“Sarah Connor” Struggles, “Dollhouse” Drops
The already low ratings for “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” got even lower Friday evening and “Dollhouse” saw a slight drop-off according to overnight figures.
“Dollhouse” was down to a 1.7 rating in the 18-49 demo, a drop off from last week’s premiere of 2.0. However, the series did build on its lead-in of “Sarah Connor” that a 1.3 rating in its time slow, or at about 3.8 million vierwers. Overall, the new Joss Whedon series lost 15% from the first episode to the second.
No word yet from Fox on if or how this might affect the series in the long-run.
The news is worse for “Sarah Connor” which was struggling on Mondays earlier this season and is now tanking on Fridays. The producers have promised the second season cliffhanger is a stunner, but if ratings continue to slide, we may have to wait for the series on DVD to see it.
If I might make a suggestion . . . take the Sarah out of The Sarah Connors Chronicles. The last three shows have concentrated on giving Sarah more screen time, and this involved hallucinations, angst, and a departure from the characteristically cautious Sarah . . . although they did keep the brooding look, and Caruso-style of acting.
Next week’s episode promises to be more of the same, with Sarah in a bed and dreaming some more. Oh goody!
I was also pissed as I anticipated some action by Cameron (she was wearing pants; usually a good indication of impending terminator-style action), and she delivered no punches, and very few lines at that. And the previews for next week gave no indication of impending terminator action.
They had built a solid foundation with the relationship between Cameron and John, the uncle and his girlfriend, and the metal chick and FBI guy . . . apparently they figured that was too interesting and engaging for the viewers, and decided to tone it down. I guess I don’t understand the business of story telling.
As a big fan of the show up to the break (but not the cliffhanger show in December), I am doubly disappointed and left wondering what the heck is going on. I know in the interviews the actors had promised “amazing” stuff, lots of action, and a shocker, but three blah shows (and a possible fourth on the way) are not going to leave many fans around to enjoy the fireworks if and when said fireworks arrive.
Does this surprise anyone? It’s the Fox Friday Curse. Fox could broadcast the Second Coming of Jesus Christ on Friday and it would tank.
So, do HULU viewer numbers get taken into consideration these days?
Fox needs to move those shows to Sunday or Monday night. Sarah Conner was shown where I live on monday nights when there wasn’t anything else.
I think that moving these shows is a chance for fox to claim the show is not successful. If fox truly wanted to make this show to work Fox should pick a night it wouldn’t compete with other Sci-fi shows. Putting the show on Friday night put it in direct competition with Many Sci-fi channel shows. Sarah Conner Vs Battlestar Galactica. Guess who would win.
Yeah, Jeremy, they do. See this article here (it talks about iTunes and HULU):
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/02/17/why-being-a-hit-on-itunes-doesnt-matter-yet/12989
They’re still not substantial numbers from an advertising perspective.
The iTunes numbers are to be ignored because Dollhouse is free there for now. Downloads will plummet when they start charging. Dollhouse probably will not make it through to the end of the “season”, and it certainly will not have a second.