AirLockAlpha.com

Let's be blunt: The ratings for "Dollhouse" are absolutely terrible.

So bad, the show is barely doing as well as "Smallville" on Friday nights. That's not a good thing, because "Smallville" is experiencing some of its worst ratings ever, and that's compared to other The CW shows.

Will Fox stay behind "Dollhouse"? Apparently as long as it takes to burn off the 13 episodes this season.

The network tells Reuters that it has no plans to remove "Dollhouse" from its current Friday schedule despite the fact that live viewers have fallen 37.5 percent since its first season, the season that surprised the industry when Fox ordered a second season based on it.

But the numbers are looking good in terms of DVR watchers. Those who decide to record "Dollhouse" and come back to watch it later boosts the audience by 50 percent. However, that's only a boost of another 1 million viewers, and would only bring the show back to somewhat close to its live numbers from the first season.

At the same time, DVR numbers are more to help advertisers see potential audience, but still are keenly focused on live numbers rather than timeshifted ones as viewers who DVR typically fast-forward through commercials.

Fans have been calling for Fox to move the show off Fridays, where it serves as a lead-out to a low-rated comedy block. But the network doesn't seem to be budging from that. They are keen to keeping the show right where it is.

Show creator Joss Whedon said he's not anticipating too many more episodes. He's going to write the 13th episode as a series finale, with some avenues to continue just in case Fox decides to pull yet another rabbit out of its hat.