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Hulu plans to arrive in the U.K. this September after reaching content deals with loval broadcasters.
Though a few thousand hours of US shows are bound to be featured on there, it is highly unlikely that “premium” content such as ABC’s and NBC’s shows will be on the UK version.
THR meanwhile has an inside look at HBO’s new great show, Bored to Death, with Jason Schwartzman, Ted Danson and Zach Galifianakis:
Looks great.
First post of the birthday week.
This might feel to some like one of those sitcom epis with clip shows of the best moments because writers have become lazy.
Don’t worry though, this is just a blog taking a look back at a year’s worth of random posts, because I’m lazy.
Like J.D. said:
So much incredible stuff happened in the past year…
Let’s get started with TV.
This year has been marked by crazy actions on this side of the biz.
From CBS to FOX or HBO, we’ve seen some pretty incredible stuff.
Most of all, there was some serious NBC talk thanks to Dumb and Dumber’s stupid moves, especially moving Leno to the 10PM slot, Mondays thru Fridays.
You can bet I’ll be talking about this more in Wednesday’s post.
Equally as mind-boggling was SciFi’s atrocious name-change planned for July (SyFy? Really?):
Let me get this straight.
You want to change everything from your logo to your slogan, and from the brand to your core audience (you know, the one that made you what you are now). And do all that for absolutely no reason at all (given the channel’s top-10 network status)?
Syfyllis is still a serious condition and just plain dumb.
One very recent Twitter justification was equally as spastic (is that what the cool kids are calling it these days?):
If it’s such a good time for sci fi, why change your network name to SyFy?
To differentiate our brand in an increasingly competitive category where we’re competing in more countries and on a growing number of platforms. For instance, type “scifi” into Hulu search and you won’t get any results from our shows on the first page. Just one example of many.
Continuing on the TV side of things, we’ve seen our fair share of TV Shows throughout the year, including an interview I did with Lost’s Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse.
Some shows were unfortunately cancelled, like The Middleman (my favorite from last summer), others surprisingly not, like Dollhouse. Others meanwhile were fortunately renewed, such as Leverage.
There was also an introduction to this new little ABC show called Flash Forward (now renamed FlashForward, following the author’s original wish).
We talked a bit as well about the Arrested Development movie that shouldn’t come out for another year or two.
In the meantime, you should check out the awesome Arrested Developement documentary (yes there is one) when it comes out (2009?).
Perfect segue to the movie front of the year, which had a lot of…interesting happenings (besides Cannes).
Watchmen was probably the most talked-about film here, followed closely by Star Trek.
Speaking of, Warner Bros. just loved my posting of the epic Watchmen opening sequence and asked Blogger to delete my post with no warning.
Like I said at the time:
I’m not going to post the sequence again for the sake of it, but suffice to say that I’m quite disappointed by the behind-my-back actions taken.
I also find quite ridiculous that said actions were done in the name of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, let alone the crusade against people posting the opening Watchmen sequence.
Are they afraid people will find it is so awesome they decide not to go watch the rest of the movie?
Even yU+Co was forced to take it down, even though it’s their own company that made the titles.
Quite ridiculous indeed.
Another Watchmen scandal was with its ending.
Squid or no Squid? I asked back in November.
You should know by now the answer (spoiler alert: it’s not like in the graphic novel).
Let’s not forget as well the FOX versus WB case regarding the movie’s rights.
Ultimately, and unsurprisingly, they settled.
No harm done.
What is however a harm (to my brain) are phenomenons such as that Twilight thing.
Remakes of remakes were as well discussed.
And I almost forgot to talk about all the game adaptations, like Monopoly, and Clue.
Where is the originality?
Here it is:
The big talk of upcoming 2009 films must be James Cameron’s Avatar.
You know, the movie I’m saying will revolutionize 3-D.
This is like my own personal TOLDJA! moment regarding 3-D (and Avatar):
Sound was introduced in 1927.
Color was introduced in 1938.
3-D will be introduced in 2009.
Continuing on the entertainment industry…
We’ve seen our fair share of (not-that-funny) award shows this year, from the Golden Globes to the Oscars.
This year might prove different with either Neil Patrick Harris or Craig Ferguson hosting the Emmys.
That’s epicness right here.
Moving on, there was a lot of talk about technology.
From the floppy disk to Twitter (who had even heard of Twitter a year ago?).
Some talk around the future of entertainment, especially television, has as well been present throughout the year.
Whether it is via Strike.TV in last August, or more re
cently Hulu, with its financial investments.
Yet again, we’ll talk more about this on Friday’s post thanks to a couple of new articles regarding rebranding (SyFy) and broadcast future (NBC and CBS specifically).
Finally, there were changes in the political landscape this year, with the arrival of a new President and the departure of another.
Shifts in the economy as well were felt. Both in the TV industry and elsewhere.
And to finish us off, we shall mention this Lego man, who didn’t after all go on I’m a “Celebrity” (sarcasm quotes not included in original title).
