Preparing for My Long Winter’s Nap…

I wish. In reality I’m preparing for 10 days off work. Normally that time is spent sleeping late, catching up on TV, cleaning out a closet or a junk drawer, oh, and a day or two of celebration with family and friends. This year I’ll get the celebration in, and maybe get to sleep late once, but I have a feeling the DVR, and the junk drawers, will be just as cluttered come New Year’s thanks to traveling and family commitments. That’s alright though, because we’ll still have most of January without new TV so I can catch up…oh wait, no, the networks are conspiring against me there, too.

After barely catching our breath from a whirlwind fall season, midseason for this Nice Girl starts up January 6 when Ugly Betty moves to it’s new timeslot at 10/9c on Wednesdays. Dollhouse returns for it’s last few episodes on January 9, then January 10 Chuck’s third season debuts with a 2-night, 3-hour extravaganza. I’ve had a chance to preview the first 5 episodes, and they are fantastic! (Watch for my advance review closer to the premiere.) Not to be outdone, Fox moved the next new episode of House up a couple of weeks to January 11 to compete with Chuck, following it with an unaired episode of Fringe from season 1. Leverage kicks off its winter season on January 13, then Bones and The Mentalist return January 14. And that’s just the first two weeks of the year. Being a fan of good TV is exhausting!

(Need to fill out your midseason calendar? Check out Rueben’s list of dates that matter.)

DVR: TV Network’s New Best Friend?

A recent Nielsen report on DVR viewing habits, discussed in this New York Times article, shows that 46 percent of the coveted 18-49 demographic still sits through ads when watching shows on DVR. Wait, what? Wasn’t DVR supposed to kill network television because viewers could skip the ads? That was the cry from the networks when DVR usage really took off a couple of years ago, but the numbers coming out now are painting a much better picture.

Nielsen now reports the Live +3 (live viewings plus DVR playback over the following 3 days when commercials are watched) in their final ratings reports, and it’s boosting the numbers of most shows. Grey’s Anatomy and House see the biggest increase in viewership, but shows that have middling (How I Met Your Mother) or struggling (Heroes) ratings are seeing significant increases that add value and keep them on the air. Whether it will be enough for Heroes looks iffy right now, but at least NBC has some good news from the Nielsen report, because “the Leno effect” is dragging them down five nights a week. According to the report, The Jay Leno Show is one of the few shows who’s +3 rating is actually lower than the Live rating. In other words, no one’s watching live and no one’s DVRing. Ouch.

And just why are shows getting such an increase from the +3 data? Why are 46% of viewers not taking advantage of the technology to skip the ads? Analysts say it’s force of habit/laziness. We’re used to sitting through commercials, and televison is a passive activity, so it takes an active choice to fast forward. Makes sense. I also posit that for some, just being able to watch a show on their schedule, rather than the network’s, is enough of a convenience that skipping the commercials is an afterthought.

On the other hand, I want both. I like being able to watch a show when I want to watch it, and I’m squarely in the 54% who do fast forward.  Most of the time. I have been known to go back and watch an ad that looks intriguing, like the new Apple commercial with PC touting Windows 7 and Mac taking us back in time to all the other Windows OS claims. I had to go back and find out why PC had a mullet and flip up sunglasses. It made me chuckle.

What about you? Are you a DVR addict? Do you fast forward through the ads, or is getting to watch a show when you want enough for you? Have you ever gone back to watch an ad that looked interesting?

Why Isn’t Dollhouse A Bigger Hit?

Fox decided to pull Dollhouse from the schedule during November sweeps, choosing to air reruns of House in that timeslot instead. What does Fox see as a result? A 62% increase in ratings. With a rerun. (The rerun also trumped ratings for new episodes of Brothers and ‘Til Death, but I don’t watch them so I don’t really care.)

I really like Dollhouse and think this season has been promising so far with some excellent guest casting and intriguing stories. The timeslot is a problem for me, but I DVR it and watch it over the weekend along with my other Friday night shows like Psych and Ugly Betty. Fox seems to be one of the few networks who thinks DVRing is a good thing, and I’m not a Nielsen family, so I don’t feel guilty about it. I’ve had the opportunity to sit in on conference calls with Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku, saw them and other show folks at Comic Con, and they all seem like nice people with loads of talent. So what’s the deal? Why isn’t the show a bigger hit? I don’t have the answers, but I have some possibilities.

