Entertainment Weekly’s Michael Ausiello is reporting that, while the show is not “officially” gone yet, Fox is planning to end Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, putting the series’ future in just as murky water as Dollhouse – something Joss Whedon himself has discussed. The Terminator TV show comes as a bit more of a surprise than Dollhouse; not just because it’s already had two seasons and started strong, but because it seems that having it on TV when the new movie hits multiplexes would be a rewarding tie-in.
The studio maintains that neither show has been canceled, and that the new fall lineup will be announced on May 18th. That said, neither show has exactly had a resounding endorsement from Fox, who just hew to the mantra that “no decisions have been made yet” whenever they are asked about the shows’ respective futures.
Obviously, if Fox does end up canceling both shows, we can expect dozens of “is sci-fi television dead?” ruminations across the blogosphere, as the two, back-to-back science fiction shows created Fox’s Friday night science fiction block of programming.
April 14th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
This is Fox we’re talking about, and Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles is a well-produced genre show with less-than stellar ratings. Fox likely canceling it this year isn’t a surprise. Renewing it last year — now that was the surprise.
April 14th, 2009 at 7:22 pm
The linked article doesn’t say anything about Dollhouse.
April 14th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
I doubt that the existence of the movie would help the show much. Terminator fans already know about the series. It started with 18 million viewers and dropped to barely 3.5, so it’s been soundly rejected by the public. Also, the show doesn’t have the budget for the special effects and stunts the movie is sure to have. It’s just not similar enough to hold much audience. I think that almost anyone who had much interest has already seen T:SCC and most of those people decided it wasn’t for them.
I very much expected the SCC cancellation. I thought Dollhouse had a better chance because it’s a newer show that hasn’t been sampled and rejected by as many viewers yet. Dropping from 18mill to 3.5 (SCC) is embarrassingly bad. Dollhouse never had 18 million viewers to start with, so it could be argued that if more people had ever watched it, it maybe could have retained a decent number of viewers.
Anyway, they both stunk up the ratings and deserve to be gone. I did like T:SCC, though.
April 14th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
It’s a good show with a great cast, but I think it’s been a bit slow moving this year. I still like it though and I hope Fox brings
it back.
Of course I’m still mad at Fox for canceling
“The Adventures Of Brisco County Jr.”
and that was 15 years ago.
April 15th, 2009 at 7:10 am
Such a shame if true – it is a great show and Summer Glau is a fantastic Terminator. The season finale left such a great cliffhanger for next season.
April 15th, 2009 at 7:37 am
T:SCC has aired ALL episodes…and as already stated here, Fox clearly could have canned it midseason…I think it has a slim shot at 10-13 add’l season 3 episodes due to the movie coming out in May…but the ratings are abyssmal. No one can fault Fox for trying to support the show. A move away from Mondays was in order…I mean where else are they going to put it???
Of interest, Prison Break takes over T:SCC timeslot this week to finish out its 4 year run. Would love to see the Nielsens for it when it does. Shed some light on whether its the show? Or the death timeslot…
My prediction, is Fox will either renew both shows (T:SCC, and Dollhouse) or cancel both…
April 15th, 2009 at 7:40 am
if you look at rating when terminator was on monday it had over 5 million vewiers when fox had the bright idear to move it to one of the worst night for tv friday it was lucky to crake the 3 million mark maby they whant it to get canceled
April 15th, 2009 at 7:50 am
@ anna:
the 3.5 million viewers only counts those watching the live airing. most reports say that DVRs and online viewings bring the audience to a bout 10 million. it’s got an audience, they’re just not sitting in front of a television on friday nights.
April 15th, 2009 at 7:59 am
I NEVER watch either show on Friday nights. I watch them later on DVR. It’s Friday night!
FOX needs to consider the impact of DVR, and online viewing before they axe these shows. The Nielsen system is busted. I’d say these shows would be considered highly successful (especially SCC) if the ratings were adjusted to reflect online/DVR/Xbox viewing.
