Chuck/Dollhouse renewed; Terminator is dead
Monday, May 18th, 2009
Chuck and Dollhouse have now been officially picked up for next season. However, both return with a share of bad news. Dollhouse will be returning to Friday nights once again. As for Chuck, not only has it only been picked up for 13 episodes, but it’s budget will see a significant cut. Both cases are better than the alternative, which is exactly what Terminator will be seeing: cancellation.
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You’d think Terminator would be a good thing to atleast keep on this upcoming season with the new movie and everything, it could easily boost viewership.
I thought they would at least wait until they see how the movie does before they decide for sure. But Fox isn’t the smartest. For instance, you trust in Dollhouse, but insist on keeping it on Fridays? At least TRY it on a different day.
it’s odd, friday is the best night for ratings over here, it’s just different over here i guess.
The movie was only okay and not great like the first 2 ( and no i didnt forget the 3 ) , I do like the TV show , but it like smallvili some eps is good and some or flat out boring .
I hope this news is wrong becouse I think it could get better with better writers .
Summer Glau joins the dollhouse cast maybe? Season 2 of terminator really made me stop caring about it being renewed but im glad dollhouse is still going.
Summer was going to co-star in dollhouse season 1 but she turn it down for Terminator so maybe it true she will join the cast
“Terminator had a nice little run,” explains Entertainment President Kevin Reilly. “We did see it trailing off a bit, and ultimately we made the bet on Dollhouse. That’s it for Terminator. If we canceled Joss Whedon’s show I would have got 110 million emails from his fans today.”
Its sad that they chose the weaker of the two shows and not on merit. The salt in the wound is that they are keeping it in a slot that is pretty much limiting it to a 13 episode run. I’m keeping to a strict ‘torrent only’ rule with fox from now on, Dollhouse being the only fox show I watch (at least for 13 more episodes).
Loved Terminator this season. However, I wasn’t expecting Dollhouse or Terminator to get removed. So 1 out of 2 isn’t bad. If Chuck hadn’t been renewed, that may have gotten me to contemplate an assassination of some sort.
The reason that Dollhouse stayed on but Terminator didn’t is because Fox owns the show as well as airs it, Fox doesn’t own terminator. Financial reasons.
And I see so many people complaining about Dollhouse getting a second season. All I’m saying is look at Buffy S1, and look at Buffy S2. Look at Angel S1, and look at Angel S2… there’s a pattern of getting better.
I really wanted a third season of TSCC. I’d have preferred that to Chuck or Bones getting renewed and evemn at times Dollhouse. Dollhouse can be good but the story is not all there for me. I do love the show and will fight for it every time as I am a die hard Whedon Fan but TSCC had that special thing that when it got it right it REALLY did but when it got it wrong it also REALLY did. TSCC would have been better on a 12-13 episode seasons rather than a full 22. This would make the show more focused and the plot ‘tighter’ (sneaked in a Cameron quote there, ha!) But yeah for Dollghouse I am hoping that Joss shows FOX and the rest of us that they made the right choice…but still I will miss TSCC dearley, even though Salvation looks absolutley kick ass amazing I will still miss it.
I’m not sure what to expect from a second season of Dollhouse. However, Fox owed us one for screwing Firefly. So I’m not complaining. Still, Chuck was my number one, and Terminator followed behind Chuck. But I wanted all three to get renewals. Definitely not disappointed to see Dollhouse get renewed, even if it meant that it took Terminator’s spot (Which I assume it didn’t).
Chuck will also be airing on Fridays for season 3. Both Chuck and Dollhouse will be taking budget cuts (this is the economy we live in, friends), while Dollhouse will be airing alongside Fox sitcoms ‘Til Death (shudder) and new offering, Brothers (shrug). The initial thirteen episode order for Chuck just makes good business sense. It happens to shows all the time. If the numbers warrant it, then a back nine episodes will be ordered. If they don’t, then no harm, no foul. They (NBC/Warner Bros.) can drop it without losing their shirts, financially speaking.
I look at these renewals with preventative measures attached: “You’ll get a second season, but we’ll cut the budget so you’ll only be required to deliver a smaller amount of numbers/revenue”. There are positives and negatives to be had. Necessity being the mother of invention and all that, I’m hopeful that these restrictions will bring about more “bottle episodes”.
These are minimalist productions utilizing a single, preexisting set, relying more on dialogue and character, instead of epic set pieces and lavish special effects to save money. This often results in some of the more creative and better episodes in a given series. See: “Duet” from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, “The One Where No One’s Ready” from Friends, or “H.O.U.S.E. Rules” from Eureka.
I can’t decide if Chuck having a budget cut is really bad. I mean, after this season, they left the whole center locale up in the air. Plus with the cliffhanger, there are so many directions to go. Here’s hoping that the guest stars are taking paycuts to be on the show (Did they really need Bettis to be on the show?). It’s possible they could cut out many characters and be a trio of agents. It would hurt the show, just saying it could happen with the plot where it is.
I feel that Dollhouse being renewed was Fox’s way of saying “we messed up on Firefly. So here, we’ll give you another try from Whedon.”
Yay for Chuck! Yay for Dollhouse! Boo for Termintator!
I would have preferred that they keep Terminator than Dollhouse if I had to choose only one, but I’m not sad that Dollhouse will be back. I just hope that Bear McCreary gets another good show to write interesting music for. Now that Battlestar and Terminator are off the air, I’ll be missing his musical touch until something else comes along. Sooner would be preferable to later.
Will he be doing the music for Caprica?
Probably. He did the music for the pilot, so I assume he would be back for the series.
