Dollhouse

FOX8 has picked up the rights to Dollhouse, the latest drama from Joss Whedon. Although TEN talked up Dollhouse in May, the program will be aired with fewer ads and could have posed problems for a commercial free-to-air network.

Starring Buffy’s Eliza Dushku it tells the tale of a group of people, known as ‘Actives’ (or ‘Dolls’) who “have had their personalities wiped clean so they can be imprinted with any number of new personas and hired out for particular jobs, crimes, fantasies and occasional good deeds. When not imprinted, the Actives live, childlike and unremembering, in a hidden facility nicknamed ‘The Dollhouse.’”

The drama would anchor FOX8’s move to a younger target demographic this summer, Foxtel’s Brian Walsh told The Australian.

“Given that we have new competition in 2009 (new free-to-air digital multi-channels), we’re sharpening up the owned and operated channels to be a little more niche,” he said.

“For FOX8, we’re narrowing our demographic to 18 to 30 and playing much harder. That enables us to better develop the W channel and the new general entertainment channel we launch from November 1.”

Foxtel has also secured the single-camera corporate comedy, Better Off Ted, starring Aussie Portia de Rossi, and the sitcom set in a New York hotel, Do Not Disturb, which stars Crossing Jordan’s Jerry O’Connell.

Adult drama Sons of Anarchy will go to Foxtel’s premium channel, Showcase.