With 8 episodes down and 6 5 to go for Dollhouse, there’s certainly a chance for a late game ratings miracle, but I just can’t think of any logical reason to expect one any longer. It’s far more likely that the show just muddles along at about its current 18-49 demo ratings, and they’re just not going to save the show.
Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles’ series finale is April 10.
4/8 Update: Lots of comments about how April 10 is the TSCC season finale. People who live a reality based life understand it’s also the series finale.
This is a breakdown of Fox scripted shows and their renewal and cancelation prospects. Here are the others:
Our Renew / Cancel index predicts potential renewal for *next* season: Canceled/Not Returning, In Danger, or Renewal Likely for 2009-10, Renewal Announced.
| PROGRAM | Net | STD 18-49 (LIVE+SD) (000) | Network Avg. STD 18-49 | Renew/ Cancel index | Status |
| TERMINATOR: SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES (FRI) | FOX | 1,642 | 3,530 | 0.47 | |
| DO NOT DISTURB | FOX | 2,097 | 3,530 | 0.59 | canceled |
| DOLLHOUSE | FOX | 2,116 | 3,530 | 0.60 | |
| TIL DEATH | FOX | 2,364 | 3,530 | 0.67 | renewed |
| PRISON BREAK | FOX | 2,988 | 3,530 | 0.85 | canceled |
| AMERICAN DAD | FOX | 3,628 | 3,530 | 1.03 | |
| KING OF THE HILL | FOX | 3,719 | 3,530 | 1.05 | final season |
| BONES | FOX | 3,988 | 3,530 | 1.13 | |
| SIMPSONS | FOX | 4,154 | 3,530 | 1.18 | renewed |
| FRINGE | FOX | 4,586 | 3,530 | 1.30 | |
| FAMILY GUY | FOX | 4,613 | 3,530 | 1.31 | |
| 24 | FOX | 5,008 | 3,530 | 1.42 | coming back |
| LIE TO ME | FOX | 5,134 | 3,530 | 1.45 | |
| HOUSE | FOX | 6,129 | 3,530 | 1.74 |
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The Renew/Cancel Index is a show’s Season To Date adults 18-49 viewership divided by its networks Season to Date average 18-49 viewership. Note that the Fox average used above is its final Season to Date average prior to American Idol (see below).
Notes:
Prison Break is in its final season.
‘Til Death has done terribly, and has been off Fox’s schedule since October, Sony Pictures has reportedly made Fox such a sweet deal for future episodes that Fox has bought another entire season, proving that at a low enough price that even a ratings black hole is worth suffering through.
Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles: The numbers above are for only its Friday airings that began on February 13, 2009. FYI, It’s 13 episode 18-49 average on Monday this season was 2.726 million.
How did we come up with our Index? We found that last season, the future of a show was nearly directly related to its adults 18-49 average viewers divided by its networks 18-49 average viewers. Many other factors may matter, but they all seemed to boil down to that one number. Because American Idol so skewed Fox’s 18-49 average, and would make nearly all Fox shows fall into the “cancel” range, for Fox, I used the last STD 18-49 average *before* Idol. Last season, if a show had better than 92% of its network’s average 18-49 viewership (0.92 in our index) it was pretty safe, below that level it was in danger.
Remember that plenty can change before the end of the season, particularly for the shows with indexes between 0.80 and last season’s renewal line of 0.92. The list is presented in a (and has to be, since I cannot predict future ratings) “what would happen if the season ended today” mode. Could the renewal line be 0.86 this season? Possibly. It might also be 0.95. Might it be 0.70? No chance.
Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2009 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved. All viewership numbers are Live+SD.
Correction: Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles’ season finale is April 10.
“Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles’ series finale is April 10.”
You mean Season finale… Writers of the show have as recently as April 5th, denied claims that the series is canceled/ending.
They would have also announced it earlier too, because they wouldn’t want cancellation news being so close to release of T4.
The show hasn’t been cancelled yet, but I think Bill wrote “series finale” because Terminator is obviously not coming back. I agree with him, FOX will say season finale while promoting the series, however because of the movie, it won’t be announced until the upfronts. So for all the realistic people out there, The series finale airs April 10. The series finales of Prison Break and Dollhouse will air May 15.
