’t think you’ll see another season anywhere.
Robert well it’s a good thing Leno had more overall viewers. You can’t complain having 6 million viewers on a Friday night.
Robert – well, they did it “right” with Episode 3 (Belle Chose) and that was a 1.0 as opposed to a 0.8. I don’t think it’s a matter of being “too late” for anything, in the end a TV show, regardless of whether it’s doing well or doing badly, has to keep the audience it has and replace those who are leaving.
What makes it especially unfortunate is that Belonging was written and recorded before Vows was aired. You’d have expected the Whedons to be thinking in terms of “How do we maintain and build on what Fox are expecting to be a 1.5″ when they recorded Belonging (and the similarly mis-started Instinct.) As it is, if this was deliberate, if they were thinking “It’s too late to do anything to build an audience, let’s just create 13 episodes for Fox to burn off”, then they had to have given up before they started.
* To those coming in and not having read my other comments – I thought Belonging was good, but not nearly as good as Belle Chose. Among my concerns is that the first five minutes probably drove away new viewers who were given no idea of the Dollhouse’s set up during that time.
Medium won the night, awesome! now some people can shut their mouths
Neal, total viewers don’t matter much to a show’s revenue earning potential. Only the demos matter. From that perspective 20/20 beat Leno where it matters ($$) and the additional viewers who were watching Leno won’t change that.
Squiggleslash, when you’re dealing with numbers so tiny (especially after a one week absence) I don’t think you can draw any conclusions about show content relating to ratings. I thought Belonging was much better than Belle Chose (I didn’t think Belle Chose was a “bad” episode though).
I wonder what happened to Joss’s Biggest Fan. He usually posts by now.
Actually with those numbers Dollhouse would be considered a flop on the CW.
And you have to understand this simple fact, Dollhouse would get lower numbers on the cw thanks to its coverage being lower then Fox.
Sure its viewer total would beat two episode of the CW last week, but its demo performance (what does pay the bills) sucks, hard. That would only beat MP (both its initial and encore airing). HEll even VD and SN in reruns either equal or beat its demo performance. And won certainly can’t judge MP a success. Its only on right now for two reasons. One they truly don’t have another series to replace it. And they don’t want to let go something they promoted the hell out of without giving it half a season. And though I don’t know about its 18-34 ratings, some how I don’t see Doll house hitting that demo any harder (the true meat and potatoes of the CW.
And for those who think it should go to cable, that coverage is also worse, so they would perform even lower numbers.
OK, first off, some of you appear to be unaware — Fox has committed to showing *all* 13 eps of this season. They will NOT be showing them during November, and apparently are scheduling 2x’s for the December months (not the best choice, since everyone will have disrupted scheds for the holidays, I’d say) but that’ll at least encourage some attention by fans when visiting relatives.
Summer Glau is also going to be active (a-HEM!) during December, and if you saw the preview promo for the December eps, it looks like it’s going to get even better.
So, get the word out, and make your idiot family members who have been ignoring the show to watch the dad-blamed thing!!
One good thing to be aware of with DH is that its DVR numbers are VERY good, it’s one reason, along with the rabid fan base, that Fox did commit to full airings. So the overnights matter a bit less than they would for some shows.
I don’t expect it’ll get a third season
but Whedon has promised that the 13th ep will provide both adequate closure for the fans and still leave threads open for a third season if things do happen to improve.
So don’t give up on the show yet, it should be a good ride even if it closes down after 2×13 airs.
Ouch, if anything the hiatus is going to kill off more viewers for Dollhouse.
I can understand the inclusion of Dollhouse in the story headline, but does it have to continuously take precedence in the headline (and be the featured photo) when a series in its 6th season that just switched networks is winning the night in 18-49?
I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be snippy. I do enjoy this site and appreciate all of the work you guys do, but enough with the Dollhouse worship already…
Robert
Most of us are aware of that the demo’s (usually 18-49) are the meat and potatoes of the networks.
But don’t they still generate some revenue outside their target demo?
How much percentage wise would you guess that shows generate outside of their target demo? For example if I earned a dollar per viewer in my target demo. What would I get for percentage wise for a viewer who is outside that demo? Half a dollar? 25cents,, ect.
I mean look at CBS 60 minutes generates (per episode) more income then the amazing race. Yet episode to episode TAR will beat it in every single demo group. From teens, a18-34, adults 18-49 and adults 25-54.
But it has an audience that is typically 4 million higher, so clearly at some point that larger viewing audience does pay off.
I know income is another factor, but so far with the data that was provided TAR actually does better in this demo as well. Scoring a higher index number (CBS highest of the week’s data we saw).
