For many of our readers this was already a foregone conclusion, but this post is for everyone else. Though two data points on a Friday don't necessarily make for a trend, we have more data points than that for Sarah Connor, and whenever it finishes its run, it's done. Yes, I know Bill will write about this in the next Renew or Cancel update but I'm guessing Bill will boil it down to its essence, which is, whenever it finishes its run, it's done. Enjoy it while it lasts! If you're already in that space yourself, there's no reason to read the rest of this.
But, if you're one of those people who just won't let go that easily, read on. The numbers are, as Bill would say, look away bad. I know some will hold on to hope until it's just not on anywhere anymore. But I don't believe in holding on like that, at least when it comes to TV shows with the kind of low Nielsen ratings we're talking about for a scripted show on broadcast television. So, I plan to actually take my own advice and simply enjoy the show while it lasts.
We've seen this movie before, and we know how it ends. The remaining episodes will (hopefully) air, Fox will announce its fall schedule and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles won't be on it, and between now and then, and even after there will be a lot of noise on the Internet.
1. Maybe The CW will pick the show up for a third season since its produced by Warner Bros, or maybe SciFi will pick it up since it's a SciFi show, or maybe DirecTV will write a big check to bail the show out!
None of those things is very likely to happen. Not impossible, but not likely either. Ultimately it will come down to how much Warner Bros is willing to discount it, or said another way, how little it is willing to charge. Typically, other networks don't want to pick up a show that had really, really bad ratings. If TSCC had 8 million viewers and a 2.0 in the demo, things would be different. It doesn't (if it had those numbers on Friday, FOX would likely stick with it), but if it had those kind of numbers and was being cancelled, it might be more attractive to the likes of the CW. The CW might be reasonable to think in that case that it could perhaps do in the neighborhood of what it does with Supernatural. The problem is, the show is already doing in the neighborhood of Supernatural, and it's not on the CW. So it would do worse on the CW. And even worse than that on SciFi.
Some have suggested that the show is very inexpensive to produce and so therefore someone else would give this a try. I'm not so sure. I'm not sure that the show is hugely expensive, but it's more expensive to produce than a show like Supernatural on The CW or a show like Eureka on SciFi. One of the reasons it seems like the broadcast shows never wind up being saved by cable networks is cost. I can definitely believe the show was offered very inexpensively to FOX this year, and that was one of the reasons it was even on the air for a second season to begin with. But I do not believe the studio can afford to discount the show heavily enough for cable or the CW without everyone involved with the show taking big pay cuts.
Sometimes shows move from one broadcast network to the other for a variety of reasons (think Scrubs moving from NBC to ABC), but we've seen a lot of shows get cancelled from broadcast networks in the last 18 months and never have seen one of them wind up on cable or The CW.
So what about a DirecTV deal like it did with Friday Night Lights? In that particular case the studio and the network were all under the same umbrella (NBC Universal), and we don't know yet if that deal really worked out. We won't know for sure until we hear NBC's plans for the show next season. Because TSCC isn't produced by a FOX owned studio, it seems less likely that FOX would be interested in brokering that sort of deal. Of course, if DirecTV could write a big enough check so that Warner Bros was willing to give it to FOX for free, that's a different story. I wouldn't bet on that happening.
Judging from how many people watched Friday Night Lights on DirecTV, and how many people are watching it on NBC, I'll be very surprised if that experiment continues. And if it doesn't, that will likely mostly put the kibosh on such deals in the future. But even if NBC/DirecTV do go another year, because of the ratings for TSCC, such a deal for it seems very unlikely.
Also there's this: TSCC doesn't get the sort of critical acclaim Friday Night Lights gets.
2. It's a big hit on the Internet!
Not big enough, and that won't be a factor.
3. The movie Terminator: Salvation is coming out and Terminator sensation will sweep the nation creating a Terminator style frenzy and there will be HUGE INTEREST IN ALL THINGS TERMINATOR!
