Fox announced today that is snuffing out the brief candle of Dollhouse, Whedon's latest series starring Eliza Dushku as a secret agent whose memory is deleted after each of her missions.

The launch of a new Whedon show is treated in nerddom with the pomp and ceremony of a royal wedding and the build-up to Dollhouse's launch seemed a year long extravaganza of set visits, plot leaks and junketeering. But when Dollhouse finally reached the airwaves, it met very mixed reviews and stumbled to find an audience. Grudgingly, Fox brought it back for a second season, but put it on in a doomed Friday night slot.

The life of a Whedon show is only really a throat-clearing prelude to its afterlife in which the failed show is converted into a modern classic. Whedon's last show, for instance, Firefly was on the air for a mere 14 episodes from 2002 - 2003, but that was enough to fuel a big screen adaptation and eternal worship as the platonic ideal in swashbuckling sci-fi dramas.

But first must come the backlash and out there across the internet can be heard the sound a million geeks posting calls to the barricades to protest Fox's treachery, proving to them once again that commerce is the enemy of art and that something as special as Dollhouse is too good to live in such an imperfect world.

And for Eliza Dushku, now that the burden of actually filming is behind her, she can move on to the far more satisfying journey of spending the rest of her decades on the planet touring hotel convention facilities and taking the podium to answer questions about the exact meaning of that look she shot her co-star in episode seven.

"The show is just played out," he said today at TCA. Thus, the network plans to shunt the show's final episodes to Friday nights in April, where it can extend one clammy, tattooed hand and attempt to take down the beleaguered Dollhouse with it. But, there is some good news: the same month will see Fox finally slot the animated comedy Sit Down, Shut Up from Arrested Development creator Mitchell Hurwitz. It will be airing at 8:30 on Sundays, immediately preceding Family Guy. Comedy whiplash!

• Fox cancels 'Prison Break,' seats 'Sit Down' [THR]

"We are obviously very disappointed, but you have to take risks in this business," Deborra-Lee Furness said Wednesday in Sydney.

"Viva Laughlin" was the first project for Jackman's Australian production company, Seed, which he owns with Furness. "Doing a drama that is a musical is going to be a huge risk," Furness said. "If I'm going to fail, I want to fail spectacularly, and it seems like we did."

Furness described her 39-year-old husband, who had a minor role in the show, as "fabulous."

"He did it for fun," she said.

Undeterred by Laughlin's failure, Furness went on to announce their production company's next bold foray into network television: a still-untitled, silent telenovela set at a bowling alley in Palm Springs, in which Jackman will occasionally guest star as a mysterious pinsetter who communicates only through dance, noting, "It's going to be amazing. Next time, we're only going to make it through the first premiere night act break before CBS pulls the plug."

• Jackman Disappointed TV Show Was Axed [Breitbart]

[A quick note to HBO: If you don't renew Flight of the Conchords for another season, we're dropping you, no matter how many Gabriel Byrne and Alan Ball shows you put on.]

• 'John' is out of the game [THR]

Despite a solid "Deal or No Deal" lead-in, last week's seg sank to third place in the 10 p.m. hour, losing even to the season finale of "What About Brian."

And thus is written The Black Donnellys' bitter epitaph: It couldn't even beat What About Brian. Unfortunately, Studio 60 fans can take no solace in Donnellys' speedy yanking from Studio's rightful, post-Heroes timeslot, which will go to The Real Wedding Crashers, a choice that is sure to sap Aaron Sorkin's will to elevate the medium as he joylessly completes the episodes that will fill out the Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: The Complete First and Last Season DVD.

• 'Bells' stop ringing after seven episodes [CNN.com]
• Networks clean house [Var]

"THE O.C. Season Four finale will also be the series finale. This feels like the best time to bring the show to its close, said Josh Schwartz, creator and executive producer of THE O.C. Thanks to the hard work of our cast, crew and writers, we have enjoyed our best season yet, and what better time to go out than creatively on top. It has been an amazing experience and a great run. For a certain audience, at a certain time, THE O.C. has meant something. For that we are grateful."

Fox is wasting no time getting the show off its schedule, with the last episode airing on February 22nd. We can only hope that Schwartz will remain committed to the creative vision that originally made the show a hit, making sure its swan song includes a hastily thrown-together Newport society party that is inevitably marred by an ill-considered Ryan Atwood fistfight. But during this last melee, of course, our hot-headed Chino won't resurface after gang-tackling his final, classist tormentor into a nearby swimming pool, meeting his end in the perfectly chlorinated waters of Orange County, just as we always knew he must.

• THE SUN SETS ON "THE O.C." WHEN THE SERIES FINALE AIRS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, ON FOX [The Futon Critic]

Here we go: despite receiving an order for three more episodes on Friday, the Aaron Sorkin NBC drama "Studio 60 on Sunset Strip" is about to be put out of its misery.