Dollhouse has 6 episodes left? I thought it had 5 left.
Somehow Bill has a total of 14 episodes when there are only 13, but there are only five left. One this Friday, and after a week off on 4/17, four more that will run on consecutive Fridays starting 4/24.
Bad counting!
Jonathan, there will likely be no announcement of TSCC’s cancellation. May 18 will come, Fox will announce its Fall schedule, TSCC won’t be on it, and the movie will open 3 days later and TSCC will be forgotten.
I hope that dollhouse comes back next year. It it probably won’t , I like the show I don’t know why the ratings are so bad.
It looks like DOLLHOUSE may get renewed. I’m a believer in the index, but I also believe that Fridays live by their own rules. We don’t know what the bar is for Friday on FOX, just as we don’t know the bar for CBS.
One of the prospects for Sarah Connor Chronicles is that it might get picked up by Sci Fi. Would be a good combo to go with Caprica next year.
ed, what makes you think T:SCC will get picked up? Its way to expensive and the ratings are pretty bad, if not awful.
TSCC is totally doomed.
Hopefully so is Josh Friedman’s TV career.
No matter what they do Friday – whether it’s the leaked script or something else – there’s no way they can recover from the disaster that is this season. They really have “burned down the frakkin’ barn” as Friedman put it.
Jonathan says: “They would have also announced it earlier too, because they wouldn’t want cancellation news being so close to release of T4.”
Dan says: “FOX will say season finale while promoting the series, however because of the movie, it won’t be announced until the upfronts.”
Jonathan and Dan, go find a network’s publicly announced cancellation notice for any show and link to it. See you back here, when it actually happens.
Geez.
Let me have a go at baseless B.S.:
“Fox has canceled Dollhouse, but they won’t announce it until after Wolverine is released so that it doesn’t hurt that movie. They are concerned that Dollhouse fans will boycott the movie.”
Easy to do. So pointless. So stupid.
harold: why would wolverine movie affect dollhouse??is fox the movies studio?dool, house and terminator are good but they don’t have enough robots or other movie tie -ins. i like them!altho the actrees playing sarah is skinny!!it isn’t over til it’s over !!
Harold, ABC officially announced Life on Mars’ cancellation a few weeks before the finale
dollhouse is terrible, i have no feeling towards the characters and thats what keeps me interested in the shows i watch
Johnathan,
You’re my favorite person that comments here. I wish I could live in your world where down is up, black is white, and TSCC has even a little bit of a chance at renewal.
Alas, I live in the real world, where up is up, black is black, and TSCC is going to be canceled. It’s a slam-dunk, home run, touchdown, whatever sports cliche you want. TSCC is gone. From Fox at least. I’m not to be held responsible for my comments if some network like SyFy (God I hate typing that) is stupid enough to pick it up.
I’m guessing the reason behind Fringe being higher up than Bones is because Fringe has only aired 1 repeat all season, while Bones has had numerous repeats, correct?
I mean, I know Bones is a more popular show than Fringe (I myself am all for Fringe!) so that’s why I ask.
Jared, that’s certainly a possible contributing factor, and while I don’t have the new episode averages at hand to back me up, I’m pretty sure that Fringe’s new episodes have done much better on average in the 18-49 demo than Bones’.
Love TSCC. Love the whole mythology that the series has added to the Terminator series. But all my love can’t hide the obvious. TSCC is killing off core characters left and right. They obviously started writing the second half of the second reason as a series wrap. As much as I hate to see it go, I think it works well (even if it makes it a bit more bitter sweet). TSCC is beginning to feel like an extended mini-series and it plays very well. After all, Sarah couldn’t dodge metal for six or seven seasons without it becoming very tired.
Fan of the show. Fan of the network and producers (despite whatever ulterior motives they have with the movie tie in) for seemingly wrapping it up tight.