1. Betty is dead. Hope it gets wrapped up well.
2. Medium is doing well… anyone wonder if The Ex List would have been pulling a 2.2 18-49?
3. always perplexed that people think a good episodre will equal good ratings for that episode. You don’t know it is good until you view it… word of mouth would thus only have a bearing on subsequent episodes.
4. Can’t stand comments about why I should keep watching a show that is or will be canceled soon. If I like it I will still like it if it stops airing. Why wouldn’t I want to see more episodes? By that mentality I should avoid all shows until they finish airing outright then ask existing fans if it ends with a nice little bow on top… then watch?
5. Dollhouse is done. Fox deserves praise for keeping it on, but not for doing NO promotion.
Mark, my guess is that the percentages are not significant, at least when it comes to a show’s renewal prospects. Do I think NCIS can make a little bit more for getting a 4.8 rating with 21.5 million viewers vs. a show that has a 4.8 and less than 15 million? Sure.
Do I think Leno gets any boost for having a 1.4 with 6 million vs. a 1.4 with 5 million? Nope.
Sadly, there’s no way to validate that with actual numbers, but based on everything I’ve ever read and anyone I’ve ever spoken to about it, those are my guesses.
And Dollhouse would likely be on the fence were it on CW. It breaks 2m viewers but a 1.0 or less isn’t wonderful for even their standards.
Bye Bye Betty…stick a fork in her, she is done. So stale and played out and flat its shocking. Guess when you rip off a feature you can only hold on so long. Should have been a half hour and followed the latin model more closely. They it might actually have been funny.
Damn! Ugly Betty was really good last night! =( I hate to see it go down like this especially since the new show material is VERY MUCH like the successful first season material.
Questions:
- Could another network get Betty if it’s producers hunt around for something? Like the CW? or even ABC family?
- Is Betty’s producers allowed to even hunt for a new network? Because I know that ABC produces Ugly Betty
- What are the chances that ABC moves Betty to something like their Comedy Wednesdays? Or replaces Eastwick with Betty?
not to mention the fact that it wouldn’t probably get lower ratings on the CW than it’s getting currently on fox.
I agree that the Dollhouse episode was the best ever. Looks like Leno did okay with the First Lady’s appearence.
mark wood, adults 18-49 is the most general target for advertisers in broadcast primetime, and focusing on that captures the advertising value of a show to the extent of guessing its future prospects. Plenty of other demo groups gender/age/etc. are valuable to specific advertisers, and while they’re useful to ad salespeople and advertisers, that level of analysis for us wouldn’t add anything to our guesses.
But I’m guessing that your real question is “Do viewers over 49 generate significant advertising income in broadcast primetime?” The answer is effectively no.
So, all those CBS viewers over 50 aren’t generating any real money for the network.
News programming (cable news and broadcast evening news) targets adults 25-54, so that’s a slightly different calculation.
I bet they will announce smallville season 10 after the geoff johns episode. I read it’s now a 2 part episode with Welling directing the 2nd half.
How can FOX expect Dollhouse to perform with a lead-in like ‘Til Death? At least it gained a 0.1 and a few hundred thousand from it. I, for one, am glad ‘Til Death is being put on hiatus longer than Dollhouse and Brothers, and I will always be flabbergasted how it continues to get renewed with those ratings, is someone getting blackmailed or something?
I’m getting worried about Ghost Whisperer, I hope it gets another season!
I tuned in to Jay Leno last night to see what kind of interview Michelle Obama would be giving. How sad for her that it was only in the 10 @ 10. That is a joke. What kind of first lady agrees to sit down and answer silly questions rather than having her for a real interview? She is definitely no Laura Bush! That woman has class. Mrs. Obama, none.
ahhh whatever. I’ll just be happy that they showed the episode, but i wouldn’t be surprised that if they don’t even air the rest until the summer?
Remember “Don’t Forget the Lyrics?” Here’s what it did in the Friday 9:00 hour on January 23…
6.07 million viewers, HH: 3.2/6, 18-49: 1.7/5
“Don’t Forget the Lyrics” is of course no longer with us. It was cancelled. FOX traded it for this…
2.15 million viewers, HH: 1.3/2, 18-49: 0.8/3
If FOX were my network, the person responsible for that decision would be out the door faster than you can say “The Beautiful Life: TBL.” You hear that, Rupert?
Smallville is holding it’s own!
Let’s face it the way the TV industry is going if you can get two seasons out of a show you really like you are lucky.
Chuck
F**kin hell its was a good episode of dollhouse but the ratings are terrible.
WTF is wrong with ppl
I love Dollhouse and after the break even I forgot there was an episode on last night. ouch.
Yea, that might be an interesting statistical trend to track. Shows coming off an interruption. Are they stable, do the tick up, or do they drop when they come back.
