Cool News
HowButWHAT?? Fox To Run DOLLHOUSE and FRINGE With Only Five Minutes of Commercials Per Episode??
I am – Hercules!!
Now this is what I call Cool News.
Normally the networks run about 15 minutes of commercials and promos per hour.
From a piece by Paul J. Gough and James Hibberd in Friday morning’s Hollywood Reporter:
Both "Fringe" and "Dollhouse" would have network commercial loads of about five minutes per hour, about half the usual. The commercial pods would also be shorter and they would have about half the promo load as well.
Is it too much to hope ABC, NBC, CBS and The CW adopt a similar strategy?
Read all of the Reporter’s story on the matter here.
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PLEASE!!!
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Will the characters hold up products like they did in The Truman Show?
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First?
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Did it not feel like there were more commercials during Lost tonight then ever before? WAY too many.
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some Lost episodes have clocked in at under 40. That's fucked up.
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remember when tv shows used to be 48 minutes? i don't, but that's how long Twin Peaks episodes are... return to the good old days?
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has to be - and Dollhouse is certain
to get the Drive/Firefly treatment.
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There's no way we're getting away with 5 minutes of commercials without SOME idiotic compensation.
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David Lynch tried to get ABC to run the pilot episode WITHOUT ANY COMMERCIALS at all!! The network suits balked but in the end it was shown with far fewer commercial interruptions than usual (well for its day anyway).
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The camera zooms in on bigfoot as he displays his "Head and Shoulders" shampoo.
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I was just thinking about this. Network ratings are going down the tubes. People online complain about how many commercials there are. It seems like a reasonable selling point to try fewer commercials and tell advertisers that they will stand out more because of it.That being said, only 5 minutes? How are they going to cut it down for syndication? Perhaps the pilots will only have 5 minutes of commercials but the entire series? Seems unlikely.
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...do what Kyle XY were doing for the first season, which was to take on the sponsorship of a particular product and shove it down your throat every chance they got, in this case, Sour Patch Kids candy. They were always awkwardly wedged into a scene and it didn't ever pay off in less commercials anyways, so I have no idea why they agreed to it.
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One of the Fox guys says about Dollhouse, that he's "confident that this will become the next tentpole series for Fox." Wow. If that's not a vote of confidence, I don't know what is. That's really good news to allay the fears of another Firefly fiasco.
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They are already working out ways to get these shows cancelled. Yay! Experiment with shows that are already fucking successful, you asswipes.
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No adverts at all. OK so we pay a licence fee but even so, that beats having your brain raped every 10 minutes by terrible adverts.
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the next tent pole show at fox? Jesus, that is some high praise for a show whose concept has failed to excite me in the least. I am MUCH more excited for "Fringe".
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just means that when it doesn't perform they're going to be even more dissapointed.
"But this was supposed to get us some Law & Order and American Idol ratings, BAWWWW!" -
doesn't sound that good. Other Joss shows are fairly easy to grasp concepts, that are executed on a surprisingly clever way. "Teenage girl fights vampires" - awesome. "Vampire detective in LA" - awesome. "Outlaw western in space" - even more awesome. "Young secret agent girls memories gets wiped after each mission, and she slowly realizes this and rebels" - eh... wha? Where's the remote?
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a) Massive product placement everywhere.
b) Split-screen with adverts on one side or a scrolling bar of adverts across the bottom.
c) They're going to charge a much larger amount for the adverts in return for having fewer of them.
Hopefully it's just c). -
Does that mean they're going to beat it with a stick until there's nothing left but a hole in the ground?
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i don't know jack about the bidness side of things, but don't less commercials = less ad revenue?
if that's true, aren't these shows in an inherently weaker position, given that they're already struggling to survive as new shows?
I'm sure Whedon and Abrams know what they're doing (I'd like to say the same about Fox but, really, who would believe me). It's just not clear how it would all work... -
As much as we hate commercials, they pay the bills. I can't imagine if either Dollhouse or Fringe become huge hits that FOX won't start adding commercial time to increase ad revenue. I can only see this working if the shows will be full of product integreations. So I am expecting both shows to be total brand whores. My only question is involving Syndication. How is the show broken down into syndication if it will run a little longer than normal?
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I completely agree. I have zero interest in watching Dollhouse. That's not to say it won't be a great show, but if a geek like me doesn't feel like even checking it out, will the general audience?
The same goes for Fringe, which has the opposite problem. FBI agents investigate paranormal: Huh? What's new about that. Again, I don't feel my fingers reaching for the remote. -
However I'll still watch Dollhouse, I just hope they can tighten the concept. I think what "the series is actually about" will be part of the surprise. I just hope for seasonal arcs with few longer plot lines.
