Whedonesque : Comments on 22182 : After its December run, Dollhouse set to return January 8th for 2010 episodes.

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October 28 2009

After its December run, Dollhouse set to return January 8th for 2010 episodes. The Futon Critic is reporting that after the December episodes air, the 4th, 11th and 18th, the series is scheduled to return on Friday January 8th in its original timeslot of 9:00pm.

misnomer | Dollhouse | 03:53 CET | 32 comments total | tags: timeslot, schedule, dollhouse

When people ask "When is Dollhouse on?", I wonder what the answer is supposed to be?

ThorpeWithoutShrimp | October 28, 04:03 CET

Geez, I thought you meant episode five was being pushed to January 8th. I freaked out a bit. But this is good news.

But still weird news. So it'll be on for three weeks?

Jobo | October 28, 04:07 CET

Simple: "Sometimes. The answer is, it's on sometimes." :)

kungfubear | October 28, 04:08 CET

Is the new title better? It has a happier potential misreading anyway.

Sunfire | October 28, 04:18 CET

I'm glad that "Dollhouse will no longer be airing with "Death". It's just too gloomy.

azzers | October 28, 04:35 CET

It will be like *sniffle* a Christmas without *sniffle* an evil Santa.

[ edited by Pointy on 2009-10-28 04:34 ]

Pointy | October 28, 04:35 CET

Whaever the title is, the original one already tweeted and is goig to cause carnage.

The One True b!X | October 28, 04:44 CET

I tend to be the optimist, but just an honest question: how solid is this, given that we were told that DH would air in November but that fell through? ...

Ronald_SF | October 28, 04:54 CET

TrueB!X: or one could read from the current title that it has been ordered for 2,010 episodes. WIshful thinking ;)

Maybe the title can say "continue through January 2010"?

Ronald_SF | October 28, 04:55 CET

how solid is this, given that we were told that DH would air in November but that fell through? ...

Basically it reflects what the current plan is, whether that will still be the plan come January is anyone's guess.

helcat | October 28, 05:01 CET

I vote we stick with 2010 episodes. That'd last us 3 months if we go 24/7...or 40 years, once a week. But by then it'd be more like Dollnursinghome.

[ edited by hacksaway on 2009-10-28 05:06 ]

hacksaway | October 28, 05:01 CET

Lesson to all: be particularly careful with your headline wording nowadays since they go out without context to the Twitter feed, which seems curiously connected to the cancellation anxiety center in the brain of fandom.

Sunfire | October 28, 05:10 CET

Sorry for the confusion and upset that the original title caused. I just wanted to pass this information along to everyone here. Mods, re-edit the title again for clarity's sake or pull the item all together if you think that is best.

Again, the last thing I wanted to do was upset the already twitchy nerves of Dollhouse fans, I hoped that posting this news would help calm some of their fears, but it seems to have had the opposite effect. My apologies again for being unclear and adding to the anxiety surrounding Dollhouse.

misnomer | October 28, 05:40 CET

Information management is always fun and exciting! I think I'm mostly on top of the freak outs on Twitter, but I'll keep a continuing eye out as the night progresses. Heh.

The One True b!X | October 28, 05:45 CET

Tweaked the title again.

SoddingNancyTribe | October 28, 05:56 CET

Oh, forgot to say... yay! And thanks for posting, misnomer.

Ronald_SF | October 28, 06:17 CET

My apologies again for being unclear and adding to the anxiety surrounding Dollhouse.

About eight people got twitchy about it on Twitter so I wouldn't worry.

Simon | October 28, 08:13 CET

Yeah but big clouds condense around small particles. Or summat.

Nice to hear this confirmed (or "confirmed" I guess, bearing in mind that until a week ago DH was airing in November) but it's pretty much what we thought anyway right ?

Saje | October 28, 12:06 CET

So, essentially Dollhouse does a hiatus for a full month, gets three weeks of double episodes in December, then hiatus again for two more weeks until January 8th. That should effectively kill any momentum they might get from the double showings in December.