As to the comment about most people aren’t interested in ratings. I think that’s true, but if you watch TV enough you can see the warning signs of a show about to be canceled. I think by the time I was 12 I could usually tell if a show I liked was about to get canceled. And it’s usually the same behavior, non-existent advertising and spotty scheduling.
When I would see that, I would usually stop watching. And I can’t think of a time I was ever wrong for more than a few months. Probably not unlike stocks, I’ll bet there is incredible momentum in ratings.
Why did it seem like last night was baby night, law and order, medium and then number3s
Dollhouse freaking sucks, take it off the air already. Bring back Don’t Forget The Lyrics!!
entertainmenttodayandbeyond there are plenty of shows that are beyond 2 season look how well that NICS is doing its already past two actually going on 8
Joss said:
“Howzabout that schedule? Well, I’m not as depressed as everyone else. We weren’t about to rock sweeps anyway, and though there’s a chilly November, December is CRAZY. It’s like an Advent calendar of episodes! We get November to try to spread the word (which I’ll be leaning on Fox to do, though it’s hard to imagine them doing as good a job as the WhyIWatch guy) and then December is pure gluttony. Plus the episodes line up extremely well in these pairs, and we’ll have an absurdly appropriate lead-in.
Back to breaking Tim’s episode. Keep the faith, peeps. I’ll bring you news (and hopefully a little humor, I mean would it kill me to punch these up a little?) when I can. -j”
Maybe if they try airing the last three episodes of Dollhouse in January with a decent lead-in (Nick C said something about that in his blog). By decent I mean: STOP USING DEAD SHOWS AS A LEAD-IN FOR DOLLHOUSE! Anyway, I blame Fox for airing Dollhouse on Fridays and for bad promotion. Still, I am truly thankful they gave us a second season. They don’t deserve all the hate.
Ricardo, why shouldn’t Fox use dead shows as a lead-in for Dollhouse?
Birds of a feather, and so forth.
ABC has only themselves to blame for the “Betty” ratings.
i have Betty on Dvr last night i wached Ghoast Wisper, Meduim and White Collar and taped Numbers
Man, last night’s Dollhouse was not “perfect.”
The first twenty minutes or so were really, really good, perhaps on par with the best of Buffy and definitely the best Dollhouse has ever been. Then it went back to being bleh.
Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen cannot write and quite frankly, Dollhouse deserves the fate it’s getting simply for Joss putting nepotism ahead of artistic quality.
@Joshua
Word!
I’d love to know if SGU beat Dollhouse again. I know there are a lot of Dollhouse fans here, but SGU is a lot better.
I love Dollhouse, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to watch it live.
Huddy: Don’t be so classless. The first lady of the United States of America should not be classless, that is just plain unpatriotic. I really could care less about political views, and hold my Presidents and First Ladies in high esteem. Mrs. Obama has done in depth interviews. I am not quite sure what else you are looking for.
Bash NBC all you want, but bashing our First Lady is not appropriate.
Betty is dead by May and Til Death performed horrible. At least in a week FOX will have their precious House/Bones repeats and Dolhouse and Brothers will both be burned off.
Such a shame that Fox is going to screw over another great show. Last night’s episode of Dollhouse was awesome. If only I had one of those boxes but I won’t be surprised when it gets cancelled since that tends to be what happens when I like a show. They aren’t even advertising it and now I have to wait until December to watch.
fox were dumb to renew dollhouse, bad show=low ratings
“Ugly Betty” did pretty evenly in the demo for its first two seasons (3.7 and 3.6)- it then dropped to a 2.8 last season. In overall viewers, it had 11.3m average the first season, but dropped to 9.4m in its second season. The TV Guide Network acquired the cable rights to the show, per an announcement in July. The network can air new episodes within 14 days of the ABC broadcast; plans are to run the hsow as a weekly strip starting next fall. Kinda odd rerun syndication, though, one show a week?
Ugly Betty Looking Pretty Ugly. They either need to move this Dog from Fridays or it will just be cancelled and not complete the season. its a shame because I actually watch the show and enjoy it. It is Fresh Original and there is no other show like it on tv. Sad way to treat an Outstanding Show!
this is for Huddy. I thought Michelle’s Interview was Hilarious and Michelle Showed that she has a great sense of Humor. I Like a President and a First Lady that you can relate to and Both The President and First Lady come off as Regular People. As far as laura bush, she isnt good enough to walk in Michelle Obama’s Shoes!
@hark hark: Why of course, because that has always been the case. I mean, everyone knows NCIS is the pinnacle of television history, as well as CSI, Grey’s Anatomy and every other incredibly awesome show out there people watch because they’re better than everything else… I mean – please.