I definitely agree TSCC would be a great show to add to SciFi. I personally always thought it should have been there from the get go as that’s the audience it’s geared towards. However it got put on Fox which was a major flaw and now we’re looking at it being canceled. The only way we’re going to see it make a move is if another network is interested, the talent takes a massive pay cut and the show reduces it’s overall budget significantly. I frankly think the chance of having all those things occur to be slim to none.
At this point, the one and only saviour for ‘Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles’ is Warner Television, who must somehow convincing Miss Dawn Ostroff to pick it up for mid-season in 2009-10 by offering The CW a most-favoured pricing (i.e. low licence fee) option. I doubt that they would be willing to extend favourable pricing to networks from other media groups (i.e. NBCU’s SyFy or News Corp’s MyNetworkTV), and without fee reductions, the low ratings make it hard to profit from airing the show.
If it goes to The CW, I would expect that the network would probably try to make it fit their demographic better by focusing more on Miss Summer Glau’s character and her relationship with John (perhaps placing them in another high school setting a la ‘Roswell’), and pushing the Debbie Downer mother character more into the background.
I’m not a TSCC fan but on the promos it said SEASON FINALE. They’re obviously thinking of giving it a chance. It will probably die with a silent death — networks love to do that.
TSCC FAN says: “TSCC is killing off core characters left and right. They obviously started writing the second half of the second reason as a series wrap.”
I know this isnt a fanboy site and its about raitings here, but lets say for argument sake there were to be a 3rd season. killing off Rilley and Jessie, is fine, wouldnt call them core characters, Charlie and Derek, yes they were, more so Derek then Charlie, I didnt even think Charlie would be back, but Derek’s death seemed so… uneventful. Now in the terminator universe there are lots of plot holes and paradoxes regarding time travel, so i dont even know if this would work, but couldnt they bring Derek back, since the future is always changing based on what people in the present are doing, dosent future John now have the memory and knowledge of Derek being killed at the Weaver home and he could (in the future) send Derek back before his original jump, there by hooking him back up with John, Sara, and Camron in the present, though of course he would have no knowledge of knowing any of them yet or anything that happened. just something I had been thinking about since the last episode had aired.
and Really hope they hold off on cancelation until they see if the movie can breath new life into the series, I know the show and the movie arent connected story wise but you know, mabey the movie will stir up interest and help sell alot of season 2 dvd’s. I think they should wait and see.
‘24′ should be in black. Sutherland and the producers have given a bunch of interviews about the eighth season.
Well, Josh Friedman claims he’s taken the pledge that he will never do another time travel story, because it becomes too unwieldy VERY quickly. Nonetheless he also admitted that HE’S the one who keeps sticking that stuff in there. In the writers room, they used to call it the “Rabbit Hole” and they ended up in there for hours at a time, apparently.
If the show started changing the time-lines by resending everybody back to avoid their deaths, it would have officially jumped the shark even more than it has.
Time travel can only be used effectively in sci-fi if it is ONLY used to set up the premise for the action in the present – and then lets it lay. That’s what James Cameron did and apparently that was deliberate.
The basic premise of the franchise itself is completely ridiculous if you think about it, so the goal is never to make you think about it by occupying you with what is going on in the present, preferably with lots of action and stuff blowing up and people getting shot.
That was one of the problems with season two. They sent back a guy to scribble a bunch of names in his own blood on a basement wall – rather than, more logically, busting into the house and saying, “Hey, Sarah, grab a pen and paper, I gotta tell you something before I drop dead here!” You can talk faster than you can scribble – especially in your own blood.
I always wondered why future John never just put EVERYTHING he knew of his own history and Skynet on one 32GB flash drive, shove it up some Resistance fighter’s butt so it can survive the time travel, and send the guy home! LOL
CW is not the place for TSCC. I can’t imagine it going there. I can see TNT as more likely than CW and even that’s probably just wishful thinking. There’s another possibility though, TSCC has a new sponsor since a few episodes – DirecTV.
Richard Steven Hack: It amazes me how you still can write youre crap about TSCC here AND on Terminator blog…
Move on already and let the real fans of the show AND Josh Friedman enjoy it. TSCC would have never existed without Friedman, not season 1 either…
You obviously don’t understand the concept, wich is proved by alot of youre comments such as the basement wall. So move on already and watch something less challenging.