Incredible postings aside, this year was riveting.
More to come tomorrow.
A month after Disney gets its 30% share in Hulu (why is everyone only surprised about it now?), all the ABC shows that will be streaming there have been announced:
- Full episodes for ABC’s Lost and Grey’s Anatomy as well as ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager and Greek.
- Episodes from some ABC daytime shows like General Hospital and The View.
- Canceled/old shows like Commander in Chief, Hope & Faith, as well as Less Than Perfect.
- A few Disney Channel shows as well as a couple of classic Disney movies.
Meanwhile, E!‘s Save One Show poll results have been announced with The Sarah Connor Chronicles leading at 53%, more than twice the numbers that Chuck pulled (25%) and over five times Dollhouse’s (10%). Life only got 8% followed by Privileged at 4%.
For those who care, I’m also still working on my list of pilots that I think will get picked up (more on that next week) as well as my “What you need to know before the new Star Trek” post.
As promised, here is my follow-up article to my previous Four Reasons why Dollhouse might be Renewed. Unfortunately, the sad truth is that Whedon’s Dollhouse is going to be gone soon, and there’s nothing we can do about it.
Okay, that may not exactly be what is going to happen, but if we’re facing the harsh and bitter reality, FOX, the “notoriously-fickle” network, is often going one-way with shows that are not instant hits.
It’s hard, but here are four reasons why I believe Dollhouse will get cancelled.
Reason 1 : Ratings 
The most obvious reason on this list: ratings are bad, real bad. Only 3.6 million viewers tuned in last Friday, the same numbers as for The Sarah Connor Chronicles season (series?) finale. The rest is pretty much straightforward: in the conventional TV world, bad ratings mean no renewal. And if you’re thinking of a pity renewal just there, Dollhouse as of yet still does not have as strong a following as Firefly has, so a pity renewal has yet to be seen regarding fanbase. Though the numbers have been steady, they are, at the end of the day, very weak, and weak is not good.
Reason 2 : Death Slot 
This reason is quite self-explanatory. It’s no secret that Friday is also known as the death slot. Movies open on Fridays, people like to go out on Friday nights, almost no one is left to watch some TV. And when you combine Friday night with FOX, you get cancellation. Take a look at the 20 shows that were in this same death slot and were subsequently cancelled in the last 10 years, or just ask Firefly and Wonderfalls. Friday nights on FOX have always been the place where shows go to die in pain. Also, Tim Minear is producing the show, and we all know that Fox and Minear do not compute.
Reason 3 : Slow on the Uptale 
Last time we were here discussing in length the Dollhouse, I was talking about something I called the “Fourth Media Dilemma”. Picking up for a second season Dollhouse, despite its atrocious ratings and FOX’s precedents regarding the death slot, would mean in some way recognizing the (good) iTunes and Hulu numbers of the show, and therefore officially giving some power to the Internet, or at least acknowledging it. I doubt FOX execs have the balls to give some credit to the Internet just yet and basically vet the Fourth Media in relation to a TV show’s fate. TV execs are known to be “slow on the uptake”, or at the very least having a hard time acknowledging new technologies and new forms of content. This is basically no different, if not greater than that. A renewal would mean showing faith in iTunes sales, and this is a one-way leap of faith. Is FOX really ready to take that step?
Reason 4 : Direct-to-DVD 
Last Thursday was announced that the “real” first (and only?) season finale of Dollhouse would only be available on DVD and not be shown on FOX, à la Middleman (although there the finale wasn’t actually produced, albeit available only in comic-book format). The official reason behind such a move is because FOX has already fulfilled its 13-episode order via the pilot’s reshooting. Tim Minear explained this better:
Because we scrapped the original pilot — and in fact cannibalized some of its parts for other eps — we really ended up with 12 episodes. But the studio makes DVD and other deals based on the original 13 number. So we created a standalone kind of coda episode. Which is the mythical new episode 13. The network had already paid for 13 episodes, and this included the one they agreed to let us scrap for parts. It does not include the one we made to bring the number back up to 13 for the studio side and its obligations.
If you believe in the show getting renewed, you’re going to show what looks like the best episode of the series and show it to the world as soon as you can.
If you don’t, on the other hand, no point in wasting your precious broadcast time for a dead show walking.
You’ve gotta admit though that FOX not even bothering to broadcast the final episode shows a certain lack of trust in Dollhouse’s future to say the least.
Ultimately, my previous “renewal” reasons are still valid, and, depending on your dubiousness, you can side either way on Dollhouse’s fate.
Hope is still not lost, and FOX might still have the balls to renew Dollhouse (and The Sarah Connor Chronicles for that matter).
Like always: Watch, Wait, and See.
This morning were unveiled the 2008 Peabody Award winners, including HBO’s Entourage (!) & John Adams, ABC’s Lost, and AMC’s Breaking Bad.
The award ceremony will take place on May 18 at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York and will be hosted by NBC’s Brian Williams.
What is most peculiar is that among the winners is non other than YouTube.
