Last year, I saw one of my favorite shows die a slow death.
Pushing Daisies was an ABC comedy about a baker who could bring people back from the dead for a minute, and he uses it to help a detective solve crimes. The baker wound up reviving his dead girlfriend, but if he touched her again, she would be dead for keeps. Add two odd sisters and a short yet sexy lovelorn waitress...and maybe a promotions department who knew what it was doing...it's the recipe for fine TV.
Well, after the season premiere a year ago didn't meet expectations, ABC shifted its attention to those shows that still did well, from Desperate Housewives to Dancing With the Stars. It totally forgot about Pushing Daisies, and stopped airing the show in early December. The final three episodes were shown at the Paley Festival in Los Angeles three months before they were finally shown on TV...and that was done just to promote the DVD set.
The point is that once ABC seemed to forget Pushing Daisies' existence, its ratings went down, and the show never got the second chance it deserved.
Now let's look at what happened with Dollhouse's second episode, "Instinct". Its rating for 18-49 was 0.8, or less than two point one million viewers. That's a disappointing result, considering this is the only promo it got, and it was shown likely once.
Compare that to Stargate Universe, which was promoted to the hit by Syfy for weeks. It got two point three million viewers which is great for cable, but not if you're on Fox. Having two sitcoms as a lead-in doesn't work either.
However, gossi with Dollverse, and many other fans, are not taking this lying down. They are getting Dollhouse fans to demand Fox air all the 13 episodes they asked for. Besides, the best is yet to come. We know Summer Glau is coming, along with Ray Wise from Reaper. We still don't know how close Senator Perrin (Alexis Denisof) will be getting to the Dollhouse, and how it could affect him. Hey, we don't know if there will be an "Epitaph Two".
This is no time for Fox programming to be a "death panel" when Dollhouse is healthier than Dr. House's success stories. Give Dollhouse better promos, and no fair combining it with less-than-funny sitcoms.
If you'd like to help, do to dollverse.com or @gossi or @echoalert at Twitter.
As Echo would say, "We are lost, but we are not gone."
We will not lose. We will not be gone, and neither will the Dollhouse. Not now. Not when the real story is about to be told.
After all, ABC must regret letting Pushing Daisies die a slow death due to neglect, especially after it earned four Emmys two weeks ago.
UPDATE: Final numbers went up slightly, 0.9/3 but total viewers went down.
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