April 15th, 2009 at 8:06 am
The fact that FX has a direct-to-DVD special for “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” coming soon, indicates to me that the big guys are behind the curve when it comes to understanding and taking advantage of the DVR/direct-to-Internet/video markets. I thought maybe Fox would catch on given that the sales on FUTURAMA’s movies were higher than expected, but it hasn’t been the case. I really have no idea what’s going to jar them into reality. It’s most dramatic with Fox, because while some other networks may have isolated cases–Fox has “Futurama,” “Family Guy” and “Arrested Development,” all of which have to have raised more money in DVD and ancillary products than they ever did on the air! I predict similar success for SCC.
April 15th, 2009 at 8:18 am
I never quite understood what Dollhouse was trying to do as it kept changing its direction every few episodes. When Joss Whedon realized that some people were really put off by the casual approach to slavery the show promoted (like it never ocurred to him that this might be a sore point in the concept) then he started making the dolls more proactive and revealing that there was more than met the eye going on there, but it seemed to be too little too late.
April 15th, 2009 at 8:42 am
@Jimvanhise I would assume most (if not all) of the episodes were written well before the series aired, so I doubt Joss is responding to the audience on a week-to-week basis. There’s always more going on in shows like this. Or have you never seen an episode of “24,” “Buffy,” “LOST,” or “Heroes?”
Also, the idea of the Dollhouse is *supposed* to make viewers slightly uncomfortable, and I don’t think it “promotes” slavery.
April 15th, 2009 at 9:09 am
@ ChristopherLouderback:
the problem is there’s no MONEY in DVR and online viewing. advertisers only care about the live viewings because that’s the only place their commercials are seen. SCC may have 10 million viewers, but it’s only the 3.5 that matters.
it doesn’t make me happy, but it’s a fact.
April 15th, 2009 at 10:04 am
I’ve only seen the show on tv maybe 3-4 times during it’s run. All of the other episodes I’ve seen on Fox.com. If the magical target audience is aged 20-35 males or something, then the execs would have to realize that it’s target audience is probably going out on friday night during that time slot. I myself also work on late on friday at times too.
The ratings system needs a huge reform with the advent of internet tv (hulu, fox.com, itunes, etc.).
-c
April 15th, 2009 at 10:12 am
Terminator:SCC isn’t what it could have been. There are too many bad/boring episodes and not enough action. They killed off the best character, Jesse and have Cameron in skimpy clothes to get ratings.
Dollhouse deserves another series though give it a chance.
Too many great shows get cancelled because Americans just don’t appreciate good telly like American Gothic and Pushing Daisies etc.
April 15th, 2009 at 10:18 am
I think this will boiled down to Hulu ratings and Fox’s goals for expanding into the Internet market. I think they know that the market is changing they’ll just have to figure out how to capitalize on it.
April 15th, 2009 at 10:47 am
Fox had better renew the TV show.. when the Terminator 4 movie comes out and is a big hit, then the networks would be glad to have a potential tie-in when it comes to the next TV season.. Fox already has a built-in tie-in with the show.. they better renew it, or at worst, ship it to one of the Fox cable networks like FX or something..
April 15th, 2009 at 11:05 am
The Nielson rating is pure junk and needs to be scrapped. Its 1% of the total US tv viewers… ONE PERCENT! How does that 1% make the decisions for the other 99%.
They need to take into account DVR’s and web viewers. I don’t have a TV at home but I watch my favorite shows online… is that counted??
April 15th, 2009 at 11:44 am
Dollhouse just gets better and better. It’d be a shame if it didn’t get another season.
April 15th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Wow…Fox puts both of these shows on Friday Night…and then wonder why the ratings are less then stellar? I really like T:SCC and Dollhouse, but it confounds me how Fox insists on making inane scheduling decisions for it’s programs. Oh well, guess I’ll my DVR will be recording two less programs during the week…
April 15th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
fox expected to tap into the BSG Sci-Fi channel audience with its Friday slots. Unfortunately, they didn’t count on the heavy investment BSG fans already had in the show. Now that BSG is over, Fox really should try to snag the audience by showcasing the shows strong points (and there are some amazingly strong points). Fox needs to push their marketing department with this show.
