Friday nights used to be the graveyard for television programs. If you were scheduled to air on Friday night, you were doomed.

Though that might still generally be the case, modern times are changing perspectives on how ratings are looked at by the advertisers. Now-a-days, ratings are considered by many to be the live viewing plus 7 days to be a growing statistic, and if you really think about it, it might even go longer.

But ads have a certain amount of relevant, useful time to their message. So for now, we’re sticking to 7 days. With that said, it’s interesting to see that of the top 5 shows in the top of the DVR tables, 3 of them are Friday night shows.

Oh Internet, say it ain’t so!

Hulu – my utopia of free TV online – may soon become another run-of-the-buck paid subscription site (see header image)! (Sigh) It was only a matter of time, really…

Broadcasting & Cable brings us this chilling news, which supposedly originated from the mouth of News Corp. Deputy Chairman Chase Carey, who said during the Onscreen Media Summit that:

Any dolls out there looking to have a “treatment” anytime soon had better make haste – that, or risk being stuck with a Swedish accent and the ability to put together an Erector Set blindfolded. Why? FOX has decided to pull Dollhouse off the schedule and put it in the attic. For the month of November anyway.

Sources in the know have stated that the month-long removal is because of November sweeps. The show will return to its Friday night time slot in December with back-to-back episodes.

When you think Joss Whedon and musicals, it’s not with dread. His more creative and unique entertainment venues have generated some very popular products. Some examples of those, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode titled “Once More, With Feeling,” and the latest, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.

Now, Joss Whedon will be adding Glee to his dossier of credits.

Fox ordered the back 9 episodes of the season of Glee and as a big fan of the show, Joss made sure there was so scheduling conflicts when asked by the studio to direct an episode. In fact, Joss had this to say about the news:

With the news of the Dollhouse premiere underperforming in the ratings and the abrupt cancellation of fan favorite shows like Southland, I’ve been watching my txt’s and emails with baited breath expecting to hear about the cancellation of my favorite Friday night show, Dollhouse.

Now, it looks like I can, for the moment, comfortably peruse my inbox as FOX scheduling chief Preston Beckman spoke with The Hollywood Reporter and stated that the network will air all 13 episodes of the (Joss) Whedon-created drama despite their less than stellar ratings.

The overnight ratings numbers are in for the premieres of Dollhouse and Smallville and they’re not as rosy-looking as we’d like.  Then again, it is Friday night and our favorite returning shows are up against some heavy hitters.

CBS dominated Friday night with their shoe-in season premiers of Ghost Whisperer and Medium.  Both shows raked in over 8 1/2 million viewers.

Even the encore presentation of FlashForward dusted our favored shows by bringing in an additional 4.6 million viewers.

Fox took a chance – a huge chance – when they ignored all the social media hype about The Sarah Connor Chronicles and focused on Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse.  At least at first glance, that is what it looks like.

Friday overnight ratings for the premiere episode of the fantasy TV series Dollhouse were rather miserable looking.

Which could make perfect sense if you count on the fact that it’s a Friday night and there were other shows premiering on other networks, but Dollhouse averaged 2.5 million viewers.  At least they beat out the encore episode of America’s Next Top Model.  LOL.

(Sadly, it also looks like Smallville only brought in 2.5 million viewers for it’s Friday night premiere… but that’s for another article.)

Ghost Whisperer, Law & Order, Smallville, Dollhouse, Medium & Numb3rs are all returning tonight… and then we have the premiere of a FOX comedy with a retired football player?

Friday hasn’t been this popular for television since ABC was in its hay-day with TGIF and Boy Meets World (Feeny!). With seven hours of new and returning programming stuffed into a three hour block, you’re either going to have to make some tough decisions on what to watch, or be a DVR master.

Let’s take a look at tonight’s lineup.

Joss Whedon has been making the rounds in various media forms and chatting about the upcoming 2nd season of Dollhouse.  I’ll talk touch on some generic issues then a little bit later. Beware, there’s a section marked spoilers, you can pass over that part and onto more good stuff with the skip/jump link I’ve included.

Joss truly didn’t expect to be working on a 2nd season of Dollhouse, but all the non-traditional ratings numbers such as DVR viewing added up and the idea that fans will gravitate to the show in such a way that the revenue stream from DVD sales and such won’t dry up were all factors that nudged Fox towards renewing the show.

Ray Wise will be joining the cast of Dollhouse.  I’m pleasantly surprised by this cast addition!  Jazzed and surprised.

Ray will be playing Howard, a higher up in the staff of the Dollhouse who has a “huge presence.”

