Coincidence or expected consequence? Fox saw the cult favorite from Joss Whedon, starring Eliza Dushku make some ratings noise this week and in a good way.
“Dollhouse” has been doing dreadful, but this news coupled with Friday’s modest ratings increase will likely give some hope to Joss Whedon fans … the question is whether it’s enough to change the show’s inevitable-seeming fate.
Premiere week DVR results: ‘Dollhouse,’ ‘Smallville’ top gain list–The Live Feed | THR
The ratings boost due to live viewers occurred more than a full week after Fox released an interactive desktop application in support of its ratings challenged action drama. You have to give the episode that broke new lows a flyer since it aired too close to the unveiling of Virtual Echo and her many personas.
There may not be concrete evidence linking the two events together, but the lead in shows to Dollhouse were the same if not lower and you would not expect much overlap among those audiences.
Don’t forget: Fox, Whedon and Dushku have reached out to their community online and away from the HDTV before to help out Dollhouse ratings. Earlier this year, starting around February sweeps and running through the season finale, there was an Eliza Dushku MySpace makeover.
Given that myspace isn’t what it once was, exploring new ways to reach its fan base is smart. In recent months, Fox has supported new shows and returning favorites with
- twitter enhanced episodes
- full season episode availability online
- web cam interactivity
But the show can not merely rely on DVR data. Engaging their community is the most economical and effective way to pick up Dollhouse’s rating. Get Joss and Eliza to tweet an episode. Maybe Fox could get Virtual Echo a Facebook page. It would be much easier than giving away DVRs.
Tags: dollhouse, DVR, Eliza Dushku, Facebook, Fox, HDTV, Joss Whedon, MySpace, online, ratings, Virtual Echo, web 2.0
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