Most of the best shows ever made either had low ratings or were cancelled before their time.
This may be a simple question, but how many episodes are needed for something to be syndicated?
Budo…hmmm…
…Combat! would be a good proof of your statement…
…Gunsmoke, Bonanza!, M*A*S*H, and Perry Mason, just to name a few off of the top of my head, are exceptions…
…and if I can think of that many exceptions in 15 seconds, unless you think the Korean War lasted 50 years, and thus M*A*S*H was cancelled before its time, well…
…and I won’t even get into Family Matters – I can see Steve Urkel now, if he was on ABC Fridays today…
“…can you see me now? Snork! Choke, choke!!!!” “Abby, stat!” (flatline beeeeeep!) “It’s too late, Morris – time of death, 1844…” “Save his organs?” “Who would want them, Abby?” “You will, Romano, after we send you to San Francisco, to ride in the Trauma helicopter…” “I got to see this!” “Shut up, Urkel!” (Doug Ross kicks Urkel in the head, while Abby kisses Neela, making Kovac, well, a bit jealous and happy…)
In case you were wondering, I am stone cold sober…this program was pre-recorded, because we were too ashamed
Huh. I thought last night’s Medium was one of the best episodes I’ve seen. To each his own. Maybe it was more appealing to women because of the baby angle. Guys might not have understood it (and this is coming from a childless woman. I still “get” it.) I wish more people were on it’s Facebook page for some good discussion, like NCIS’s.
Once Dollhouse and Ugly Betty are cancelled, the CW should combine the two for “Ugly Dollhouse”.
WOW, mostly all the comments are about Dollhouse, is it that good???
Do people actually go to work the next day and ask their co-workers “Hey, did you see ‘Medium’ or ‘Ghost Whisperer’ last night?” No, I doubt they do. Because these are some of those “guilty pleasure” shows for some. And I really hope someone would enforce the law and arrest these viewers for watching CRAPPY television! With rehabilatation, you can learn to like ACTUAL good shows again.
I know we are all thankful for FOX giving a second chance for DH BUT this IS THEIR fault. The same thing happened to Pushing Daisies.No promotion + long hiatus = Cancelation!
“ugly dollhouse” now thats funny.
JDF, the “magic number” is usually quoted as 100, but seems to be more like 88 these days.
tom says:
“I Like a President and a First Lady that you can relate to and Both The President and First Lady come off as Regular People.”
Then again, Regular People don’t generally get $300k per year sinecures from University hospital systems.
R.G.; Heroes does slighlty better than Ugly Betty.
To cress:
Does anyone go to work these days and go “did you watch last night?” I think times are different from the 80s or 90s, I mean, if a character from a TV show wore really out there clothes, then I doubt many people would copy it, I know I don’t.
Fox bet on the wrong horse, should have kept TSCC.
Not surprised about DH, most everyone I know DVR’s it and watches either Smallville or SGU/Sanctuary.
R.G, Heroes more that doubles Ugly Betty… 1.2 versus a 2.5 for Heroes. A 2.5 on NBC makes it one of NBC’s best shows, as long as Heroes doesn’t drop below 2.0 it will get a season 5….
@Boris
Yeah, I’m sure Michelle Obama is so regular the hospital actually got rid of her job after she quit.
It wasn’t an either/or with “Dollhouse” and “TSCC.” The latter was just too expensive to warrant another chance.
As for the former, well, it really was the best episode that has aired. And as for the comments that it doesn’t garner to newcomers, there’s only so many times you can do episodes like that without seriously annoying your existing fanbase (Season One episodes 1-5, Season Two episodes 1-2… and possibly episode 3, even though I enjoyed it).
If “Dollhouse” is really over this year (which, to be honest, it was probably always going to be its last year) then stuff newcomers. Go out with a mythology-surrounding bang. And why should we still watch even though we know it’s coming to an end? Why miss out on good television just because no more episodes will follow? If I was told the air is gonna get sucked into space in a year’s time, I wouldn’t just stop breathing.
“No promotion + long hiatus = Cancelation!”
Dollouse’s problem was never lack of promotion. Fox isn’t promoting it because the show is a lost cause now. Dollhouse started out with 4.2 million viewers for its premiere and now it’s down to 2.1 million. It shed viewers in catastrophic numbers considering its premiere didn’t do particularly well. But Fox was still willing to throw it a lifeline even after the only people left were the hardcore fans. If Dollhouse could have maintained that base at least it might have goten a back nine. But instead it has kept on dropping. Whedon fans have this idea that only dumb people don’t like Dollhouse but in point of fact it’s perfectly possible to be intelligent and still think the show is an uninvolving mess with a contrived, ill-conceived and routinely offensive premise, some weak actors, hardly any chemistry between the cast, characters that are alternately annoying or don’t seem like fully formed people, and boring, plot-hole filled simplistic thriller stories at the same time. Dollhouse is failing because it couldn’t hold onto the audience that *did* tune in, not because it can’t find a new one.