April 15th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
Ziggy-people can keep saying that all they want but DVR technology isn’t going anywhere. The networks need to learn how to accept it and deal with it…
April 15th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Oh yeah-and DVR technology is only going to keep spreading…
April 15th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
It’s always fun to see people chiming in on a topic like this. All the armchair TV executives that seem to think a TV show can react to complaints made on Monday to change things in an episode showing on Friday. Or those that think moving a TV show from Sun-Thurs slot to a Fri-Sat slot is an attempt at trying to find an audience.
The Fox behemoth, AMERICAN IDOL, really cramps their scheduling flexibility, IMO. If they had really been interested in trying to do some sort of sci-fi block, they would have attempted to pair either of these two shows up with Fringe on a better night during a time where American Idol is on hiatus.
And for those that think Fox doesn’t pay attention to DVR information? I’m pretty sure you’re wrong. Authorized internet viewing and DVRing (DirecTV, Tivo, cable provider) do appear to be tracked. Hard to imagine one of the top 4 networks turning a blind eye to that.
April 15th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
I am glad summer glau will be able to move on to a better series or films now. The Terminator show was a waste of Summer Glau.
April 15th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
I don’t see how the movie can affect the equation at all. The movie i am sure will be number 1 the weekend it comes out but will have a steep fall off after, i am sure it will be decent but not as epic as 1 or 2. If TSCC got a third season the earliest it would be back is October. Do people actually expect the public to be so excited by the movie they wait in anticipation for 6 months to start watching a tv show that has almost nothing to do with the film that just came out?
April 15th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
i’m not saying anything against DVRs. i love DVRs. i watch NOTHING live. that doesn’t change the fact that advertisers don’t care how many people watch a show on a platform that negates advertisements. networks need to readjust how to make a show profitable, besides ad revenue. but in the meantime some good shows are gonna get sacrificed till they figure it out.
April 15th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Terminator had extremely poor ratings on Mondays in the Fall and based on those numbers should have been canceled (And I speak as someone who watched every episode this Season).
Dollhouse had to start on a bad night with a lead-in that brought in relatively few viewers. Dollhouse consistently built on that lead-in audience and has had higher ratings than T: SCC EVERY week. Based on that, I am absolutely amazed that anyone could reach the conclusion that Terminator was more likely than Dollhouse to be canceled. Higher ratings usually mean a greater chance of survival.
But Dollhouse has more going for it than that. It is produced by Fox Studios and on some level I am sure that Fox Network benefits by airing a show that is made by Fox. One of the biggest costs for Dollhouse was in building the sets (almost $1,000,000) and as we have seen, future episodes can be shot relatively inexpensively, taking place all or mostly all within the Dollhouse. I would also guess that Fox’s merchandising department has been very fond of all of the money that they have made off of Firefly and are probably lobbying to see Dollhouse survive in the hopes of seeing perform in the same way that Firefly has.
Conversely, Warner Bros owns Terminator and gave Fox a discount for S2 in order to see it survive long enough to help build hype for the upcoming movie. When considering S3, WB would not have that same incentive to offer Fox Network a discount on the episodes.
Considering all of these factors, I would strongly believe that Dollhouse has a better chance of returning than Terminator does, though it’s entirely possible that neither might survive. We shall see.
April 16th, 2009 at 4:22 am
Terminator was a good show, if it going to be cancelled then we at least deserve a descent ending, perhaps 3 episode mini.
April 16th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Maybe people want some more reassuring Tv now times are very harsh. I liked it like most Sci-fi but Terminator T.S.C.C is pretty hardcore too much so for more mainstream audiences to put up with. Not excactly the ‘X-Files’ rating wise either.
April 16th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
come on fox you move a show to fridays with a start up another show and give us the people two sci fi shows heck give them tiome seems like thats what happens now days o well i stop paying for cable theres nothing on for sci fi fans (thats me )