So far, the 2008 fall season has largely been enjoyed by CBS thanks to its stock of ratings-rich procedurals. But come 2009, Fox may once again regain its title as most-watched network because its midseason lineup is loaded.
See you on Fridays, Echo. Or maybe not.
How loaded? The super-duper highly anticipated Joss Whedon drama Dollhouse will be airing on...Fridays. Fox revealed its midseason schedule today, and other networks should be shaking.
Juggernaut American Idol gets its groove on with a two-night, four-hour premiere on January 13 and 14 (a Tuesday and Wednesday). That two-evening event follows the previously announced two-evening event for the return of 24, which heads into season seven.
Beginning on January 19, House will air in the 8 p.m. slot and be paired with 24 in the 9 p.m. slot. Fringe stays put on Tuesdays and will benefit from the lingering American Idol crowd, and Tim Roth's new drama Lie to Me will get the same perk on Wednesdays beginning on January 21.
TV.com favorite Bones gets thrown a bone and will headline Thursdays beginning on January 15, but Fox still can't seem to find a good partner for it; reality chef show Kitchen Nightmares will be following it.
As mentioned at the top of the story, Fridays seem to be a night to stay in now. Starting on February 13 (Friday the 13th! oooh!), Fox is betting Whedonites will start the weekend off with Dollhouse at home. Originally predicted to be a companion piece to 24 on Mondays, Fox pushed it back to the graveyard shift known as Fridays at 9 p.m. (tell your Tivo). And in another interesting move, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles shifts over to the Friday 8 p.m. slot. Expect Fox marketing to start pimping out "Fox's Sci-Fridays."
Dollhouse and Terminator on Fridays? Is Fox trying to promote these shows or kill them off? What do you think of the move?
Comments (82)
Im glad these shows are on Fridays. I have too many other shows on mondays. Plus Terminator I feel isnt a Monday show. Though Im really mad about Prison Break moving to Friday, but at least it will finish up the way it should.
I hope its a good move! good for me, too many shows on Mondays! Everyone should just pvr it to keep the ratings up! Then we have all weekend to catch up!
Friday at 9 p.m. isn't that the slot where Moonlight and Las Vegas had no luck and get cancelt? I think i will last only a couple of episodes like Serenity an than it gets axed
thats what fox does best kill shows that they dont want to last long move it to fridays sorry Terminator love monk, numbers, santuray, Psych too much to dvr it or watch it. damn fox for putting dollhouse on friday joss shows never get enough love.
What does Fox have against Joss Whedon? I'll watch anything by the excellent Mr Whedon, no matter when it airs. Maybe he should sell shares in his next project instead of relying on tv execs. On the other hand, DVR's are starting to render time slots irrelevant.
It's definitely going to get canceled in this time slot... and what's with FOX putting forth the episode? I thought Whedon supremely hated Fox for their Firefly fockups.If we're really excited about it, let's try and keep it alive!
Really looking forward to watching Dollhouse but i think it will get cancelled early like firefly because of its friday night timeslot
Well, as long as it airs I will be happy. But I agree that Friday isn't the best spot for a new show. I don't go out, so it's not a problem for me, but obviously a lot of people do... I guess we will just have to see how it goes.
If everyone had a Tivo and VOD (video on demand) and if each channel put their shows up on VOD then time slots wouldn't mean JACK. I understand that they need to have commercials, I'm fine with that, I have made my peace with commercials. I just hate when they put two or three shows that I actually want to watch at the same time one same day. They space out the crap no one wants to watch and set up the good stuff in competition with other good stuff. Can't they all just get a long?
I'm so excited for Dollhouse!
Joss Whedon is a good writer and he did so good on Buffy and Serenity.
But I don't like the Terminator on Fridays!
:/
Oh well. RECORDING!
Well, I hope the move of the date for Terminator will help the show, but Friday shows never really get the best watched. But since it's sucking in ratings and I love the show, I really hope the move helps it out and won't get the show canceled.
beginning friday 16th of jan, friday will be the day of BSG (only 64 days left!). dunno if it will be on at 0900 or 1000 but it will cost scc and dollhouse anyways. poor fox
Although the X-Files had the benefit of premiering in the early 90's when people actually watched TV. I actually think it is a good move to put Sarah Conner first, because they suck in the ratings right now, and it will look good for Dollhouse if they grow out of the lead-in.
i can't wait for dollhouse and terminator is proving to be a must-see so i don't understand the thought of placing good shows where there is a greater chance to fail than to succeed!
Was just about to say that Toonaspie.The X-Files started out Fridays and was a massive success, it then got moved to Sundays and continued to do well. It's a risky spot, but no one ever claimed the X-Files was a sure bet and it did wonderfully. Here's hoping the same thing happens with Dollhouse.
that is one risky thing to do. fox is known for killing off whedon projects (firefly anyone?) lets hope this time dollhouse can take it. on the other hand putting sarah connor right next to it shows some confidence, after all putting one of your strongest shows next to the new show...who knows...we'll have to wait and see. i for one will cross my fingers and as always support joss in anything
If Terminator moves to Friday its a practically a garantee death sentance to the show, which most shows on Fox have happened to.
I'm glad that Dollhouse won't be on Monday like originally planned. I originally wasn't going to watch it because of my Chuck-Heroes timeslot on Monday, but I only watch Psych on Friday, so hopefully Dollhouse will be on at eight, and then Psych at nine. That would be a fun lineup from two different networks.
American Idol! I can't wait!
i think pairing terminator with dollhouse is a good idea, mostly because summer glau is a whedon girl. also, if anyone can pull viewings on a friday night, its whedon. and the surge of viewing for terminator because of this will be very healthy for the show.