Sorry, but I always sort of thought it was the other way around. That the only reason Terminator: TSCC was back on the air this year was because Warner Bros discounted the show very heavily to FOX and committed to buying lots of commercial time for Terminator: Salvation on FOX. There is absolutely no data to suggest that how people feel about a two hour film correlates in any way to watching a television series that is only loosely based on the films. Dark Night: The Series and Wall-E: The Series would already be on the air if that was true.
4. Variations of: Nielsen is an antiquated system! FOX didn't promote the show enough! FOX screwed the show over by scheduling it on Mondays! FOX screwed the show over by scheduling it on Fridays! Pleeeeeeaaaaaaassssssse FOX, don't cancel Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, it's the only show I watch on FOX! If FOX cancels the show I'll never watch FOX again!
All of that is just blah, blah, blah freaking blah. Seriously. Saying those things might make some people feel better, but none of those things will actually do anything to save the show. The most likely thing to save the show somehow so that it at least winds up on the air somewhere is if you and a few million of your friends go out and buy the DVDs. But sadly, that's not going to happen either. Please note that both Jericho and Moonlight before it, shows that actually had a lot more viewers than TSCC (TSCC now has numbers lower than Swingtown, also cancelled) a.) did not sell a ton of DVDs and b.) more people are watching the shows that CBS is airing now than watched those shows.
Does all of this suck for fans of the show? Absolutely. But TV is a business, and shows that pull numbers like TSCC has pulled (even when it was on Mondays) aren't good business. Is it possible Warner Bros will discount the show so steeply for a third season the likes of SciFi or the CW would be interested? It is possible, but that doesn't seem like good business for Warner Brothers, so it too seems unlikely.
I know that it sucks for the fans of the show, and I'm not trying to tweak anyone, but sadly, the numbers for the show are really bad. So long, see you, bye, style bad. Smaller networks like The CW and SciFi just don't pick up shows that have abysmal Nielsen ratings on broadcast television. But that won't stop all the speculation.
I would watch Dark Knight: The Series. Wall.E: The Series, too.
I smell lots of comments coming for this post. Mine being the first (or by the time I hit the submit button, probably second) I should probably say something relevant. But I can’t think of anything other than:
Save your crazy SAVE OUR SHOW stuff, people, it ain’t happening. Sometimes you just have to realize that a show has no chance at survival, this is one of those times.
But i’m sure i’m about to see 300 THIS IS HOW THE SHOW WILL BE SAVED comments, so carry on.
I’m not sure people understand but last year shows that should have died lived, like Friday Night Lights.But such deals and bringing back of say pushing daisies or Dirty Sexy Money were because the networks had less pilots due to the writers strike: and i guess not many ‘good’ pilots so networks put more effort into saving shows than cancelling. So such deals now I doubt will not happen, networks will want to build a more solid schedule for the 2009-2010 season. Shows like TSCC had flopped like this last might have been revived but not this year: especially since networks have less money.
i’m not sure even the fans WANT this show to be saved its been gradually sinking in quality season 2 is a joke compared to season 1 the pacing is extremely slow, too many pointless side plots / filler episode / hardly any action , they’re keeping fan hated characters (Jesse, Riley) etc.
The thing is, even if the show is saved or moved to another network for another season they always continue to tank in ratings and get cancelled again. Roswell and recently, Jericho where saved by write in champaigns only to see the shows tank even worst the next season its brought back.
Cagney & Lacey was canceled and then brought back and kept around for another 5 seasons. However, that show was lucky to have Sharon Gless. I don’t think Terminator would have such luck if it were brought out of cancelation!
TSCC was given alot more chances than any other (SF) TV show in decades. Most of them were better then TSCC (even thou TSCC is a great show, that is, if we don’t count the last few episodes that were crap). And it failed in EVERY possible way. I don’t even know why are we still talking about this.
I won’t fangirl over TSCC and say how much it meant to me here (I’ll save that for a future post) but you’re right Robert; this really does suck. I don’t have much else to say.
… Except that I wish it would somehow be given one more season so it could go back to its roots and wrap the series up.
I will watch TSCC to the end but wont be sad to see it go.
