Feb 17 2009
Dollhouse ratings, new ABC sitcoms
Turns out Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse premiere on Fox got fairly low ratings: 4.7 million viewers, a 2 share and 6 rating (whatever that means). Though, not surprisingly, the eye candy did well with advertisers’ desirable male 18-49 demo, so that made them happy, and for Friday nights, those ratings aren’t altogether bad. Whedon has said that the Friday slot actually helps a niche show like his, because the expectations from the network aren’t as high.
The big surprise is that Dollhouse’s ratings were better than its lead-in, Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles, whose season premiere only got 3.7 million viewers, a 1.3 share and 5 rating. That’s not a good sign, but DVR numbers aren’t in yet and that could change the numbers significantly.
The other news going around is about two new sitcom pilots ordered by ABC, one for Kelsey Grammer (Frazier, Cheers) and one for Courteney Cox (Dirt, Friends). Cox will star in Cougar Town as a 40-ish single mother, but apparently the “Cougar” refers to the local high school’s mascot. Erm…okay. The sitcom’s made by Bill Lawrence, who gave us Scrubs so we may be in for something fun and quirky. Here’s hoping.
Grammer’s sitcom has him as a family man and Wall Street success until he gets laid off. Sitcoms as a sign of the times, apparently. These one note descriptions we get for pilots don’t give us a lot to go on. All we can do is hope for some good entertainment from actors we enjoy, and hopefully better stuff than what we’ve seen lately on network TV.
Thanks to The Hollywood Reporter for the Dollhouse ratings scoop and TV.com for the sitcom pilot news.
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Photo: Eliza Dushku as Echo in her sleep chamber, Dollhouse, c2009 20th Century Fox Television.
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I would watch the new one with Kelsey Grammer. That sounds possibly good. Not sure about Cox’s though… I am sure someone will like that kind of stuff… just not my cup of tea.
Thanks for helping me out on the forum today! I appreciate you taking the time to answer my question.
Kristy
www.mosaicmoments.today.com
www.rememberwhen.today.com
Hey Emm…you’re going to New York in June…hey wait, isn’t that a song? Hee. Sometimes it is nice to catch up on a series all at once, especially in the summer when not much is on–though that’s changing now that TNT and USA and others run series during the summer months.
Kristy, I agree, I’m not sure about the Cox one, either. It’s hard to tell from a one line plot, though–maybe it’ll have something to recommend it that we just aren’t seeing. I really like Grammer’s last show, about the TV news anchors–they juggled it around so much and lost any chance to gain a viewership and then canceled it. Grr. I’m hoping he gets a better chance this time, because he’s always funny!
And glad I could help on the forum…I was happy I at least had some semblance of an answer to something!! Heh. Usually all I have are questions!
Heya Mystery Man–I know, this whole sitcom thing is strange territory! It would be nice to see truly funny stuff for once…I’m holding out hope for Grammer’s show at least. We’ll see what happens. And I agree with you–not another fake documentary…ugh!
I blame Fox for screwing up Grammer’s last show. They’re famous for moving shows around and pre-empting them and then wondering why the ratings suck. I remember my parents asking me to try to find the show because they kept missing it–by the time I found when it aired, it had been canceled!