Fridays at 9 is a horrible time slot! everything in that time slot ends up canceled! (eg. Moonlight)
Sci-Friday? How about tivo fridays like usual.yeaa Fox hates the genre of sci-fi, everyone knows it. They know they make usually some of the best shows, but they treat them like crap & hell even they know it.
Definitely harsh putting Dollhouse and the Sarah Connor Chronicles on Fridays . . . I don't know . . . .
If Sanctuary, on the sci-fi channel, is still on at this point that's another show it'll compete against. That's pretty harsh to put Dollhouse on Fridays to start with, does FOX have some scheduling issues or what?
The next thing we hear will be that Fox is deciding to air the episodes out of order.....I HATE FOX
Congratulations FOX. You've doomed <em>Dollhouse</em> and <em>Terminator</em> to certain death by airing them on Fridays. Seriously, what were you thinking?!
friday is perfect to me i almost always stays home on it
Rather excited that the debut has been finally announced though am rather disappointed in the time slot.
Seriously! The show hasn't even started yet and they kill it? I am actually going to have to be like a super nerd and stay home to watch it. lol Any night would be better than Friday!
i think they want terminator canceled, which cannot happen!
This is terrible. I've been waiting forever for "Dollhouse" and now it's gonna be on Friday? EVERY show that airs on FOX on Friday ends up canceled. Dark Angel, Fastlane, Boston Public. All started out on different nights, moved to Friday, and were canceled soon after. Get rid of that stupid "American Idol" and put Dollhouse on Tuesday!
Dollhouse will probably be successful whatever day it is shown as Joss Wheadon as such a huge fan following. I for one will be looking forward to the premier of the show
Aww man! I've been waiting all this time for Dollhouse and it's going to PREMIERE on a FRIDAY?? Although I'm enough of a TV buff to watch Friday shows, not EVERYONE will be indoors. Friday shows, FOX Friday shows especially, NEVER last:-( At least give it a starting chance by premiering mid week to capture more potential viewers who just may tune in on Friday's!
the show looked interesting and I love Eliza Dushku,.. I hope it lasts
Lets hope Dollhouse is worth the wait!!! I reckon it will be.
I have to wonder how this will effect the rest of my Friday night schedule. I have watched the Sci-Fi channel on Fridays for so long. I hope there isn't too big of a conflict.
Is FOX kidding? Dollhouse on Friday? Isn't that exactly what they did for Firefly & it died there in purgatory. Come on now -- leave it on Monday where it was announced to be back to back with '24'.
If this is true, then I sure hope that a few other shows on FOX have ratings collapses so that they are cancelled or moved to Friday night -- death on TV!
cant wait for dollhouse!
WTF are they thinking? Do they seriously think starting a new show on a Friday is going to HELP ratings?? Yeah, there are a lot of us that will tune in simply for the Whedon/Dushku factor, but is that enough to keep the show afloat? Fox, you are playing with fire...
What the fox?! dollhouse was gonna be golden on mondays. mondays are dead now, and once footballs over ratings will go up. plus pairing it with 24 wouldve been perfect. they better change it back and remove the death sentence that is friday
The last time I remember that Fox had two Sci-Fi shows on fridays was Fall '03: Firefly and John Doe... I will tune in, however, I usually go out on Friday nights to the local swing dance club... and my parents haven't figured out how to work the new DVD recorder, nor have I, so recording both Dollhouse and Numb3rs will be difficult for them... and for me as well.
[keeps fingers crossed]
Honestly, I was worried about Monday nights for Dollhouse anyway. With Heroes at 9:00 (flagging in the rating right now, but it would be very possible for it to turn around) it might have been splitting its intended audience. Moving T:SCC to Friday, opposite Ghost Whisperer, might be a bad move, but it means that Dollhouse is not opposite any other science fiction series. Hopefully Fox will realize that Friday ratings are never spectacular and will give Dollhouse a chance to grow and to build an audience. I just plan to wait and see and to remain as hopeful as possible.
Dollhouse is going to be hot
Now i'm in my mid thirties married with children Friday evenings are something I look forward to and tend to Sky+ things from in the week specially so maybe this isnt the big mistake people think it is
looking forward for Dollhouse...it will probably air later in the year for us in the UK...still can't wait!!!
this is like the kiss of death for dollhouse , I don't understand why go to all that truble of making a show if you'r not going to give it a chance , fox you suck that's all I'm gonn'a say
Well, so much for Dollhouse and Terminator. Don't these executives know about the friday night dead zone or do they just not care. Shows that are on their last legs or shows they just never liked at all to begin with, this is where they are sent to die. Terminator is losing ratings so the executives will just send it to the dead zone so it loses all of its viewers and then no one can blame them for cancelling it. They just have no faith at all for Dollhouse. Fox is going to screw over this show just like they did to Firefly. Whedon should have gone to sci-fi with this show.
And hole in the wall is still on. This is what Fox goes with.
WHY!?!?!? Fox!? You are crazy!? Seems like they are already treating Dollhouse like Firefly. You wanted this show since you saw the original, original pilot. Why put it in the slot where your shows fail? They've already saw that Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader? got 2-3 Million less viewers than it did on Friday this season. Bones has showed that it can withstand the "Friday Death-slot" so why not put it as the lead-in for Dollhouse? Giving Dollhouse the Friday-death slot, the lowest rated show as it's lead-in... it's unheard of. Fox, you're crazy I tell you... crazy!
I found out. If anyone else like's to know, here it is: "Prison Break" will also be back later in the season after its skedded winter hiatus."
Does anyone at FOX have a clue?