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and i have serious doubts that fox would let a show run 55 minutes an hour up from 42 mins.
they would sooner it chop it up into 3 30 minute episodes or a 90 minute show with 35 mins of commercials. -
Less talk, more action.
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Looking at those shots of Eliza Dushku's cleavage, well...you know...
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By announcing every 10-15 minutes that your watching (name of show) on (network) and there's only 5 minutes of commercials - which sort of makes the whole thing moot.
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For all of us with DVRs, commercials were already a thing of the past. Now we can probably expect more damn advertisements on the bottom half of the screen. Last time I watched BSG the freakin' Ghost Hunters walked right on top of Colonial One.
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and used real dolls. GO JOE 90!
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Where its 5 minutes of Episode per commercial...
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They better do something good. I look at the shows I watch versus what is available and realized that there's only 3 network shows I go out of my way to watch. It's pretty sad how many cop and reality shows there are. I would love to see other shows and networks take the same chance. Your all saying it's a bad idea because of less revenue. Oh come on, that's such a goofy argument. They probably make a lot for very little. I think the poor giant mega corporations can handle it. Some of you don't have to sound so darn bummed about it.
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Seriously, product placement can work if they blend it in more subtly. Its just that most product placement is beat you about the head obvious, like the burger king placement in Iron man. 30 Rock also lampoons this with their hilariously tongue in cheek references to products like snapple. But really, if they just slip in subtle placement, like pepsi or doritos in the cupboard, or subtle dialogue like: "Are you thirsty? I'll grab you a pepsi" or "If you're going to the store, grab me some oreos." Things normal human beings say in normal conversation. They don't have to have a conversation extolling the virtues of the product, just namedrop once or twice, and show the product occasionally. Some shows do a really good job with this, like 24 always showing the brand name on Jack's Phone, or the fact that Jack uses HK weapons exclusively(bet you didn't know weapons manufacturers engaged in product placement) Its pretty simple, look at how a product might turn up in the real world, and copy that. Have a computer geek at a desk, throw a couple of empty Mountain Dew cans into the shot. Answering the phone, make sure they look to see who's calling and also that its a nokia phone on at&&t. Get computer manufacturers to pay to use their machines, I'll never understand why so many tv shows use apple products with the logo covered up. When was the last time you saw a photographer using anything other than a nikon.
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Now to get rid of those logos in the bottom corner and those adverts scrolling the bottom.
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Advertisers need to get away from the "repetition works" model because it's clearly driving people away. I wouldn't mind viewing a smaller number of commercials. At the very least, I doubt I'd fast forward as much as I'd use it as a piss/beer break. The advertisers would get a bigger bang for their buck too.
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That you can make your brand stick if you associate just one show with just one product. I'll never forget the Kodak carousel after the "Mad Men" finale. Or, on a worse note, Stride gum and friggin Smallville.
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Why would you want your car ad to run in the same commercial break with three other card ads?
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Give Herc a Whedon show to talk about, and he'll talk and talk and talk and talk. . .
I can't wait until Dollhouse's inevitable cancellation Fox, so we can hear the Whedonites moan and bitch for the next four years about what an awesome show it was and how unfair Fox is.
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I don't hear you bitching about the 4 Abrams posts in a row. People are excited about these shows. If you're not, don't read the posts.
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This will mean that stupid, interfering, bastardoligist promo stip that runs durring a show ON TOP OF IT for the bottom portion of the screen, usually after a commercial break will now probably run during the entire show. I can not express how much I HATE those things. Especially the ones with sound...the Daytona500 promo strips that ran during shows would start and finish with a crack of thunder...these thing ruin the show, run on TOP of the video for the show, and destroy our entertainment of said show. How about we just run normal commercials at the start (or even just one break in the middle), then run the rest of the show unincumbered? I, for one, would be more apt to buy from someone not interfering with my entertainment in such an intrusive way, plus the Brits have done it like this and guess what? The products they advertise still get purchased. No more station IDs (bugs) in the bottom corner either. I leave my plasma on one channel for more than 2 shows and that stations logo is burned onto the screen for the next few hours (or until I run the de-burner). I hope these shows succeed, and I hope we don't have to try to figure out what the bottom of the shot should look like because we're seeing a promo for "King of the Hill" for ten minutes...I trully hope I am wrong and they run unincumbered, I trully do...
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anyone have a torrent for them?