Moving on… My personal wish is that some day we will get a JOHN CONNOR CHRONICLES, focusing on John being a man, Cameron (gotta have Summer Glau), Skynet vs the “good fraction” after Sarahs death.
Gusar, do you have a link about the DirectTV connection? They did support Friday Night Lights which otherwise would have been cancelled. It would be interesting if they could be persuaded to do the same for TSCC. But I’ve heard nothing about any such negotiations.
Dan, I understand the TSCC – and more importantly, the actual Terminator franchise – concept considerably more than you do. Even the TSCC writers themselves never liked the “Blood Wall”, according to Thomas Dekker himself.
I never said Josh Friedman didn’t do a few good things – casting Summer Glau as a female Terminator was a stroke of genius on his part. Unfortunately he never understood the potential of the character fully.
They have a “John Connor Chronicles” – it’s called “Terminator: Salvation”.
Didn’t I read somewhere that although Bones hasn’t been renewed officially, the powers that be at Fox have commissioned the first 6 episodes of what would be season 5?
Regarding TSCC, it’s a pity if it does end but at least we got to see Derek on screen, albeit briefly, unlike what happened with Kutner on House this week.
Anyone know what Fringe’s figures were for last night’s awesome comeback episode? If Fringe doesn’t get renewed, I will be shocked because with BG ended and Eureka on hiatus, it’s arguably the best sci-fi-ish show on TV at the moment.
Richard, watch the show live. You’ll see “This episode brought to you by DirecTV” ads. It definitely means DirecTV has invested money into the show. But it could be they just bought rights to air seasons 1 and 2. Or it could be they’ll co-fund season 3 (yeah, I know, wishful thinking).
Richard: “Dan, I understand the TSCC – and more importantly, the actual Terminator franchise – concept considerably more than you do. Even the TSCC writers themselves never liked the “Blood Wall”, according to Thomas Dekker himself.”
See, yet another clue as to what you don’t understand…
> “They have a “John Connor Chronicles” – it’s called “Terminator: Salvation”.”
I wouldn’t put too much hope into that movie yet… But would be happy to be proven wrong. Either way, I still rather have a tv-show that can last and build on the original creation of James Cameron.
I was happy that Friedman completely ignored T3 btw…
Sorry that I’m bringing this up again, but the numbers of The Simpsons haven’t changed compared to last week. What doesn this mean?
Dan – he didn’t completely ignore T3. The John Connor from T:SCC is very obviously the same one as from T3, a whiny, depressed, angst ridden teenager rather than the “kid who could easily be the future leader of humanity” you saw in T2. And some of T3’s background points also made it into T:SCC, noteably the notion Connor gets cancer.
If Josh had completely ignored T3, T:SCC would have been a much better series. T:SCC needed a believable John, a likeable Sarah, and something to keep you watching every week other than “How is this trainwreck going to resolve itself?” I thought it said a lot about how bad things had gotten that the show could do three episodes concentrating on the leading character and (a) most people came away with the opposite view to that intended by the writers and (b) everyone felt it was a mistake and the series lost viewers as a result.
If you can’t actually make episodes about your main character, you’re in trouble.
I’m fairly depressed about T:SCC. It deserves to be canceled, and would even outside of the criteria set by TBTN – eg, it’d deserve to be canceled even if it had House like ratings. It’s just an awful, awful, series, and it started off (after a few duds) showing some very real promise. I think the people involved are very talented, but they can’t put everything together in a way that leaves you with a watchable show.
I can’t say the same for Dollhouse. Since the sixth episode it’s been superb, edge of the seat, can’t turn your eyes away, TV goodness, and I’m disappointed it’s also doing poorly in the ratings. I suspect the week hiatus will probably kill it once and for all.
TSCC is dead. If SCI-FI wouldnt pick up JERICHO with 6 million viewers, they arent going to pick up TSCC with under 4 million. Both shows were expensive to make.
Though I watched TSCC from the beginning, I really didnt fall in love with it and mostly watch it just to see how it ends up. A better idea for a series would have been John Conner and the early days of him building the resistance after the end of T3 leading into T4. This would likely only work on SCI-FI channel where its viewers would be more attracted to a show with darker themes like BSG had. FX also might have worked since FOX own that network.
