FOX royally screws over T:SCC and Dollhouse

[Thanas]

Fox has just announced the midseason lineup. Three guesses as to what timeslots both T:SCC and Dollhouse received:

Fridays, beginning Feb. 13:
8:00-9:00 PM TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES
(Time Period Premiere)
9:00-10:00 PM DOLLHOUSE (Series Premiere)

Their reasoning:

On Friday, Feb. 13, FOX presents a thrilling new action-packed lineup featuring the return and time period premiere of TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) and the highly anticipated series premiere of Joss Whedon’s DOLLHOUSE (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT). DOLLHOUSE reunites Whedon with Eliza Dushku (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), who stars as a member of a highly illegal underground group of individuals who have had their personalities wiped clean so they can be imprinted with any number of new personas.

I am waiting to hear further info on this, but in my layman's opinion, giving both shows the Friday night deathslots reminds me a lot of Dark Angel and how that show got treated. In fact, it is the same slot. Now, it may be that they think this will lessen the competition on Monday and allow the show to be paired with Dollhouse (since both essentially appeal to the same demographic), but my first impression is that this is not necessarily a good thing.

I'll post more as soon as I know more, which might be some time.

[Imperial Overlord]

That's the Fox I know and loath.

"Hey, we're going to renew your show. And then we're going to move it to the death slot. Mwahahahaha!"

[Thanas]

Add in an extra "fuck you, haven't you learned the lesson the first time, bitch" to Joss Whedon" and you have nailed it.

[Peptuck]

Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.

[Losonti Tokash]

What's the problem with moving it to Friday? I'd prefer it on Monday just cause I would then move to Heroes after it was over, but I'll still watch it.

[Thanas]

What's the problem with moving it to Friday? I'd prefer it on Monday just cause I would then move to Heroes after it was over, but I'll still watch it.

Friday night has always been the death slot of american television and Fox has a history of moving shows it wants cancelled over to Friday night and then declare their bad ratings to be the reason for the cancellation.

They also used the timeslot to purposefully screw over two Sci-Fi series in the past - Dark Angel and Firefly, who were both cancelled. Especially Dark Angel, who received high ratings in the first season and then died a slow death in the Friday night slot is still in the memory of anyone who ever watched the show.

[Losonti Tokash]

What the hell? What's the point of murdering a successful show like that, then?

[Thanas]

^Beats me. Maybe they think other will be more succesful, or they just want to kill those shows. The ratings have been okay, but not stellar. So they might want to replace them.

I do not really see the point, but then again I am not a suit at Fox.

[Mr Bean]

I do not really see the point, but then again I am not a suit at Fox.

I'd make some kind of comment about retards and the suits at Fox but that's almost a given. Like Stupid Decisions at GM(Last to catch the hint 50 years and running)

Yeah I don't hold out any hope for either show. Say goodbye to both of them. Fox has too long of a track record of doing exactly this.

[Thanas]

I may be being overly bitter right now, but fuck Fox. This will be the third/fourth time they have done this - first they mess with a show's creative process (Dark Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse) then they actually get strong ratings in the first season (Dark Angel, T:SCC) and then they throw them into the friday night deathslots. Sure, ratings may be a bit down, but they are down across the board and the percentage of viewers lost is actually lower than those viewers House or PrisonBreak lost. Plus, there is a strong fanbase, DVD sales are very succesful and the show is well liked by critics.

Well, fuck Fox. That's all I have to say for now. I have to go to a conference this weekend, therefore I will be unable to post any updates till Monday. Try to make sense out of this, because I cannot.

[Mad]

I'd have preferred it if they moved Prison Break to Friday. Right now, I watch SCC and Heroes on Monday and I end up missing Prison Break. At least I'd see Prison Break more if it were on Friday. If SCC and Heroes had the same timeslot at least it would be a tougher call, though I'd still go for Heroes.

Did they at least move Prison Break to compete with Chuck instead of Heroes? Because I'd take Prison Break over Chuck.

[Tsyroc]

I've been watching T:SCC almost exclusively off of iTunes so other than the risk to the ratings increasing the chance of cancellation they can move it wherever they want.

I still think the premise for Dollhouse is really iffy and only has a small chance of being good enough to bother with and that's only because it's a Joss Whedon show.



As for Dark Angel getting moved to Friday nights, the first season kind of blew anyway and the beginning of the second season wasn't much better. All the way the fuck out there genetic soldiers didn't help either. It was pushing the suspension of disbelief way too far for me, especially the hive mind crew. By the time the second season got away from that an interesting again with the additional conspiracy and the ties to the Minoan snake cult it was already on it's way out. In my opinion for the most part that show went down hill from the pilot and only was mostly hanging on because of the cast/characters and the interesting setting. There was too much "Mantacore is out to get me" and crappy looking wire work for me to be all that bummed about that show getting shit canned. FOX has boned over much better shows in lots of time slots. I really have no idea why they even bother developing genre shows on that network because they seem seriously inclined to not give them much of a chance. At least give the show a season or decent half season on a consistant day and time before deciding to dump it. It's amazing that the X-Files managed to make it on that network.