Having said that, I’m glad to see that with last night’s episode, the writers are finally having the courage to face the premise of the show head-on. They finally called a spade a spade. If last night’s episode was episode three of season one the show might not be in the trouble it’s in now. The plotholes were still there of course (this giantly powerful friend of Rossum can just be “disappeared” without anyone suspecting? People are going to assume that after pining for Priya for so long that he’s willing to just run to Mexico without her for no reason at all?), and the fact that this was one of their most successful episodes dramatically and yet it minimized Echo and didn’t show Ballard at all points to the disturbing fact that Tahmoh simply isn’t the slightest bit interesting in this role and even worse, Echo, as currenly conceived, is a drag on the show. (Not Eliza per se–I think if Echo’s character had been conceived differently she might be fine. But I’m not certain–it might just be that she can’t carry a show on her own.)
And having said all *that*, I still wouldn’t be surprised if Fox renewed this show because they seem to be using a Magic 8-Ball to make their Dollhouse decisions. As long as Ghost Whisperer doesn’t get cancelled, I’ll be happy. And if Dollhouse starred Jennifer Love Hewitt I’m pretty sure it would be doing triple the numbers it is now. Some actors can carry a series, and some can’t.
1. Try watching MEDIUM. Its a fantastic show that hits on some amazing issues and deserves praise for not being easy on the viewer. It well acted and tremendously well written. Has one of the best written most realistic families on TV.
2. Terminator was dead even before Dollhouse premiered. It never had a shot at renewal. Get over it.
3. Blue McGee, thanks for restoring my faith in the comments. I never understand why people won’t watch something because it may be canceled.
I don’t like Topher, and the writing is clunky.
Didn’t see this episode.
Dollhouse is watchable but not good, only like two episodes were “good”. Fans that bitch about lack of promotion or that Fox did not give it a chance are nuts. I saw ads for Dollhouse all the time, and Fox renewed it after it was already dead on its feet. Face it fans, this is Whedon’s worse series to date. I just wish Fox would have gave Firefly as much of a chance as it did Dollhouse.
Does no press release about White Collar point to bad ratings?
I was really hoping that Ugly Betty would do better this week. Its such a good show, and its fans are loyal. However if Betty was to be canceled ABC only has themselves to blame. It’s a stupid move to change Betty from Thursdays where it got decent ratings to the death time slot on a Friday night.
Do you think its possible now that Betty was acquired by the TV Guide Network, that if ABC is officially done with Betty that TV Guide could carry it on?
So said ABC has to tout Ugly Betty because it beat Dollhouse. They didnt mention that was all it beat other than a repeat on the lowly CW. They should have added that too.
Bring back Terminator!
Hi Everybody! Latinoamerica loves “UGLY BETTY” : We dont understand ‘cos you don’t watch it on TV!!! This is so great comedy than ever! I hope that UB’s ratings will be better, but ABC : don’t cancell it, PLEASE!!! Bye! I’m Javier from Argentina. If you want to add me, my mail is calella_javier@hotmail.com
u’re right henderson , BRING BACK TERMINATOR!!!!
Smallville , ilike it ,!
i am a Chinese…
good luck, guys!
They said monday for press release for “White Collar” … I cant imagine it did poorly … I am sure it got as much attention as any other show on the same cnhannel.
Wow, add Ugly Betty to the list of shows Steve McPheerson has single handedly killed – Pushing Daisies, DSM, Samantha Who.
Why to people insist that the network killed a show? They were dead before they started noticing the ratings.
Pushing Daisies, and DSM got more promotion than Private Practice for S2. They were actually featured in the network’s long promo for the 2008-2009 season, along with their hit shows, at the time, with the casts invited to a set for the shoot of that promo. PP was left out. They got more promos than PP, more press attention than PP, that when it got it was mostly negative. They are gone, because you can’t make people watch boring.
UB by the end of S3 was doing an average of 2 in the demo, going bellow 2 several times. It would have been dead had not ABC found a deal to keep it on the air until syndication. Why where people not watching? Because it became, and still is, boring.
Samantha Who? was ABC most protected show, and it too was getting all the promo love it could get though S1, and most of S2. When finally they felt confident that it had been long enough protected it behind DWST, they thought that they could give it a promotion, moving it to open a night, to discover it was not able to keep it’s viewers. 2 seasons is long enough protection, time to quit.