TSCC had way too much time travel, muddled pointless plots (Jesse and suicide girl) and seemed to be wandering around aimlessly much of the time. It was a decent show, better than most of the junk on TV these days, but I cant say I will miss it.
Just a curiosity, but Bill, why does the Index separate TSCC’s numbers from Fall to Spring? Is it because it moved days?
Dennis, it means that the Simpsons recent episode was at or near its season to date 18-49 average, so it’s Index didn’t change. Fox’s season to date average used in the calculations is frozen at its last pre-Idol number for reasons stated in the post.
The premise of the show is a plot. People are pimped out by an organization that erases their memory afterward. An FBI agent is on the trail of this organization. One of the people is regaining their identity…
This is a premise that is conceptually related to that of the first season of “Prison Break”: A man breaks into a prison to free his brother.
That is, both premises do not have the advantage of being friendly to stand-alone episodes. If your premise of a show is “crew in a wandering space ship gets in adventures!” or “Teens fight forces of evil!” then you can probably construct many, many self-contained episodes.
Therefore, to retain audiences, a show like Prison Break or Dollhouse should open as strongly as possible and keep that momentum going. Prison Break opened like this. So did Lost.
Dollhouse, with its premise that’s unfriendly to self-contained episodes, decided to open very slowly and mundanely. What we have so far–8 episodes–has touched remarkably little on what’s on the audiences mind: When will Echo wake up/escape?
Worse still, it tried to have self-contained episodes out of Echo’s missions. This person is rented out…it’s bad that they’re rented out…but they will get into an adventure that is exciting to viewers…but then their memory will be erased, so none of it will have mattered. Firstly, the “adventures” of Echo were not exciting. I don’t think the writers could even have made them exciting! They were supposed to be backround material, not any sort of substance.
If you are average Joe just stumbling on something like that, you might finish an episode but not care to return for the next: You’ve received neither the satisfaction of a CSI/Law and Order type of neatly wrapped episode nor have you experienced the sort of exciting serialized storytelling of 24 or Prison Break.
A fair amount of people tuned in for the premiere of this show…but the series is dropping like a rock. Essentially, Whedon wanted to have the season be a prelude to much meatier stuff, but this is truly like “Lost” opening months before the plane crash and the viewer being made to wait for the Island while he’s forced to sit through the substance of the flashbacks of the first two seasons. Hey, you might be exposed to some interesting storytelling there, but you’d much rather get to the Island.
The problem with you guys is you ONLY look at the numbers. TSCC isn’t like Jericho or Dollhouse or anything else on air at the moment. If there was ever a show that could survive on raw potential, it’s this one. It is not YET cancelled, and there is always a chance for renewal, no matter how crappy the ratings have been lately.
Call me delusional, but I don’t care, because I firmly believe this show has a bright future ahead of it and there is no way WB will file it away forever. And Richard, didn’t Catherine Weaver kill you already?
The website is named “TV by the NUMBERS” for a reason.
“Call me delusional”
Already done.
Veran,it’s one of the lowest rated shows on the Big 4. It’s done.
Personally, I think that the Ellison/Weaver plot hurt the show. Everyone I know was going “How stupid can Ellison be not to realize Weaver is a Terminator?” And, of course, the first 3 Friday episodes seemed like Friedman was deliberately trying to viewers away.
Fox rescheduling Mental so that all the Dollhouse episodes do air is not the mark of a definitely canceled series.
Then again, I think all this “Dollhouse will return” hinting is just PR designed to protect the cost premium on the remote-free advertising rates for the show. Once the new Fox management settles in, Dollhouse will be quietly dropped at the upfront.
squiggleslash said:I can’t say the same for Dollhouse. Since the sixth episode it’s been superb, edge of the seat, can’t turn your eyes away
Dollhouse is edge of your seat viewing? come on WORST SHOW EVER MORE LIKE!!!!!
