November 04 2009
Sidereel warns fans about Dollhouse on the edge of cancellation buzz.
It is a call to action for fans to keep Dollhouse on the air, including sending dolls to Fox.
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Actually after that fit I do feel that was an interesting little break down for all sorts of shows, but to coin a popular Sunnydale phrase, "duh."
Stargyn | November 04, 01:32 CET
UnpluggedCrazy | November 04, 01:33 CET
Laz | November 04, 01:40 CET
mortimer | November 04, 01:50 CET
I still believe that if they want to cancel it, give Joss 6 episodes, period, end of story and let him wrap it up or something if he wants. Just a thought but we aren't thinking about cancel town yet we still have more Joss YAY.
And in all seriousness I am so happy we got 2 seasons of a Joss show. My firefly Buffy Angel Serenity and Toy Story discs were getting a bit worn out. Some of those are their 2nd sets too. 2 Firefly DVD sets and one Firefly BD set. Same with Serenity, and then both box sets for Chosen and Angel boxee thing hehe, also 4 DVD's of Serenity, one HD DVD and one BD. I don't know how it all happened...
Stargyn | November 04, 01:51 CET
ETA: Nevermind, found the proper page on the site and changed the link accordingly.
I have to say sending dolls to Fox is not the best idea of all time.
Simon | November 04, 02:06 CET
Instead: tell everyone you know about Dollhouse, go buy some of those awesome t-shirts over at whyiwatch.com to help pay for fan advertising, put up posters advertising Dollhouse's December 4th return around your town, put up banners on your website or blog, and start Christmas shopping early and buy all your relatives Dollhouse DVDs. THAT's what you can do to help.
CZGoldEdition | November 04, 02:13 CET
- send real people who have been affected by culture e.g. teenagers
- send full-size furniture labelled "Scale 100:1"
- send brains from before and after watching 'Dollhouse'
- send a house. WITH DOLLS INSIDE IT !
Saje | November 04, 02:14 CET
FruityOatySaladbar | November 04, 02:14 CET
nonbeliever93 | November 04, 02:15 CET
Simon | November 04, 02:25 CET
[ edited by beergood on 2009-11-04 11:35 ]
| November 04, 02:35 CET
baxter | November 04, 03:03 CET
Sort of like sending bloody knives to save Dexter?
Or lots of black bin bags each filled with something ... squishy.
Saje | November 04, 03:25 CET
hopitopia | November 04, 03:37 CET
Linnea1928 | November 04, 03:38 CET
hopitopia | November 04, 03:44 CET
JenskiJen | November 04, 04:01 CET
hopitopia | November 04, 04:14 CET
Worked well enough to bring Jericho back for another seven episodes and give the fans some closure. TPTB told the fans that unless they got more eyeballs in front of the sets, that was all they were getting. The fans did not deliver. But make no mistake about it, the peanuts thing did work.
tinktanker | November 04, 04:20 CET
tinktanker | November 04, 04:24 CET
eyeboogers | November 04, 04:30 CET
Wait, did that happen? Last I'd read, House and Dollhouse were pretty much neck-and-neck in live viewing, and Dollhouse actually came out ahead when factoring in DVR and live+7 and other things I don't utilize or understand. I thought that low Dollhouse ratings were therefore a referendum on the extent to which Friday is the death slot, rather than on the show's competitiveness as such.
Either that, or gossi's tweets have lied to me! I can't face that; they... they're all I have left.
Mercenary | November 04, 04:33 CET
hopitopia | November 04, 04:43 CET
hopitopia | November 04, 04:44 CET
But make no mistake about it, the peanuts thing did work.
'Jericho' was on the bubble though i.e. it was a marginal decision since it had 7-8 million viewers and so the nuts campaign made a 50/50 decision more like 55/45 for renewal. At that time executives weren't savvy to the idea that a "noisy" fan campaign doesn't translate into ratings - they are now, after 'Jericho' S2 premiered to substantially lower ratings than the S1 finale (i.e. people who were watching didn't come back, despite the "nuttiness") and kept dropping. If they had to do it over again i'm sure those same executives would leave 'Jericho' cancelled at the end of S1.
'Dollhouse' is, i'd speculate, more like a 75/25 decision against renewal so it'll take a lot more than a fan campaign to see renewal (i.e. it'll take a significant uptick in viewers - something whyiwatch.com is much more likely to achieve than is harassing already overworked mailroom employees).
Saje | November 04, 04:46 CET
hopitopia | November 04, 04:51 CET
I'd love to hear how so.
tinktanker | November 04, 05:09 CET
---what Saje said more eloquently and more knowledgeably than I did.
Now watch it get shot down by someone with more knowledge and/or more reliably remembered figures ;).
[ edited by Saje on 2009-11-04 14:12 ]
Saje | November 04, 05:09 CET
I'd just like to point out that those House stats are driving me crazy. First hour was less than 3.2 mil and still came in dead last! Not good! Apparently nothing Fox puts out there can stand up on Fridays... All of the shows that do well Friday nights first had decent runs on other nights of the week. When they move to Fridays, they carry a fanbase with them. Just sayin'...