WMD club premiered on Fridays with nice total viewers, but dismal ratings in the demo. ABC, that doesn’t care about total viewers, was patient, and after the strike brought it back. Along with Sam Who?, it was the only other new show brought back. It was and given a chance on Tuesdays, after the DWYS results show, and did exactly the same numbers it did on Friday. It proved that the bad Friday numbers were the fault of the bad quality of the show, and not of the time slot. Again it deserved being canceled.
To me this last episode of Dollhouse, “Belonging” was the best one that they put out. I’m not surprised though that the ratings went down after the awful episode “Belle Chose” which I considered totally unwatchable as well as a 1 week break in the schedule. If they had put on that type of episode in season 1 without Ballard and with a minimum of Echo, in my opinion the show would have done much better. They actually addressed some of the moral issues for the first time in “Belonging”.
At this point though it doesn’t matter if they put out good or bad episodes. I know that for myself I’ll try out a show and then if I don’t like it after a few episodes, I just drop it. I expect that is pretty much the same as everyone else. People did tune into Dollhouse in season 1 and many didn’t like what they saw so they tuned back out. I don’t see many of those people tuning back in again.
A show has to do pretty well in grabbing viewers in their first few episodes these days – definitely in their first season and Dollhouse failed to do that. It’s not like years ago when you only had 3 networks and didn’t have the Internet, DVDs, pay per view TV, etc.
What surprises me as a viewer is that Dollhouse had a good final episode and had the summer to retool the series and relaunch it. Instead it seems like they didn’t make much of an effort with the exception of this episode on addressing any of the issues that needed to be addressed.
I do believe that it is a mistake not to make a pilot episode and then have it tested out. It also helps in my opinion to make a miniseries or movie for a new series concept and see first how well it does (like Battlestar Galactica did). I find it interesting that many of your successful series were retooled after the pilot was shot and many of the cast or leads were replaced – example Star Trek (everyone but Leonard Nimoy was recast and the entire show retooled), Gilligan’s Island (I believe all but 2 were recast), Home Improvement, etc.
It also helps to know who your target audience is (who are you trying to), which is something that the makers of Dollhouse don’t seem to understand. The concept of the show is repulsive to women in general in my opinion and this last episode was the only one that has made any effort to address it.
Years ago I attended screenings of pilots for 2 sitcoms. Both had major problems with them and they never made it to the air. From what I’ve read Dollhouse’s original pilot wasn’t good and it didn’t air. Unfortunately, in my opinion, they really needed to have retooled not just some minor things but the concept of the show as well as Eliza Dushku being the main character of the show – both of which they didn’t do.
Javier, you do realize that Ugly Betty is just a copy of a Colombian telenovela, right?
did anyone see last night that saturday night live was a repeat and not drew barrymore?? what’s up with that???
>.< nevermind
I agree with Rahdne – why all the fuss about Dollhouse. It’s a mediocre at best show. Why all the attention here? Does someone here have a financial interest in that piece of nothingness?
I think the fascination with Dollhouse is that fans of some of Joss Whedon shows expected it to be a lot better than it is and had hopes for it. Not much different to me than than the remade Bionic Woman that was produced by David Eick who did the fantastic Battlestar Galactica. However, the main character on BW was miscast and the writing was really bad. It was expected to have been a hit show list Lost or Heroes with the publicity but ended up lasting only 8 episodes.
Cue the ever-shifting goalposts that Dollhouse/Whedon fans will trot out:
1. “The show was in a Friday night death-slot.” So what? If your fandom is as ‘mighty’ as it claims to be (and Fox should be as ‘afraid’ of Whedonites, as they claim), you shouldn’t be afraid that it’ll make the numbers necessary to survive. Either your fandom is huge enough to support the show when it needs it, or it doesn’t.
2. “Nobody stays home Friday nights.” Well, the problem with that excuse is the number of excuses that popped up during “special” events that happened during the first season. Either it was “Wolverine” or “Watchmen” or “BSG”. Well, either these were the exceptions to the rule, or it didn’t matter that any of those things were competing for Dollhouse’s audience. Which one is it?
And of course, my favorite:
3. “Whedon shows take TIME to develop.” This one irks me the most. No showrunner is so pampered in the business that they’re allowed to pull this excuse. Whedon’s 3rd generation Hollywood. He knows the game. If he doesn’t know by this point how to pull in an audience and keep them there from the jump, there’s no way the network should be to blame for that. And shame on Whedon for believing his own hype enough not to have taken lessons learned from ‘Firefly’ to heart.
(My favorite variation on this excuse is thus: “You should watch a couple more episodes, it’ll get good by then”. Okay, but you’ve already decided it’s good despite the few episodes YOU’VE seen, but I’m not allowed to judge it as bad by the same number of episodes?)