Reaper fans will recognize Wise as Lucifer himself, but I remember Ray from one of my favorite horror franchises, Jeepers Creepers. He was in JC 2 as Jack Taggart Sr.  I love those movies. The demon creature in those films ranks right up there with Predator for me.

Joss Whedon chatted with Sci Fi Wire about a few things, all of which I’ve been looking forward to: Dollhouse, season 2.  The Cabin in the Woods.  Goners.

Joss said that in the premiere of Dollhouse’s second season, we’ll get to see Echo cycle through a few imprints during an assignment.  I can’t say anymore of what I do know without possible SPOILERS.  So we’ll leave it at that.

As for being left alone by Fox to do what he wants with Dollhouse?  Joss says he’s afraid to be alone (joke) but that the show is finally more of the collaborative effort between creator and network that it’s supposed to be.

On Alexis Denisof coming to Dollhouse:

Oh, didn’t we mention that before?  If you remember, they made note of it at Comic-Con.  Alexis Denisof is coming on board to play a politician whose looking into Rossum.  (The corporation that runs the Dollhouse.)

Now that Joss Whedon has control of Dollhouse on Fox, we aren’t going to get any more stand alone episodes.  Instead, the story will start making sense as Joss tells his tale the way he envisioned it.

Season 2 is going to pick up where season 1 left off, in the aftermath of how Alpha left everything. The Dollhouse will continue with business as normal, but the staff will be waiting for the other shoe to drop because they know that Alpha is out there.

Today in TV news, two returning shows acquire major new additions for their upcoming seasons. Read on to find out about Brandon Routh in Chuck and Summer Glau in Dollhouse.

Over last few months, there’s been talk about Summer Glau playing a part in the next season of Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse. Although, Whedon shot down a lot of folks’ hope by saying these reports were exaggerated, it now turns out that Summer is in fact joining season 2 of the show that barely survived to get its second season.

All sci-fi fans will know Summer from her role as the troubled girl from Firefly and the bad-ass fembot in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. This time around, she’ll be playing a different sort of character.

Just a brief update on this Monday: Plan your prime time with the 2009 TV Fall Schedule; Smallville is getting another new guest star; A certain “Foxy” lady might be kicking off SNL this year; Learn how to catch up on all the NBC shows you missed last year (for free!); and speaking of NBC, how about a first-look photo of Jim and Pam getting married on The Office?

And as a bonus (because I love you) I let you know about the government’s “Cash for TV Clunkers” program.

Let’s get to it!

Today we got news for you on a former Deadwood actor whose getting Lost this season; the gang at 24 are wondering if their eighth day will be their last; Syfy will be re-opening the doors to Warehouse 13 next season; Heroes has a new poster; Apollo plays in the Dollhouse; Star Wars will soon be on TV; and ABC gets room at Clive Barker’s Hotel.

All that, and we bid farewell to a TV News Legend (see above). Let’s get to it:

We here at Screen Rant have so much TV news that we need to break it up into a few articles this week.

With that said, I thought in this extra chapter (or off-shoot of my weekly article), I’d bring some early news and information about Dollhouse, 24 and Lie To Me. I’ve also got some bits of news about the FX network shows Damages & Lawman.  I finally wrap it up with some King of the Hill info, The Office news and a question to you, our faithful readers.

When Dollhouse premiered, the show was received with enthusiasm by Joss Whedon fans. Yet as the show’s first season kicked it in gear, many of us were confounded by what we saw.

The diehard Joss fans stuck it out because, well, it’s Joss.  But others were getting their minds muddled and weren’t surviving the first few episodes. For some, the first half of the season seemed disjointed as each episode acted as a stand alone event in the Dollhouse mythos.

The Dollhouse premiere opened to only 4.7 million viewers while time-shifted viewers increased the numbers by a whopping 30%.  The following month, viewership dropped to 3.5 million viewers.

This week, we’re going to chat about a new website for Chuck, an award bestowed upon Doctor Who and a bit about Syfy dominating Tuesdays with Warehouse 13.  We also delve into some news about Burn Notice, Royal Pains & Dollhouse.

Some cast members have been added to Steven Spielberg’s unnamed alien pilot on TNT, we have an interesting tidbit on Disney and a quick, condensed look at last week’s Summer TV ratings.

When Joss Whedon came out for the beginning of the Dollhouse panel at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con, he received the only standing ovation I’ve seen up at this massive event in the San Diego Convention Center.  It’s really awesome, unless you’re trying to take pictures, but it was cool to be part of that.

During the first hour, we were treated to the 13th episode of Dollhouse, called “Epitath 1.”  Eliza Dushku was also the producer for this episode.

If you’re both a Dollhouse fan and find yourself headed to Comic-Con, you might be able to take advantage of an interesting offer.