I saw a prescreening of Terminator Salvation last night and while I see the movie being a success and Terminator fans liking it I didn’t see it bringing in new franchise fans. While I personally loved TSCC I can see why Fox would cut it from renewal. Their premiering a few first seasoners and TSCC has never been the strongest ratings wise though there crappy schedule shifting durring the first season may have a lot to do with that. Looking forward to the second season of Dollhouse though.
I think Christian Bale alone could bring in new fans to the franchise. Not to mention that we haven’t seen a Terminator movie in 6 years, and the first “real” Terminator in 18 years. So I don’t think that the new movie has to be anything really special to bring in new fans. It seems similar to Star Trek, where as long as it is relevant and entertaining, the franchise stands to benefit from it’s existence.
The early reviews aren’t looking too hot. But I think that it’s ultimately a moot point. Assuming that Wolverine was the first glimpse people got at the hero and that the previous X-Men films didn’t exist, I still think that Wolverine would have became “hot”.
ANd I will be going into mourning now for T:SCC…
As much as I do like Dollhouse, if this Sophie were to make a choice than I’d've picked Terminator anyday.
Dollhouse has the potential to be great, and I think it will eventually get there. It’s definitely enjoyable enough currently. But still, A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush. So I’d easily take the show that I already consider to be great.
Dollhouse is like Shia Labouf: It’s appeal is in how good it’s going to be, as opposed to how good it actually is at the moment.
That made me laugh out loud.
Sorry folks but T:SCC was awful this season. The story was all over the place, the acting subpar and the only person I cared about was Cameron/Summer (who wasn’t around a lot).
Dollhouse on the other hand had a rocky start, but got amazing. Even my mom (who isn’t a huge Joss fan — she’s only kind of liked Firefly) is totally digging Dollhouse. Dollhouse’s acting is amazing. Rewatching the show this week (with mom) I realized what great actors Envar (Victor), Amy Acker, Fran Kranz and others are.
As for budget cuts, this has happened to Joss before (with Angel Season 5).. and yet in that season we had the gorgeous W&H set built AND an episode on a 1940’s sub…. so money cuts don’t have to mean a lot.
Chuck is back on Mondays, but not until January 2010.
“Sorry folks but T:SCC was awful this season.”
Jeez, I wouldn’t go THAT far. The rest is more or less true (a bit much of throwing around words like “AMAZING” and “GREAT” but it’s all good. To each their own).
look! John made a comment! yay!
I’m really forgiving when it comes to most shows. I can stand a lot of bad TV for a show I really love. And I loved the first season of T:SCC. But I didn’t even care if I missed it after awhile (which is pretty much the clue that I think it’s awful).
Really? Dollhouse’s acting is amazing? You could’ve fooled me…
While I like and will continue to watch Dollhouse I never found it amazing. It had a few good ep’s but was for me at least it was the weakest first season for a Weadon show. I’m actually the only person from my group of friends (all of whom are Joss fans) who made it to the finale.
Dollhouse is actually being called possibly ‘the lowest-rated series ever to get a renewal in the history of broadcast TV’ in the Washington Post. I think its more faith than merit.
I love Buffy… but really? Dollhouse is weaker than Buffy Season 1?
I’d agree with that. I thought Buffy Season One was a lot better than Dollhouse Season One. Dollhouse is just…its really dull.
Yup I would say so. Just for example I loved every one of the Scoobies including Cordy by the end of season one and genuinely cared what happened to them. I personally have been given no reason to have a connection to any characters on Dollhouse yet.
I’m not saying I don’t like Dollhouse I just think it was much weaker then T:SCC
To each their own, I guess. I thought the second season of Terminator was great, and I only had a few minor nitpicks the entire year. I definitely wouldn’t say that the acting was “subpar”. In fact, I think the performances were really great across the board, especially from the guy who played “Henry”.
I totally agree. The only issue I had with season 2 was that some of the stories (*cough*Sarah going crazy*cough*) dragged on a bit too long.
But I especially loved the growth that we saw from John. And the ending completely blew my mind.
With that said, I really enjoyed Dollhouse, and I think it has the potential to become the better of the two shows. But I don’t think it’s there yet. Still, it was win-win for me, so long as at least one of the two came back.
And honestly, both shows pale in comparison to Chuck for me. So that was a big boost to my spirits. I just hope that the mid-season bit doesn’t mean that there is no way the back 9 will be picked up.
So When Chuck starts up next winter, it’ll be on fridays along with Friday NIght Lights? I’ll take that!
“One extra bit of scheduling news from NBC: Because of its tightened, Jay Leno-heavy schedule next season, the network won’t air the fourth season of “Friday Night Lights” until summer 2010. DirecTV will air it in the fall.”
http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2009/05/upfront-notes-elizabeth-mitchell-and-lost-seth-macfarlane-friday-night-lights.html
This reminds me. I still haven’t watched Season 3 of FNL. Is it as good as usual? The whole DirectTV thing threw me off.
well i thought that FNL took a bit of hit in quality in Saeson 2, but season 3 was excellent in my opinion. I don’t think you will be disappointed in season 3.
I’m pretty bummed about TSCC. As I’ve said the show was a bit erratic, but I loved it nevertheless.
Dollhouse is pretty good and I watch it, but I keep hoping for it to be better. If I had a to make a tough choice between the two, I would have saved TSCC.
I’ll have time on my hands now, with no TSCC or BSG. So I’ll catch up on Fringe.
Castle remains my favorite new show and I’m glad it will be back next season – despite it being an episodic comedic police procedural. It’s just great to have Nathan Fillion on TV
I loved Castle. Its one of the funniest shows on TV. I was so happy to see it was renewed.
I’m pretty alright with Castle. I have fun when I watch it but it’s not my favorite. I’m just happy Nathan Fillion finally got a second season
Yeah I’m not one for procedurals in general, though its good for a laugh but I LOVE a snarky Nathan Fillion.