Wow….lot of attention being paid to Dollhouse. Kind of creepy show in my opinion….tried it early on….didn’t like it. No plans to return to it. I am curious as to how the show does with women viewers versus men?
Fox’s numbers for the night are simply embarrassing. They should’ve known better than to run this line up on a Friday night. The lead ins for Dollhouse make no sense at all. Dollhouse would probably get better numbers…although not great ones….Sundays @ 7. All three of the shows are beyond saving at this point. Reruns on Friday night are probably the best bet…unless they can do something that somehow relates to ghosts and such. Hey, that seems to work for CBS.
Has anyone heard from jbf? I’m worried about what he might have done after seeing these ratings….
I dont understand why FOx want to air the remaining episodes. Do they have to i mean because of a contract or something? Why are they being so kind to this show they should yank it completely and air the remaning eps in the summer or just put them on DVD
Really stinks that shows that we like to watch are all controlled by the companys that buy commercials from the networks. Just my cable bill alone is 100 dollars a month, multiply that by millions of people and I would love to know where all this money is going. I wish all these shows that I like would be on cable instead of one of the major networks.
Medium IS doing well but surprised this site would admit that.
Jim you said it….
Keep Ugly Betty and Dollhouse on please..I love MediuM
AS a woman, I can’t stand dollhouse–don’t think I’d like it if I was 25 either, I can relate to a woman like Allison on Medium though.
To Mom MD—I can’t relate to any of the people of Dollhouse eithewr. But I like the show and its concept. There are male “dolls”, you know. It is not strictly about women “dolls”.
Robert, they’re trying to calm fans upset about the cancellation of Firefly.
What annoys me is that no one will admit that Medium IS doing better this season on CBS than it was last season on NBC. Sure the 18-49 demo has dropped slightly, but even that is improving. Just like last season on NBC, Medium is carrying the night for CBS. Last season it was the only show on NBC’s Monday schedule that won even halfway decent ratings, and look how those shows have collapsed without Medium there to shore them up. Yes, the ratings are not GREAT this season, but there is improvement over last season, and that is nothing to scoff at. As was said in another post, the bigger story is not that Medium is not doing that great in the 18-49 demo, but how much Ghost Whisperer and Numbers have fallen off since last season. At this point, Medium’s season-to-date average has to be better than last season, at least in total viewers, and it’s showing signs of improving. And every time someone mentions how well it is doing, it’s always followed by “for a Friday night”. It’s doing well, period. Better than it did on Mondays last season.
Mediumfan? 1.) last year Heroes ALWAYS had better ratings than Medium on Monday night. 2.) Total viewers only matter much for press releases.
Medium is doing worse on Friday than it did on Monday on NBC, but it’s on Fridays.
I agree the bigger story is the drop off for Ghost Whisperer.
Well with medium you can’t accurate gauge the demo performance. As even today, your lead in does effect your ratings. On NBC Medium benefitted by a much younger audience. Now on CBS and on a Friday its demo performance is fairly equal to its lead in (thats generally considered a good thing, unless your lead in is doing terrible.
Take TAR some people were very surprised how much of a drop TAR took when it moved to Sundays in demo’s. But the fact that its lead in is quite possibly the show with the oldest average audience is going to drag down your demo’s.
oh wow LOL seriously **** americans and what they watch. This was the BEST sluthouse episode yet, and considering I usually slam this show and I’m a terminator fanboy that says something about this episode. and what I see? New low when it comes to ratings. The older I get, the more pissed I am at general public.
Here is just an idea….why dont fox move WWE SmackDown off My TV and onto there main channel as it will probably rate better thanthere current line up. it was doing about 4mil for the CW from memory and would fit in well with fox’s male oriented line up. They have the platform to promote the move with shows like House and Idol and could do solid figures for them
I used to be a fan of Ugly Betty. I think the first season was BRILLIANT… awesome writing, acting, puns, punch lines and cliffhangers, simply deserved every Emmy it earned. But it jumped the shark during the 2nd season, exactly around mid-season, because of that darn Screen Writers’ Guild strike, which forced the show to go into a 6 week hiatus and close production with only 18 episodes this season, not being able to resolve the storylines…
To then open up a brilliant 3rd season that only lasted about 3 episodes until the departure of some key actors (Rebecca Romijn, Christopher Gorham, Freddy Rodriguez), the change in writing and change of location to NY ended up hurting the show during that season, and then the writing just became stupid and fell apart and then Ashley Jensen (Christina) also left the show.