5,000 special order DVD packages have been set aside for Comic-Con attendees.

Each DVD package comes with a letter that is individually numbered from the man himself, Joss Whedon.

UpDated 7-2-09

Last year at the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con, the event was ruled by several big named movies that ranged from youthful vampires to illegal vigilantes.  TV was more a side-note than anything else.

This year at the 2009 Comic-Con, things will be a bit different as television programming seems to have a bigger presence than last year.

For instance, the Warner Brothers Television Group will have 11 different panels for their shows.  That’s a studio best for them.  ABC Studios will have 7 panels.  20th Century Fox will have 9 panels.

Do you think your favorite television show will be represented?

If you remember, back on the week of May 18th we let you know what shows were renewed and dumped with the following:

• 2009 CW Fall TV Line Up
• 2009 ABC Fall TV Line Up
• 2009 CBS Fall TV Line Up
• 2009 NBC Fall TV Line Up
• 2009 Fox Fall TV Line up

The only snags with these listings were that they were just lists of shows renewed or dropped, with no specific dates.

Fox has released their list of dates and times.  Just to be thorough, we’re including all shows that they’ve announced.

Now that Joss Whedon has wrapped upped his work on The Cabin in the Woods, he’s starting to focus on his 2nd season of Dollhouse.

We’ve got different chunks of news for you today.  First, we chat a little bit about the new writers for the show then some character news.  Later on we make note on Joss’ opinion on the new Buffy The Vampire Slayer project.

It is Thursday again and the weekend looms in front of us.

Today I’m going to chat about Summer Glau maybe being on Dollhouse, a tiny bit about Law & Order: SVU, a bit of Doctor Who news and some info about Ronald D. Moore’s Virtuality including the air date and scenes from the show.

And as usual, we’ll take a peak at ratings from last week.

Oh!  I’ve jammed in a subtle note about Burn Notice.

While you’re here, if there’s anything TV related on your mind, slap it in the comments and let us know what you’re curious about or have an opinion on.

Shall we get on with it?

Yesterday (Monday, the 19th) Fox announced it’s upcoming Fall lineup today and we will be seeing some of Screen Rant’s favorites like House, Lie To Me, Bones, Fringe & Dollhouse return this fall.  These are the shows we here at Screen Rant are more focused on.

The news in and about the industry this last weekend was swirling in a dance on what was being renewed and canceled.  Specifically, some were focused on the fates of Dollhouse and The Sarah Connor Chronicles and why one show was given the axe, and the other given a reprieve.

Though the networks are making official statements in the coming week, news is coming out slowly but surely on what is going to happen with shows like Dollhouse, Chuck, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Scrubs among others.

Here’s the news that’s come out of this weekend about some of our favorite shows…  after the break.

The word on the street is that the Fox network is thinking about renewing Dollhouse.  Color me shocked.  Even Eliza is holding her head in shock!  (Read this article carefully.  There’s a surprise tidbit in here.)

Despite miserably low ratings in its Friday night time slot, Dollhouse brings in strong online streaming numbers and DVR viewings.  Initially thought to be a non-issue to advertisers, it’s still apparently an influence on the waffling of renewals.

Today’s Weekly TV Wrap Up will have a little One Tree Hill (Something a bit new, but a reader asked about the show.), some more on Dollhouse after the finale and Lie To Me news. We also touch on David E. Kelley’s disappointment, the dumping of a few shows by NBC and how Fox seems to be treating Ronald D. Moore’s Virtuality just like Dollhouse, but worse – If you can imagine that. I also have some David Tennant news for you.

Despite the season finales, it’s a bit of a quiet week for me.  Of course, I have the TV ratings from last week and a bit of a surprise at the end of the post, if you make it that far.

Shall we get on with it?

DISCLAIMER:  The front half of this article is spoiler free.  There will be a warning as you approach the time-shifted spoilers and a link that allows you to skip the spoilers altogether when you get near them.

To answer my own question about whether Dollhouse was about to get good, oh yea. It became good… no, it became entertaining and fun.

This is the weekly TV update coming at you yet again.  Today I chat about how Numbers has survived on Friday nights, I share my suspicions on what will happen with Chuck on NBC and I celebrate a bit about Fringe on Fox.

I’ll also touch on how the new Wolverine movie has already had its TV rights secured while I tell you about a couple of upcoming Sci-Fi Channel marathons, and then I’ll close with some depressing inclinations about Dollhouse and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.  At the very bottom, past my ratings chart, I actually make a suggestion about an episode of Criminal Minds that I suggest hunting down to watch.  (Yes, I make a recommendation.)

Let’s get on with it, shall we?