Add to that The Onion’s online news-network, and the NY Times’ website, and you’ve got yourself the first time Web entities actually receive the coveted prize.
Interestingly enough, the Peabody Award has now become an “International Competition for Electronic Media, honoring achievement in Television, Radio, Cable and the Web.”
The technological shift continues as Disney just got itself a 30% share in Hulu, making it equal partner with NBC-U and News Corp.
Providence Equity Partners still has its 10%.
The following seemed odly appropriate:
Everyone is trying to get on board now it seems.
CBS is still on the sideline though, sticking with YouTube who is launching April 16 its premium content site and Hulu’s main competitor, Sling.
Somewhat ironically, only clips of ABC’s shows will be available on YouTube.
In the meantime, Business Week has just posted an article in why Hulu attracts eyes, but not advertisers.
Venture Beat notes another ironic subtext: Apple’s Steve Jobs is also the largest shareholder at Disney’s table as well as on the board of directors. Ultimately it seems that Hulu’s free ad-supported streaming will have to go head to head with the iTunes’ ad-free pricey content.
Let the fighting continue (or is it begin?).
The times, they are a-changin’.
Joss Whedon’s eagerly awaited return to television through FOX’s Dollhouse has been seriously impacted by a Friday night death-slot, reviews describing it as lackluster, dubious fans, and low television ratings.
But hope is not lost as the show might still be renewed by the notoriously-fickle network.
Here are four reasons why I believe Dollhouse could still be renewed for a second season.
Reason 1 : Fourth Media Dilemma
Sure, TV ratings were atrocious last week, and fairly disappointing last night, but to be fair, we’re talking Friday nights here, also known as the death slot. Meanwhile, Dollhouse iTunes sells are skyrocketing, pushing the show from the nineteenth place to the number one spot in a little over two days (#1 on Monday evening). People are actually paying en masse to watch the show, when it’s available for free on Hulu and other outlets. 
Dollhouse is a FOX-produced show (unlike The Sarah Connor Chronicles), so being in-house means they should in theory also count iTunes sells, among others, in the renewal decision. This really puts FOX into a corner regarding the future of the show, and ultimately television. The networks must realize that a series being a fast-seller on iTunes doesn’t mean it is going to harm TV ratings, on the contrary, it allows people who couldn’t tune in the previous week to catch-up. In the long run, it might even help boost the TV audience, or at least keep it stable, a thing FOX hasn’t been able to do in years regarding the Friday slot. Adding to Nielsen ratings DVR, DVT, DVD, iTunes and Hulu numbers should show that this is a cycle, underlining the real potential of Dollhouse and not what the other mediums keep from television. So, yes, Dollhouse is probably the first example of the “Fourth Media Dilemma”: if a show is a success on the Internet but not on TV, should said show be canceled/renewed based on an outdated and obsolete rating system, given a second TV chance, or jump platform altogether?
Reason 2 : Pity renewal 
By canceling Firefly, FOX unwittingly created a massive fan movement for the show, the Browncoats. Hopefully, the network has learned the lesson, and may even try to bank on it, keeping Dollhouse long enough for a fan movement of its own to be created (“The Dollers” anyone?). For once they might want to try nurturing the geeks instead of crushing their hopes and dreams: a “pity renewal” one might say. And instead of getting completely different viewers by replacing Dollhouse with another pilot, say, a cop show, or a girly drama, FOX may try to keep fans’ cash flowing into their pockets and let the series grow to become a cult show, and ultimately “Must-See” TV for any self-respecting geek. A renewal would also ensure a Comic-Con panel that will surely bring in massive attention to the show, and secure dubious potential viewers that waited to see if the show would be renewed or not.
Reason 3 : Eliza Dushku 
A self-explanatory reason. Her presence in various magazines, photo shoots, talk-shows, websites, etc. (before, during and after the season) intrigues potential new viewers and allows the male viewership to stay interested in the show and, let’s just say, “invested” in it. Buffy the Vampire Slayer stayed alive during its first couple of years (at least) thanks to Sarah Michelle Gellar’s sex-appeal, so why not Dollhouse with Eliza Dushku’s?
Reason 4 : Geek appeal and Joss 
Geek is chic. You know it, they know it. Joss Whedon has a great geek appeal, why do you think the show was ordered in the first place? On a simple log line? Whedon has a brand, Whedon is a brand. Lost will soon be gone, so is Battlestar Galactica, and Heroes is just not what it used to be. Except for Flash Forward and a couple of other shows, sci-fi television is unlikely to be as present next year, with loads of procedural replacing current series. Save for Fringe, Dollhouse, if renewed, would probably be the main science-fiction show on the major nets, also giving Joss the chance to perfect the flawed show in time for geeks (and others) to join in massively. Despite some negative reviews regarding the pilot, the second episode was much better, and Whedon can tighten the ship and go full steam ahead on the mythology and characters.
Hope is not lost yet, and the ball is in FOX’s court.
Only three things we can do: Watch, Wait, and See.