Let’s not forget that ABC suspended Ugly Betty last spring to make room for their stupid comedy Thursday which killed Samantha Who and that awful Mothers something Karen Walker sitcom. Ugly Betty was planned to kill the remaining episodes over the summer, and then it was done. Thanks to a sudden decision to reactivate the show in mid-may is that a 4th season came into production. They DO need to give the show a decent closure. Like another poster said earlier, this feature is not supposed to last that long. Betty should be beautiful by now and paired up with her boss. At least that is what happened at the end of the original Betty la Fea.
I watched the Friday episode and I enjoyed it, however it were the same jokes from the 1st season.. the series seems to be going nowhere, like “Scrubs” which is supposed to make us laugh but every episode is different, in UB the writers stopped doing continuation and got rid of all its storylines which makes the show painful to watch now. Don’t see any possibilities for a 5th season. In fact I don’t think it will make it all the way to May. Possibly March, when they have “V” or something else as a new anchor show (Desp. Housewives has lost it too)
Have to agree with some others that part of Dollhouse’s problem is that Scifi fans are over watching SGU and Sanctuary. Meh from me for SGU, but I find to be very entertaining.
Why does everyone say a shows fans are loyal? Of course they are, or they wouldnt be watching it. Loyalty means nothing when the number of viewes is grinding lower. And the old “If it were on CW” chestnut. If Dullhouse were on CW it probably wouldnt get much more than 1 million viewers. Maybe Whedon could start his own network with all of his failed shows. Hes been going downhill ever since Buffy.
So Dollhouse was awesome? REALLY? that’s great but I don’t think enough people care anymore. Let’s face it, the show just took too long to produce good episodes.
Smallville has lower ratings than last year but if the CW wants to have a show on Friday, I think they will stick with Smallville and give it at least another season. If they don’t want to air anything they will cancel it.
I tried to watch DH FOUR TIMES, 1.01 boring, 1.12 even more boring, Epitaph AWESOME, 2.01 boring and then I simply stopped caring.
Finals are in- Dollhouse didn’t go up- ouch.
Michael, on the plus side it grew its 18-49 by 33% from its lead-in of ‘Til Death! (.8 vs. .6)
The more I think about it, the more the 20% drop makes sense because of the reasons I gave. In the interests of civility, I’m not going to identify a particular poster, but I’ve also found that if sie’s made a claim about Dollhouse, it’s inevitably 180 degrees wrong, and reading hir latest comment above, I’m inclined to think this applies here too…
…which is the assertion that somehow this show dealt with the morality of the Dollhouse, rather than actually turning smart viewers off because it, in actuality, implied a level of morality that isn’t there. Both Topher and DeWitt got the “They’re actually nice people!” treatment in the show, and the assertion doesn’t make any sense. Topher, we imagine, is really cut up that he was used to help a rapist rape someone. But in all actuality, Sierra’s membership of the Dollhouse as Topher believed it to be before Belonging is not much better: Topher had no problems sending Sierra on dates when he thought she was a mental patient unable to consent. And, naturally, DeWitt was complicit then too, without the need to threaten her with the attic.
In short, this episode had a combination of S2E2’s “newcomers go away, this episode is for fans only” poor opening, and it was one of the few episodes that actually could be perceived as somehow blessing what the Dollhouse is doing, as implying that forcing people to have sex against their will, well, that might be OK after all, the kind of thing honorable if misunderstood people would go along with. And they’d never go along with evil, well, evil people are easy to spot, they’re made of cardboard and have powerful friends.
I’m finding it surpremely ironic that Whedonites and the “I hate Dollhouse because I don’t understand it so it must be pro-rape” contingents have rallied around this one. Whedonites can kind of be forgiven – it was less of a “What makes Dollhouse an interesting commentary on humanity and inhumanity” episode and more of a “Fleshes out some Whedon mythology” type thing – just like the clip-show like Epitaph One which similarly attracted Whedonites despite being barely watchable to anyone else. But the latter? This was the first episode I’ve seen, really, honestly, that could, if taken at face value, be described as objectively pro-rape, or if the word rape is inappropriate, then certainly “pro-use-of-body-for-sex-and-goodness-knows-what-else-without-consent”.
It’s just the episode made a distinction between “Good rape” (renting out a mentally ill woman) and “Bad rape” (Evil moustache-twiddling cardboard cutouts.)
This is not to say, again, that I think the episode was bad, actually I rather like the questions posed by it. I don’t think the episode was intended to be taken at face value. And so I don’t think the episode is pro-any-rape. But I’m amused by those who do take it at face value, see the taking down of a cardboard villain, and think, somehow, this means it served a moral purpose not present in previous episodes. Given the prior episode compared the Dollhouse to a serial killer, I can’t help but feel that we already know what Dollhouse’s makers think about the morality of the eponymous institution they’re describing.