Cast members are already confiding in friends that the end is near. It's likely NBC will pull the plug shortly I am told by insiders. [...]

he order of the three extra episodes is considered by insiders to be a contractual move, and not one based on faith that they will ever be made or aired. The all important demo situation didn't help: 'Heroes' had 15 percent of viewers aged 18-49. Studio 60 had 8 percent. The notion that 'Studio 60' is a big draw for NBC among desirables is, sadly, blown on those stats.

These seemingly damning, raw numbers don't reveal just how "affluent and upscale" the show's share of the 18-49 market is; we're sure that the network is selling that eight percent to advertisers as a shadowy, Sorkin-worshipping cabal that controls the wealth of the entire demographic. But according to one of our Southern tipsters, NBC had apparently already sensed that they needed to court a swath of America that their showrunner is willfully ignoring:

Since I am probably the only southern redneck who reads your site, I thought I would share the shameless promotion of Studio 60. [Last] Sunday, Nascar was on NBC. During one of the caution periods, the race commentators started discussing what a great show NBC had in Studio 60. One commentator said it was a great show. Another commentator chimed in that Studio 60 had good acting and good writing. Then the 1st commentator said he was going watch Studio 60, and the other commentator agreed.

The professionalism of NBC's in-race promoters was impressive: neither broke out into laughter while reading the part of the network's script urging their viewers to "tune in to see if the Studio 60 crew is able to punch-up their latest sketch, 'Nascar is Destroying the Intellectual Fiber of America,' before they go live from the Sunset Strip."

• 'Studio 60' Cancellation Imminent [Fox 411]
• Previously: 'Studio 60': Yeah, It's Still Not Looking Good [Defamer]

"When you launch a new show, you certainly want it to retain a certain percentage of its lead-in," [Tassler" said. "You also want it to build in the second half hour, and we really weren't doing that with 'Smith.' "

In its first week, 11 million, or 93 percent, of the 11.8 million viewers of "The Unit" stuck around for the first episode of "Smith." In the second week, that percentage fell to 81 percent, then plummeted to 63 percent in the third week.

Not only was "Smith" keeping less of its lead-in audience, but a shrinking portion of the previous week's viewers returned each week to see the next installment of "Smith." And the number of viewers also fell consistently from the first half hour to the second. [...]

"We have a unique vantage point at the network," she said. "I've seen cuts and read scripts for the next four to five episodes, so I could see where we're headed creatively. And we weren't 100 percent happy with what we were looking at."

Specifically, she said, the show's scripts were becoming harder to follow. "You have to have clarity in the story-telling," she said. "Confusion kills. I think it was particularly challenged in that area."

Citing the series' rapidly declining Nielsens probably would have been justification enough for her decision, but feeling suddenly liberated by the candor that programming executives rarely share with the press, Tassler followed up her opinion on the needless, syndication-hampering complexity of Smith's scripts by remarking, "For 2.5 million per episode, you'd think they could have edible craft service when the head of the network visits, you know? I had the runs for weeks. Weeks!" and that "in high-def, Ray Liotta's face was a little much to take."

• On TV as in Hollywood, Little Breathing Room for the Modest Success [NY Times]
• Previously: 'Smith' Finally Takes The Fall Season's Cancellation Maidenhead [Defamer]

• CBS' 'Waterfront' Washout Adds to Warners' Woes [Channel Island]
• Previously: 'Smith' Finally Takes The Fall Season's Cancellation Maidenhead [Defamer]

According to the AP, CBS has announced that it's yanking Smith off the air, making the aborted series the holder of the largely semantic distinction of being the first new fall show cancelled. To show just how serious they are about the break-up, CBS has already scrubbed Smith from the primetime show lists and schedule on its site (see our attached illustration of where it used to live), though they haven't gotten around to changing the timeslot information on its individual page. On a more positive note, those who might have trouble to adjusting to Ray Liotta's premature exit from the airwaves can still visit him in Innertube limbo by clicking on the actor's somber face on the CBS homepage, momentarily streaming themselves back to the happy time before impatient programming executives decided to pull the plug on his Nielsen respirator.

• CBS' 'Smith' first new show to bite dust [AP]
• Smith [CBS.com]

"Standoff" will take about 10 days off in order to catch up with the writing of the scripts and to add Tim Minear ("Angel") as a consulting producer. Minear's pilot "Drive" is a midseason contender at Fox.

Craig Silverstein is still exec producing and acting as showrunner for "Standoff," and the studio said the hiatus won't impact the show's ability to deliver episodes on time. After tonight's episode, "Standoff" is set to return Oct. 31, following Fox's coverage of post-season baseball.

As for "Death," because the show is ahead of schedule, producers decided to turn next week's planned one-week break into a two-week rest.

For those who might be a little more comfortable with the public relations terminology used in the celebrity press, rather than the somewhat more obscure transparent excuses fed to trade publications, think of Standoff's "catching up on scripts" as "exhaustion" and 'Til Death's "We're so far ahead of scheduled we're taking some extra time! Yay!" as "dehydration," so you're not too shocked when either show suddenly disappears from the schedule.

• Fox gives 'Hour' time off [Variety]
• Previously: Bravo Website A Little Too Eager To Yank Out 'Happy Hour''s Feeding Tube [Defamer]