Things are not lookin’ too good for the future of the new Eliza Dushku TV series Dollhouse … according to series creator Joss Whedon. At the Paley Center for Media panel for Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog here in SoCal last night, Whedon confessed that chances are “not very good” that FOX will bring the show back for a second season next year. Considering that the show has been pulling in soft TV ratings and the fact that FOX is already thinking ahead to DVD sales of the series rather than airing future new episodes of the show, I tend to agree with Joss that the total 12 eps of Dollhouse that are already scheduled to air will be the last that we’ll see from the show on TV:

Right around episode 6, “Dollhouse” kicked into creative high-gear — but it might have been a little too late. Series creator Joss Whedon, speaking on a “Dr. Horrible” panel Tuesday night at the Paley Festival, said the possibility of the show receiving a second-season pickup was, well, rather grim. The chances are “not very good,” he said, according to SciFiWire.com. “Obviously our numbers are pretty soft … but we live in hope. “I’m really proud of the episodes that are coming out,” Whedon said. “More than that, I can’t really ask.” His comments follow the recent news that Fox would not be airing “Dollhouse’s” 13th episode, a stand-alone episode titled “Epitaph One” that the studio asked to be added on to the first season’s 12 to package for sale on DVD and overseas. Whedon elaborated on the episode’s set-up: “[I agreed to shoot] a post-apocalyptic thriller that’s all on our sets in six days with a cast of four other people … and peppered with different bits from our regular cast. … It’s one of the best episodes we’ve ever made.” The most recent episode of “Dollhouse” delivered a 1.4 rating among adults 18-49 and 3.6 million viewers overall. A renewal for its Friday-night lead-in, “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” is even less likely. Fox will announce its fall schedule May 18.

Personally, I feel that the reason that the show is underperforming in the ratings has mainly to do with the fact that FOX exiled it (along with Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) to Friday night. As much as I am loving Dollhouse over all, I am usually not home on Friday nights to watch it … so it gets recorded on my DVR so that I can watch it later. I’m sure there are LOTS of other folks who do the same. I know the show would do much better if the network featured it on a night when people are actually home to watch television. That being said, tho, I sorta feel that Dollhouse will go the way of that other Joss Whedon show Firefly (which aired only one season and then was axed by FOX due to poor ratings). While I don’t think that Dollhouse will eventually get it’s own movie like Firefly did (2005′s theatrical release Serenity), I think there are a lot of similarities between the two series. If Dollhouse does not survive and the show does get the ax by FOX, it seems to me that the working relationship between Joss Whedon and FOX needs to end — for both of their sakes. Whedon is going to continue making smart, character-driven TV shows and FOX is going to continue treating those shows like unwanted step children. How many times can both sides afford to expend time and money into a relationship that doesn’t seem to work? It’s a damn shame that Whedon‘s work is not given the support and promotion that it deserves because I honestly believe he is one of the most talented TV people out there. I, too, am living “in hope” that Dollhouse will defy the odds and will live to see another season but I’m also very much prepared for the fact that the show might be killed off way before its time. At this point, I’m relishing every ep as much as I can while I still can. I understand the 13th ep is really spectacular … if the show has to end, I’m not surprised they are planning to go out with a bang.

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