FruityOatySaladbar | November 04, 05:32 CET
gossi | November 04, 06:09 CET
Fox is a business. Whether we agree with how its stakeholders run it, they are nonetheless very profitable, and so we need to respect their strategies and negotiate in terms of helping them build revenue. The main factor to Dollhouse renewal is better Live+SD viewership. Second to that, a great increase in DVD sales over the holiday season will at least up our chances.
I believe that our best bet in achieving the above is a cohesive online advertising campaign with clear and powerful message, parallel to a stealth viral attack. (Would love to do traditional advertising as well, but unfortunately we don't have that kind of resources.) This, in conjunction with the music album competition, can hopefully build critical mass and get the press a-buzzin'.
Without giving too much away, everything I've mentioned above is happening. It will begin trickling in as soon as this Friday and only get louder from there. If you want to help, follow @whyiwatch and @gossi on Twitter and tell everyone that Dollhouse is NOT canceled and is returning for a double-episode TV event on Dec 4th.
whyiwatch | November 04, 06:14 CET
I'm not sure of the point you are trying to make. All that says to me is that House reruns still draws more viewers than Dollhouse does in original programming. If the object of the network is to use the numbers of people watching a particular timeslot to sell advertising, what does it matter where the viewers are coming from? As long as more people are tuning in for a particular show, isn't that what the network wants?
tinktanker | November 04, 07:53 CET
Saje | November 04, 08:18 CET
azzers | November 04, 08:33 CET
beatingETA: Actually it may "only" be doing roughly the same as [/ETA]'Dollhouse' despite being on Sci-Fi shows just how badly Fox are doing on Friday nights).As to the general point, I guess it depends on the extent to which the demos crossover (purely anecdotally I watch and enjoy 'Dollhouse' and have also watched and enjoyed 'Numb3rs' since it premiered) ?
ET jigger some pokery ;)
[ edited by Saje on 2009-11-04 17:56 ]
Saje | November 04, 08:49 CET
CrazyKidBen | November 04, 08:57 CET
Saje | November 04, 09:02 CET
QuoterGal | November 04, 11:34 CET
I don't think there's a lot of crossover audience wise between "Dollhouse" and "House"
Well, if the people stars to send the dolls we only have "House" as the leftover.
Brasilian Chaos Man | November 04, 13:15 CET
Trust me. I've seen it happen.
The only way to turn it around is to convince the network to invest properly in the property and advertise it, and for the fans to support it whilst it is on the air and available via other avenues. That isn't to say direct action is bad - I encouraged people to phone FOX when it came to the renewal decision for example - but right now during sweeps sending things to the network in small numbers and writing them emails ain't gonna create a good impression.
gossi | November 04, 13:33 CET
(btw, the Subway thing DID work in helping save Chuck because it was an advertiser... if Barbie actually advertised on Fox, maybe the doll thing would work). ;)
BrownCoat_Tabz | November 04, 15:05 CET
[ edited by will.bueche on 2009-11-05 01:06 ]
will.bueche | November 04, 16:06 CET
DeezyG | November 04, 16:27 CET
While it's clear to me that "Dolls = bad, Promotion = good" is definitely the way to go, I just thought I'd add an aside on my thoughts:
WHY do "nutty" campaigns get more splash in PR than "useful" campaigns?
I may be off my mark, but it seems that work like WhyIWatch, ActivateDollhouse, & UnOfficialME spread the word in a more "enticing new viewers" way, but don't get noticed by a larger audience while messages like "send Dolls! save the world" will be talked about on blogs and eventually will get their lime-light with TV critics & network notice.
Not that that notice is a good thing, and as gossi points out, may only be 4 people who carry through on the campaign.
With sites like WIW, the work is done; all you got to do is copy & paste the link to many people. Why does that not entice the "nutty" fans? Are we allergic to working in a process? (I say "we" because although it's a pipe-dream idea, part of me (ID?) was like "oh! dolls are the key! why don't we have action figures yet so I can send real-looking actives to fox?"
Just curious. Is this observation just me?
korkster | November 04, 17:31 CET
azzers | November 04, 19:22 CET
Honestly, there's a very specific demo I'm interested in comparing, but I don't have access to the numbers so it will have to remain an unspecified theory of mine for now ;)
azzers | November 04, 20:02 CET
The same thing applies to comparing e.g. Buffy to 'Firefly' - a huge ratings hit for The WB would've been a complete disaster if shown on Fox (back then).
ETA: Not to say BTW, that you're necessarily wrong azzers, sci-fi may well struggle on Fridays for the exact reason you mention. I just don't think SGU's apparently low numbers (which are very healthy for the Sci-Fi channel BTW, even if it would probably mean instant cancellation on Fox) show that.
[ edited by Saje on 2009-11-05 08:29 ]
Saje | November 04, 23:21 CET