[charlemagne]

Yeah, Dark Angel had a cool and somehow believable setting, but lousy scripts and stupid things like the dogman and way too much mutants in the second season screwed the show over.

I don't like Terminator being shoved to that slot, either. But then again, I don't really get the obsession with ratings nowadays any more. DVD sales and online viewing is where it's at. Also, most people have some way of recording stuff anyways, so what's the beef with shows "competing"? People will just tape/TIVO/anything one of them. I also don't know anyone who really watches stuff on TV other than just some crap to relax to - everything you really want to see, you buy or rent on DVD.

I really hope that a decent station will buy Terminator if Fox really wants it do die. I have no idea if that's even possible, but the show deserves better than Dark Angel or Firefly (not that they deserved this, either).

[Shroom Man 777]

I hope T:SCC survives this. I mean, it's totally my favorite series! It's the best thing on TV I've ever seen. Robot River!

[His Divine Shadow]

I've gotten quite used to Summer Glaus wonderfull ass over the course of this show, I'd hate to have it go away.

[Faqa]

Fox executives can go fuck themselves with a red-hot iron poker in each ear, and a spiked dildo coated with sandpaper in the ass. Seriously. Take the smartest sci-fi show on TV and murder it? I suppose they're gonna put some shitty reality show in the Monday slot.

Fuck them. These people are the enemy of good television. House's continued existence on that network puzzles me.

[Peptuck]

An editor at SCS.net has a slightly more optimistic take on the matter. (even if shiiiiiiiiiiit who the fuck skinned that page? White text on gray-white? )

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Fox TV execs seem to be allergic to two things. One are mediocre-performing shows, and the other is sci-fi. And guess what two things T:SCC happens to be? It's a show which, by its Nielsen ratings, would be a good performer on cable/satellite TV (it floats between 3.5 and 4.1, making it a better performer than, say nBSG.) Only it's on network TV, where a show losing nearly half it's average first season audience would usually be canceled with little fanfare, and even less delay. In fact, the show was one of those that seemed to get an awful lot of rumors flying around concerning its impending demise.

I would surmise that T:SCC got a full second season only by the skin of its teeth (the fact that there's a Terminator film coming out in '09 which might have some coattails for the show to ride on helps.) The fact of the matter is, it's still a very poor performer for the Monday night slot that it's in, and Fox execs are well-known for their cold, ruthless ways. Which is why it's off to the boneyard, along with a show whose premise is . . . rather shaky. It'll limp along until Terminator: Salvation comes out in May, and then its final fate will be decided on how well the film does.

Rather unlike Dollhouse, which is probably premiering in the boneyard so Fox can justify taking it out back and having it shot mid-season.

I really hope that a decent station will buy Terminator if Fox really wants it do die. I have no idea if that's even possible, but the show deserves better than Dark Angel or Firefly (not that they deserved this, either).

Start hoping that Fox will be willing to let it go, and that The Mansquito Channel (err . . . I mean Sci-Fi) would be willing to buy it.

[FireNexus]

So the second time they've fucked over JW, as well as the second time they fuck over Summer Glau. That's almost sweet...

[Darth Nostril]

WTF? When are these Neanderthals going to wake up to it being the 21st century?
As mentioned above online viewing, DVD rentals/sales and fucking Tivo .... why are they still hung up on last century's outdated ratings?

As to these fucktards letting go the franchise, they're still hanging on to Firefly even though an international conglomerate put together enough money to buy it from them.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

WTF? When are these Neanderthals going to wake up to it being the 21st century?
As mentioned above online viewing, DVD rentals/sales and fucking Tivo .... why are they still hung up on last century's outdated ratings?

Because those ratings are used to determine rates charged for advertisers to buy advertising on a given program. Television stations and television networks make their money from advertising. Yes, people, more and more, are going to technologies such as TiVo, the interwebs, and DVDs for their entertainment (cutting out the networks and giving more money to the show creators) . . . but the vast majority of people watch their television programs on the TV, as delivered by the television stations. And the stations get all their revenue from selling advertising.

[Darth Nostril]

Bugger, guess I've been spoiled by the BBC.

[JME2]

So the second time they've fucked over JW, as well as the second time they fuck over Summer Glau. That's almost sweet...

I haven't paid much attention to the Dollhouse, but didn't Whedon vow never to work with Fox again after Firefly got screwed over by the network?

[charlemagne]

As to these fucktards letting go the franchise, they're still hanging on to Firefly even though an international conglomerate put together enough money to buy it from them.

Why would they do that? Are they just being EVIL or something?

[MKSheppard]

Friday night has always been the death slot of american television

The X-Files disproves you. It was best on friday nights, before it moved to Sundays.