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No, that's not a vote of confidence, that's just a guy talking out his ass. It's easy, anyone can do it. "I fee like CAVEMEN is going to be another tent-pole series on our network". See? anyone can do it.
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If it really is going to be a case of pop up ads and "integration". As more people skip the commercials the advertisers have to find a way of reaching the viewer, so shitty product placement and pop-ups are what we have to deal with now and they are obviously impossible to skip/ignore. It's really quite shitty.
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You KNOW this will be cancelled. You KNOW the Whedonites will try to mimic the show's scenes, speech patterns, and silly pop-culture references, and you KNOW that people will cosplay the damn show for years after it's cancelled in the early part of the second or third season.
You can insult me personally all you like, but that won't change the fact that Whedon's shows suck and won't last.
For the record, I don't bitch about JJ Abrams because I don't see Abramites extolling the virtues of JJ, quoting him, and gargling his balls every time he does something in public. I might not mind Whedon so much if his fans weren't so inexcusably and uniformly annoying, rabid, and weird.
And also, for the record, I DIDN'T read the first few posts. It's when all of coaxial begins to resemble the Joss Whedon fan club that I start to get a little annoyed, and when other shows are ignored in favor of Whedon's long-cancelled or not-yet-on shows, I find it positively fanwankish. -
Because not all Whedon fans are rabid freaks. I have his series and enjoy all of them, but don't attend viewings or dress up, or anything beyond watching the shows. The most vocal are not the most representative of his fans. I don't think I should be ridiculed for being excited that he's back with a new show.
Also, his shows sucking is an opinion, not a fact. You don't dig them, that's cool. I think you're missing out, but that's my opinion. I DON'T know that it'll be canceled, neither do you; I'm just hoping for the best.
And if you think this site doesn't suck Abrams dick every single chance it gets, you haven't been paying attention. Those stories irk me more because the majority of the time, he's barely even involved in the project, yet it's heralded as his in every way. -
...Something is rotten in the state of Denmark...
This is too good to be true, but I can't put my finger on it. -
who watches commercials anyway.
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This about 5 minutes sounds like a load of crap, it's probably more like 10 minutes, and with tons of ridiculous product placement throughout, oh and that lame shit at the bottom of the screen. i guarantee there will be "commercials" at the bottom of the screen DURING the actual shows....this is FOX these guys love to fuck over the fans....
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real life is full of product placement all the time, why would it not be viable inside a show? It's not like it _forces_ a change in the story (you don't base your real-life decision on brands, why would the characters do it?) Why is everyone just generally against it?
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Quoting from the article: "Fringe and Dollhouse would have network commercial loads of about five minutes per hour, about half the usual." The keyword here is "network." If 5 minutes per hour is half of the normal NETWORK commercials, there are now about 10 minutes total. But since most shows only run around 42 minutes, the additional 8 minutes are commercials that are sold by the local stations, not the network. These are unlikely to change, so for these two shows we would get about 13 minutes of commercials rather than 18. An improvement (a return to 1980s levels), but way more than just 5 minutes worth.
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May 16, 2008 4:38:48 PM CDT
"Watch out, Dollhouse! They're chasing us in a 2008 Mazda MX-5!"
by tallboy66
"golly, with the superior handling of the MX-5 series, there's no way we'll outrun the general superiority and better quality of Mazda brand cars!!!" Yeah, less commericals. Brave new world. Right.
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Is it just me, or does Dollhouse sound more like a JJ Abrams show and Fringe like a Whedon show? At this point I'm a bit more excited about Fringe, but would be much more so if Joss were running it.
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On the surface, product placement is a great idea, but if they do it like My Name is Earl did Thurs., it's going to be obnoxious.
And here's the DOLLHOUSE TRAILER:
http://tinyurl.com/63neo2 -
(more like 20). Has anyone watched MTV lately? I swear there is no more than fifteen minutes of show per half hour.
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they are either also gonna run a crawl, or imbed shit the way they do on youtube...how the fuck do you pay for a network show with only 5 minutes of commercial?
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has the whedon touch...and thanks for not making olivia put on a faux american accent
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If you look at the running time of old shows from the late 60's early 70's.
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I hear you about TIVO and the ever-increasing number of pop ups they are putting in. It's getting ridiculous. But this war between viewers getting tired of waaaaaaaaay too many commercials now during an hour of prime time TV (and horribly uncreative and bad ones at that) versus being able to simply enjoy the show is why more and more I'm willing to wait till something's on DVD. Sure, I'm months behind the curve of being able to talk about something around the water cooler at work, but it's worth it to be able to just ENJOY a freakin' show without an interruption every 5 minutes...
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