Wow, thanks, FOX, for reminding me how much I dislike you. You did it to me when you cancelled Buffy in Season 5, forcing a move to a network that didn't yet exist (UPN, now the CW), then you scrambled the continuity of Firefly, and then you shortchanged Angel just when it was getting really great.

But, we're an intelligent yet foolish bunch, and we will hang in there all the way. It takes a lot of intestinal fortitude to be a Joss Whedon fan.

Riverine | October 28, 12:50 CET

Fox didn't cancel Buffy or Angel. Those shows didn't air on that network.

Simon | October 28, 12:52 CET

Twitcher! Not twitter.

Well, it's on and then it's not and then it's on and we just keep you guessing!

[ edited by Dana5140 on 2009-10-28 14:39 ]

Dana5140 | October 28, 13:00 CET

I stand corrected Simon, it was the WB. But wasn't that a Fox subsidiary?

Riverine | October 28, 13:01 CET

I think The WB was ultimately owned by Warner Bros.

Simon | October 28, 13:05 CET

Also the WB didn't cancel "Buffy" the studio chose to move it to UPN. Fox can only be blamed with mishandling "Firefly" and dumping "Dollhouse" in the friday death slot (= i don't think "Fringe" is in any way more commericially viable than "Dollhouse" it just got a better chance at life right out of the gate by airing when people are actually at home watching TV). I say one or two more renewals of "Dollhouse" and we call it even with Fox.

eyeboogers | October 28, 13:43 CET

And the two week hiatus in December is a really good thing, IMO. Nobody would be watching (at least not live) during Christmas and New Years. January 8th is a great return date.

And yeah, Fox was mostly always very good to Buffy/Angel, so the only thing you can really be mad at them about is Firefly and their lack of advertising on Dollhouse. Otherwise, they've been surprisingly kind. (Also, UPN did exist prior to Buffy season 5.)

marvelknight616 | October 28, 14:06 CET

I don't know how anyone could be upset about this. This is really best case scenario. After the 3 weeks of double airings, Jan. 8th is the soonest it could continue, short of airing on Christmas or New Years.

marpocky | October 28, 15:13 CET

Seems like the Twitter rumor never took off after all, so no harm done.

Sunfire | October 28, 15:35 CET

In addition, "'Til Death" will air a special four-episode mini-marathon on Friday, December 25, replacing repeats of "Dollhouse" on the night.

So Fox cancelled the Dollhouse reruns. Not that I particularly care about reruns, but I'm sure they couldn't have hurt as they would give the show a bit more exposure. (And nothing says "Christmas" like Dollhouse... or something.)

AnotherFireflyfan | October 28, 16:56 CET

This could explain a lot... Hijinks Ensue on Fox and Joss.

zz9 | October 28, 18:54 CET

Normal pattern for holiday break. A September-to-May-scheduled show will air up until the third week of December usually, then return either the second, third, or fourth week of January. Regardless of what Fox did with Dollhouse in November, the pattern would've been the same. So I don't think they've done anything to "kill momentum" in this case.

The comic was okay zz9 (Darkseid origin spoof!), but more than a little uncalled for. Fox doesn't understand how to market Dollhouse, but they haven't been morons about scheduling and giving the show more than half a chance compared to the Fox execs of 2002 (except for not airing "Epitaph 1"--aside from their crappy ads, it's their one bonehead move, IMO).

Kris | October 28, 19:06 CET

Seems like the Twitter rumor never took off after all, so no harm done.

Yeah, I think the relatively late hour of the post helped that.

The One True b!X | October 28, 20:14 CET

Kris, I think that strip is clearly meant to be parody... Fox have been vastly better than Fox was when Firefly was airing. Had Firefly got to midway through a second season who knows what would have happened.

But IMHO Fox has been a bit lacking in how the show is perceived publicly. As with Epitaph 1, not airing the show is not the problem. It's leaving the announcement to the last minute, after letting people assume one thing, and then announcing the exact opposite. Resting Dollhouse during November makes sense, but to release a schedule that said the show was going to air, including adverts and screener DVDs saying "See Summer Glau in two weeks!", and then yanking it is the problem.

zz9 | October 28, 23:13 CET

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