1. The Fox/Whedon Combo: are fans of Firefly scared to trust Fox with Joss Whedon’s new creation? Fox gave Dollhouse a second season in a move that even surprised Whedon considering season 1’s low ratings. With a vote of confidence like that, shouldn’t Whedon’s fans be willing to have faith in Fox?

2. Darker Content: Dollhouse is arguably Whedon’s darkest series yet, although every series he’s created is rooted in a disturbing foundation (vampires and demons abound, The Man wants to experiment on anyone with special aiblities, aliens want to wear your skin, etc.). Dollhouse does have the least amount of humor, however. Do we need that levity to make the show accessible?

3. The Fan Campaign: months before Dollhouse premiered on Fox, a fan campaign to save the show sprouted up online. It was an innovative idea, attempting to rally the fans before the show was actually in danger, but did it have the reverse affect? If the idea is already planted that the show is in danger, will potential viewers simply decide not to waste their time and opt not to tune in at all?

What do you think? Is it the network? The content? The fans? What gives?

The Creative Process: Inside House

After an uncharacteristically late start (for their standards), the Paley Center for Media’s special presentation of “The Creative Process: Inside House” began with a brief introduction by Craig Hitchcock, who joked that he knew what kind of day it was going to be when he arrived at the center at 8 AM that morning (June 17) to find four (4) people already in line for the event, with one of the members traveling from Utah to be there. Mr. Hitchcock then introduced the night’s moderator, Ray Raymond, a renowned entertainment journalist for Variety and The Hollywood Reporter (among others). Mr. Raymond made a short speech about House and introduced a 7-minute clip reel of scenes from this past season.

A thunder of applause from the packed audience was heard after the completion of the clip, and without further ado, the guests for the night were announced, starting with cast members Omar Epps, Lisa Edelstein, Robert Sean Leonard and Hugh Laurie. Executive Producers Katie Jacobs and David Shore as well as Co-Executive Producer and Director Greg Yaitanes rounded off the panel.

A series of questions were lobbied at the cast by Mr. Raymond , ranging from their favorite episodes – which Ms. Edelstein answered as the two-part Season 4 season finale “House’s Head/Wilson’s Heart” – to how Mr. Laurie landed the critically-acclaimed and award-winning role of Dr. Gregory House – which was done via a short video tape made by two cast members of Mr. Laurie’s as he filmed a movie in Namibia – to what it was like for Ms. Edelstein to “make out” with Mr. Laurie (in character, of course) in one of the most-talked about couplings in TV history – which was answered by Mr. Laurie as “odd” (which then set everyone to laughing and blushing when Ms. Edelstein joked that it was so ‘flattering’ to be considered odd) – to what it is like to work on the show – which all the cast members agreed as actors it is a fantastic experience to be allowed to be part of such a creative show.  Mr. Shore also explained the reason for choosing the names House and Wilson, which was done in honor of Sherlock Holmes and Watson.  Different specialty fields but both “teams” detectives in their own ways.

The audience had an opportunity near the end of the panel, as is the norm, to ask questions of the cast and crew. Some of those questions included:

If Mr. Laurie would ever write an episode of House to which he asked succinctly, “No.” He related that it is such a gargantuan task that he would not feel up for that.

What are their inspirations for the storylines, to which Mr. Shore answered they are based on actual medical cases that are researched by their team of writers (some of who were in seated in the audience) and vetted by three (3) doctors who are available to them by phone and on-set medical consultants.

The youngest member of the audience, a spritely pre-teen boy enthusiastically raised his hand, causing Mr. Laurie to point him out to the Paley usher and asking to provide the young man with a microphone. The boy proceeded to ask Mr. Laurie, “What was the grossest thing he ever had to film.” Mr. Laurie answered after a slight prompt from Ms. Edelstein that it was the tape worm in the young girl who could feel no pain. Mr. Laurie stated he is not overly squeamish, but that particular scene was gross because the tape worm was so very long and it felt like forever that he was pulling it out of the character’s body.

One woman asked Mr. Laurie if he liked doing comedy or drama better since until appearing in House, he had been most well known (at least in his home country of England) for his comedic work. If memory serves correctly, Mr. Laurie answered that he enjoyed both equally.

The night then had to come to an end with a roaring round of applause for the actors and crew on stage. As Tiffany and I left for the evening, Mr. Laurie and Ms. Edelstein were graciously signing autographs for the throng of fans who had advanced to the stage seeking their opportunity for an albeit short meet and greet.

House returns to FOX on Monday, September 21 at 8 p.m. (7/CT) with a two-hour premiere.

Photo Credit:  Rueben and Tiffany