CW wont save it for the same reason CW didnt save Jericho or Moonlight or any of a dozen other shows cancelled in the last 2 years. CW just doesnt have the money. CW locally is so bad that early morning programming has cheesy infomercials, Girls Gone Wild for hours on end and some wacko cult show called Nation of Yahweh – those crackpots are famous for killing over a dozen white people in the 80s and cutting off body parts to prove their loyalty to the leader.
And it wont get the Friday Night Lights treatment either as that hasnt been successful as they hoped and has under 4 million viewers.
Seidman got it 100% in regards to the future of TSCC. Dollhouse will die too after its run is done.
Actually I don’t think that’s the reason to why the CW wouldn’t pick up TSCC or didn’t pick up Jericho and Moonlight. I mean sure, it’s true that the CW doesn’t have a lot of money, at least not as much as the other 4 broadcasting networks. But I think the reason to why the CW wouldn’t pick TSCC up, is the same reason it had when it didn’t pick The O.C. up or when UPN didn’t pick up Firefly. The CW wants to form its own brand so they won’t become a new UPN (used-parts-network).
Josh is going to kill Cameron in the finale there is not doubt in my mind. Its only fitting. Her so called fans, spit the fanbase and threw off any new fans when trying to understand this show. Every message board would have so called fans trashing a episode NOT on its merits, Not on how it portrayed Terminator in a TV episode, but on how much Jameron it had in it.
Chances are low for the show to come back. However Warner IS interested in selling it to another vendor vs. hearing they’re being canned and saying “oh well,” like they do 99% of the time.
First they have to figure out if they can continue to shop the show for the same price they shopped it to FOX for. If they can, then most definitely SCI FI would be interested, because it’s cheap. I don’t know if they can do that, because I doubt DODGE for instance would pony up the same cash for SCI FI, or even pony up cash at all for a season 3.
The CW may be a possibility. Warner isn’t happy with the CW right now, and they’re not happy with the CW “Brand,” at all. So they could force it on Dawn, and right now Dawn is bowing to the wishes of Warner. She kicked PRIVILEGED and moved up REAPER at their request. She even agreed to promote the return of REAPER heavily (for a show against the Brand that is, I’m sure SUPERNATURAL wishes it got the same promotion for its shows).
It all comes down to how badly Warner wants to keep the show around. If they want it around they can do it, they own enough cable stations (TBS, TNT).
DirecTV is not going to happen. It’s not even on the table.
@ Jesse
‘Save our Show’ campaigns have worked before, but you’re right that it won’t work here. The ratings are just too bad, and only about 1 in 100 shows with “save our show” campaigns are actually saved, and even less stick around for very long afterwards.
The only time I can actually remember it working was after Family Guy season 2. The fans convinced Fox to bring it back for season 3, after which it was officially cancelled…until they picked it back up again in 2006, due to DVD sales and successful re-runs on adult swim. But Family Guy had better ratings, even relative to what Fox was doing then.
Terminator is dead, but I said goodbye already, because nothing was freaking happening!
Anyway my condolences to fans, and I hope this doesn’t happen to any shows I care about.
aa-
I agree. I enjoyed SCC very much during the first season, but the show is just so boring now and it’s been getting more & more boring every week since September.
oh and @ Average Joe, where do you live? Wacko Cult show? Dang.
i’ve been terrified of this ever since the season premier pulled on 6.3 million. i hope that they give the producers enough time to wrap up the entire show, instead of just leaving us to guess.
i feel so bad for summer glau. she’s been through this before, and i can only imagine how bad it’s gotta suck.
Just posted on the Sarah Connor Society message board. Tried telling them that there’s no hope, but I doubt they’ll listen. I just look forward to all the responses about letter writing campaigns, etc.
This article is nothing but speculation. The title should be changed.
James i think rob and bill know what they are talking about and with the numbers terminator is getting i dont think any network how big or how small wont take on this series because its not a ratings hit.Sure it had a surprise here and there in an episode but still you need to make some noise to get noticed.Terminator didnt do that.
I know how we can save TSCC!! We simply need to create an army of cyborgs, send them back in time, and have them all watch the show to increase the ratings!! Foolproof!