Dollhouse renouvelée ?

Surprise: Fox leaning toward 'Dollhouse' renewal

Dollhouse3 In an underdog comeback that blows away NBC’s will-they-or-won’t-they hand-wringing over “Chuck” (psst, they almost certainly will), sources say Fox is -- and this could change before Monday's upfront presentation -- leaning toward bringing back Joss Whedon’s “Dollhouse” next fall.

The low-rated Friday night show was last seen given up for dead by the media in a field somewhere.

But its DVR numbers are strong, online streaming is strong. It’s a sci-fi show, which tend to bring in nice ancillary revenue such as DVD sales for sister-company studio 20th TV. And it’s said that Fox execs rather like the series, especially the latter half of the season. Besides, a show airing in the fall on Fox is a bit like running in midseason on most networks -- it’s not their strongest part of the year and maybe ... maybe ...

All right, fine.

A “Dollhouse” pickup would be stunning, and tough to explain based on the show's ratings. Maybe Fox executives are just sick of being vilified on Whedonesque.com. Maybe Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly, who wisely renewed “The Office” at NBC after a disastrous first season, knows something we don’t.

Either way, we love that the “Dollhouse” decision is turning from a presumed demise into an 11th-hour negotiation. To paraphrase Hannibal Lecter: The broadcast world is a more interesting place with “Dollhouse” in it.

What’s to talk about?

Well, money, of course.

Fox wants “Dollhouse” cheaper.

All the networks want everything cheaper this year, if they can haggle it.

Which night the show will air on is unclear, though hopefully the series will not return to Friday. It's tough to see "Dollhouse" surviving a summer hiatus followed by a return to the Friday gulag.

Fox's official decision could go down to the wire before Monday; will post updates this weekend if the winds shift, but as of Friday morning ... the rough draft plan of Fox's fall includes Joss Whedon's show.