Whedonesque : Comments on 19135 : Dollhouse made it to #1 on iTunes.

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February 17 2009

Dollhouse made it to #1 on iTunes. TV By The Numbers has a pic of it.

Anonymous1 | Dollhouse | 05:21 CET | 32 comments total | tags: itunes, dollhouse

Score! I saw it hit #2 earlier and was just waiting for this.

Taaroko | February 17, 05:32 CET

Well deserved.

Squishy | February 17, 05:32 CET

Very cool.

phillynikki | February 17, 05:36 CET

Can this help the show?

WheelsOfJoy | February 17, 05:52 CET

This is great news and if I remember the WGA deal correctly the writers get a share of the income. It's ad-supported streaming where they get nothing for the first 17 days.

Of course by the time the studio produces the accounts they'll say they only sold three copies on iTunes....

ETA: Wheels, yes this will help the show. This will show Fox that there are plenty of people who like the show enough to pay for it. It's easy for a few hard-core Whedon fanatics to make lots of noise of the net but unless they are all spending a fortune buying the episode again and again this proves there is a fanbase.
They expected lots of people to be out on Friday nights, this proves that they want to see the show.
That it reached No1 after three days suggests that Word Of Mouth is also good.

[ edited by zz9 on 2009-02-17 05:59 ]

zz9 | February 17, 05:53 CET

Sweet mother of whoot!

Pointy | February 17, 06:02 CET

Very good news and well deserved! Go go Dollhouse!

Krusher | February 17, 06:05 CET

thanks zz9.

WheelsOfJoy | February 17, 06:05 CET

Of course by the time the studio produces the accounts they'll say they only sold three copies on iTunes....

Well, then, I bought two of them! One for me, and one as a gift.

Nebula1400 | February 17, 06:13 CET

This is great! Go Dollhouse!

And ya, I'm curious what iTunes, hulu, online viewings, etc actually means to Fox. I mean what all do they look at seriously? Now a days I would imagine that type of viewing would be easier to track than each of the Nielsen boxes representing so many people. Shrugs...

Harmalicious | February 17, 07:27 CET

You can see some thoughts on numbers at TV by the Numbers (which also touted the news).

iTunes downloads of specific episodes are much lower than many think. 30,000 downloads of an episode over a week, can, and more often than not does, catapult a show into the top downloads list.

The One True b!X | February 17, 07:30 CET

Those top 2 shows pretty much sum it up for me. Yes siree.

galactijoe | February 17, 08:04 CET

Go, Dollhouse, go! You gotta reason to live.

Sorry, had a Paul and Storm moment, lol.

ShanshuBugaboo | February 17, 08:18 CET

Unfortunately the image doesn't seem to be working at fff.net so I've changed the link for the time being.

Simon | February 17, 08:25 CET

Shiny! I just looked and it's still up there at No 1.

firefly4ever | February 17, 08:57 CET

I'm sure this doesn't impress Fox Broadcasting money-wise, but perhaps the visibility helps marketing-wise.

cabri | February 17, 09:06 CET

It helps press wise as it gives them something positive to write about. It also helps Kevin Reilly, Joss and Eliza in interviews, as it gives them a positive spin ('We started small on air and huge online').

gossi | February 17, 13:59 CET

So that 30,000 would be the 30,000 who tuned out by the halfway mark lol.

Ivalaine | February 17, 15:54 CET

I am generally the optimist, but just a note of caution when looking at these numberns - iTunes rankings are determined by an accumulated total of a set period of time, i.e. "the past 7 days" or "the past 3 days." That would mean that a newcomer to the rankings, as Dollhouse was on Friday night, will likely go nowhere-but-up over the course of the following few days.

That means it wasn't getting progressively more popular over the weekend, but it had more "time behind it" to comprise part of its total.

Still, a #1 ranking is GREAT. Given that it's sci-fi and the tech savviness of Dollhouse's audience, and the "Friday night effect" (people going out that night and still wanting to see it), a good showing is to be expected. But #1 is pretty stellar.

I also think this might show that there are people who were impressed enough to want to have their own copy, even if just to rewatch and over-analyze ;)

Ronald_SF | February 17, 18:12 CET

This is great.

Seeing "Ghost" I was wondering what was made of the original pilot. Was it edited into a new episode or will it never be seen?

danielgm | February 17, 19:28 CET

Ooh! I take back part of what I just said. Because Dollhouse is ranked above Battlestar Galactica.

That is very good news...

EDIT: Oh, but BSG has lower ratings, being on a cable network. Never mind...

[ edited by Ronald_SF on 2009-02-17 21:03 ]

Ronald_SF | February 17, 20:44 CET

but BSG has lower ratings, being on a cable network. Never mind...

Surely that's good? BSG is very well known and if it's on cable, that lots of people can't get, you'd expect lots of people to watch on iTunes? So Dollhouse that anyone can watch for free on Fox beating BSG is even better.

zz9 | February 17, 21:28 CET

What is a Canadian supposed to do to help out. It's not on Amazon or iTunes here...

adam.cook | February 17, 21:35 CET

Dollhouse Ghost has since dropped back to the #2 position, following Family Guy.

peacemonger | February 17, 21:45 CET

Well, that makes sense. Family Guy is immensely popular online. It is animated so it works well on small iPod/iPhone screens. And, it was new last night. I bet it regularly gets the #1 spot on Mondays.

Septimus | February 17, 22:04 CET

zz9, true point. So I'm not sure whether BSG has an advantage or disadvantage in relation to Dollhouse on iTunes.

I do remember though that BSG was #1 when Dollhouse was near the bottom of the Top 10. Then Dollhouse overtook it. Perhaps that's a good sign too...

Ronald_SF | February 18, 00:47 CET

I like gossi's take.

korkster | February 18, 01:31 CET

The T:SCC blog has an entry about ways to help their show. It's interesting that they say "Hulu does not participate in Nielsen’s online viewership tracking." So I guess fox.com is the way to go?

hacksaway | February 18, 01:33 CET

All right. I am also going to watch "Dollhouse" via fox.com, even though for me watching a TV episode (or movie) on a computer screen is very far from the Great American Dream. Very far.

"Dollhouse" has slipped to #4 on iTunes. Why does this upset me? It's the natural way of things. I only wish it hadn't slipped below the (to me) execrable Heroes.

phlebotinin | February 18, 01:47 CET

You really need to hook your tv up to the computer Phlebotinin. It opens up a whole new world f possibilities. It is even nicer if you can afford a large HDTV. I haven't used a regular computer monitor at home for 3 years.

Jayne's Hat | February 18, 03:41 CET

hulu, fox.com and itunes all are NOT counted in ratings, but are evaluated separately by the networks. Nothing affects ratings except live viewing on TV, and DVR usage.

TamaraC | February 18, 03:50 CET

So, is there a legal way for me to buy it online? I'm in England - AFAIK none of our broadcasters have even bought the show. :-(

[ edited by Gill on 2009-02-18 13:12 ]

Gill | February 18, 12:57 CET

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