SyFy Portal is reporting that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles may be close to termination:
With ratings far below even the network's worst predictions, Fox could pull the plug on production for "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" as early as this week.
The network has been disappointed by "Sarah Connor's" numbers so far this season, and some executives feel that the show is dragging down numbers for "Prison Break," which airs as a lead-out.
"Audiences just aren't responding to the show," a Fox source tells SyFy Portal. "Our biggest surprise are the 18-to-49s [a key advertising demographic], those numbers are in the toilet."
This would be bad news for "Sarah Connor," which had a strong first season despite airing just nine episodes in light of the Writers Guild of America strike.
Last night was the first night of full competition on all networks. Last week it beat Dancing with the Stars and The Big Bang Theory among men 18-34, but lost to the Heroes "clip show" and How I Met Your Mother. Among the overall 18-49 demo it trailed everything but Gossip Girl last week and last night it only just barely beat Gossip Girl (2.0 vs 1.9). Thanks to commenter "Anthony" for tipping us off to the SyFy Portal story.
Plus, it was among the shows judged most likely to be cancelled based on our initial Renew/Cancel index.
It unlikely that Fox will keep the show on the air now that it has less than 6 million viewers. It’s a terrific show. I don’t know why the 18-34 audience isn’t there in bigger numbers. I will really miss it!
What are they going to put in its place? House reruns? Hole in the Wall? Unaired Do Not Disturb episodes?
I think TSCC is getting horrible ratings and deserves to be canceled (Sorry! I enjoy the show, but the numbers are just not there), but does FOX have anything that will get better ratings?
Holly, I agree. It’s one thing to let it run through its 13 episodes this season, which I figured was likely, another thing to yank it early.
Fox doesn’t have a huge bench waiting to come into the game right now that I know of.
It would be a crying shame to cancel this show — it really seems to get better and more interesting with each new episode.
And the ratings may be down, but all ratings are down this season for just about every show — and need I mention that TSCC is constantly on the top downloads section of iTunes and one of the most watched shows on Hulu (and probably Fox.com as well). DVD sales were also good, and how can anyone say that one show’s ratings has a direct effect on the show that follows it (a show that’s already currently in it’s fourth season yet is still being beat out by TSCC).
There’s definitely an audience for this, hopefully Fox is smart enough to realize it… but given the now infamous Firefly fiasco, who knows?
Ok, everyone is missing the obvious here!!! It has a horrible timeslot! Its core audience is divided between Chuck, and Monday Night Football!!!
I love Chuck too, and if TSCC is canned at least Chucks ratings will go up as those of us who watch one live and dvr the other will focus on the one. Of course I don’t have a Nielson box either, so I don’t matter. But for goodness sakes Fox, move it to another night before you cancel it! It proved it could get the numbers last spring, just put it up against another networks comedy block or something. Sigh. Maybe Sci-Fi will pick it up?
Right…Sarah Connor is dragging down Prison Break. I think I’ve heard it all now. Gee where was FOX when Prison Break gave TSCC absolutely nothing as a lead-in last season? I never heard them saying “save Terminator”. You’d think they’d have learned by now that Prison Break fans don’t watch Terminator, nor SCC fans watch PB.
But you know what, shuffling around, or whatever they’re planning on doing to “save Prison Break!”, may be the best thing for Terminator. Getting it away from Mondays will at least give them a chance. And the later in the evening they air it the better. Not that FOX would realize this on their own or anything.
They ll “terminate” TSCC but keep ‘Till Death, that makes alot of sense
If i was FOX, I would change 2 things.
A. Switch timeslots between Prison Break and Terminator (air PB at 8 and terminator at 9)
B. Change the day to Wednesday
Someone get them to do it!
So, FOX is blaming Terminator for PB’s low ratings????? That is SUCH a load of B.S.
FOX is a joke. They’re probably hoping the show dies a slow death. Bringing down Prison Break? A show that is 4 years old and probably shouldn’t have been renewed for this year? Whatever. This is why it doesn’t pay to get involved in tv shows. The networks just rip them out from under you.
Read the full article if you really want to get mad.
There’s something about FOX being afraid of losing Prison Break -_-
Terminator doesn’t belong on Monday, doesn’t belong with Prison Break and, really, shouldn’t've began airing until mid-season. FOX should be disappointed in itself for expecting that the show would be able to compete with Monday Night Football, Dancing with the Stars and the CBS comedies when Fringe and not Terminator got all the promotion.
I know the nails might be in the coffin already but I want to wait for something official to show up from a “source” who has a name other than just “source”
Assuming the speculation is true, it strikes me that the noises about Terminator “dragging down” Prison Break may come from Prison Break people trying to point fingers to justify their own jobs. Also, aren’t the creators/producers/somebody of Prison Break producing a new series for Fox? Seems to me you wouldn’t want a new series from a group that produced a sucky show, so that might give you some incentive to point the finger of blame at a show where you don’t have that problem…
In any event, I think it would be pretty dramatic if Fox took TSCC off the air before airing all 13 episodes. I mean, presumably they paid for the show whether they air it or not. And what is Fox going to air in its place?
If this story is true then the Fox execs have no clue on how to do their jobs. It is disheartening to see a good show being cancelled to protect a stale show that is at the end of its run. Futurama was cancelled before as well because they said it affected the ratings of Simpsons. It also affects consumer confidence when they do not even finish off a series properly. What gives me the incentive to invest my time in another show on Fox. Enough is enough I may even stop watching House even though I love the show.
@Jackson, yes it does make sense to keep til death and cancel terminator. Terminator probably costs 5x as much to make as Til’ death. (that’s just a guess, no real fact behind it).
It’s obvious that an expensive show like TSCC with such low ratings would get cancelled, but pulling it early seems like a really bad move. They should air the episodes they’ve already completed, it doesn’t make sense not to. It’s not like they have anything to go in its place. (as everyone is saying).
As for accusations that TSCC is bringing down Prison Break, this is just totally unfounded. Fox should dump prison break too.
Actually, according to producer Josh Friedman, TSCC isn’t an expensive show to make, people only think it is. At least, that’s what he stated last season, and do you really think Fox decided to up the budget this season? Doubtful, since they didn’t have faith enough to order a full season.
@ Johnthemon i was commenting that till death has bones as a lead in and doesnt retain half of those viewers; where as, TSCC is up agianst MNF n DWTS and now chuck, so the ratings are bad, but till death is worse cuz of the lead in and really nothing at the 9 pm slot to compete agianst
the sci-fi channel won’t continue it, they couldn’t afford stargate atlantis i dout they will be able to afford this. The show looks very expensive
I agree with what alot of you are saying no matter where they put P.B it still doesn’t work.The show is bad and it’s dated and doesn’t work anymore imo.
Frankly, I’m not sure why anyone is surprised with this turn of events. The show only did well during season 1 because it aired during a period when it had no first run competition to speak of… The show that replaced it, New Amsterdam, did better against fresh content on other networks than TSCC is doing now.