Holly says: “Harold, ABC officially announced Life on Mars’ cancellation a few weeks before the finale”
If you were to provide a link to what you claim was an “offical announcement,” I would probably be looking at a HR or Variety article stating that “Life on Mars” had been canceled.
Not exactly an “offical announcement” from ABC, is it?
Keep looking, Holly. If you need a clue on finding a network public cancellation notice, here’s a hint:
Networks distribute them to the media by placing them on pots of gold at the end of rainbows. The leprechauns are employed to read the notices.
Don’t believe me? The leprechaun that reads the NBC cancellation notices lives in Mobile, Alabama – http://cellfish.com/video/99726/Leprechaun-in-Mobile-AL
Harold, you’re wrong. Not only did ABC officially announce it, to the press directly, and for the last three episodes even on-air they were promoting it as the SERIES not season finale.
My mouth is already open and I’ll insert my foot into it later after posting this, but that is awful that ABC did that.
There are a lot of unstable TV viewers out there along the lines of “I won’t believe Dollhouse is canceled until Joss Whedon hold a press conferences saying that it is.”
After “Moonlight,” I despise rabid TV fans. It’s like instead of a religion, they have a TV show. I don’t know what is missing in these people’s lives, but they use a TV show to fill in the space. It’s not just pathetic. It’s also kind of scary. I’m genuinely frightened by those people.
So, ABC providing formal notice for “Life on Mars” is just going to reinforce the expectation among some of these people that their poorly watched TV show deserves some sort of formal death notice and that nothing is really over until that happens. Even if they get it, they immediately begin praying to DirecTV, SciFi, or whatever to provide a biblical resurrection for their show.
Anyone know when Fox will announce if Bones, Lie To Me and Fringe are coming back next year?
I do take it as a given that House will be back next year because it’s a ratings juggernaut.
Joe, all fall schedules will be announced no later than these dates.
If you guys really analyzed the numbers you would see that TSCC has not performed worse than say Lie to Me, Bones, or Fringe has. If either one of those shows suffered the same scheduling changes and breaks, they too would be down at 3-4 million level. They’re not that far, a million viewers is basically 100 Nielsens, statistically they could one day be on the brink too just by sheer luck.
Ouch. I think my brain just exploded.
“If you guys really analyzed the numbers you would see that TSCC has not performed worse than say Lie to Me, Bones, or Fringe has. If either one of those shows suffered the same scheduling changes and breaks, they too would be down at 3-4 million level”
I guess you havent noticed that Fringe has been off the air for more then a month and a half twice this season.
Jonathan, is your planet’s star yellow, like the one that Earth circles?
Richard Steven Hack says:
“I never said Josh Friedman didn’t do a few good things – casting Summer Glau as a female Terminator was a stroke of genius on his part. Unfortunately he never understood the potential of the character fully.”
I’m sure everyone breathes more easily in the knowledge that the Unblemished Light of Full Understanding is safely protected within the unassailable Basement of FAN-FIC.
Nice one, Bill.
Uhm, Boris, exactly what content did that post of yours have? I THINK it was a slam at fan-fic, but I’m not sure since it was too arty to parse.
I haven’t read almost any TSCC fan-fic (other than the porn ones, of course!) but I suspect some of it is better than most of the scripts the writers turned in.
“Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles’ series finale is April 10.”
Wrong, it’s the SEASON finale. You need to change that. You are posting inaccurate information.
Dan, and others, I have added an update re: TSCC season/series finale.
I BELIEVE IN DOLLHOUSE, IF FOX IS SMART THEY’LL GIVE IT ANOTHER SEASON AND PUT IT ON A BETTER NIGHT
“4/8 Update: Lots of comments about how April 10 is the TSCC season finale. People who live a reality based life understand it’s also the series finale.”
How incredibly rude. You just can’t make the change without taking a jab at the show can you?
No wonder this place is a sham. You can’t even keep your bias to yourself.
It has nothing to do with “bias”. It has to do with ratings.
How many times do Bill and Robert have to point that out to people?
come on Dollhouse, i just really hope Dollhouse comes back…
Harold, you want to know what was missing? Sex. They were a bunch of heifers who were too fat and disgusting to get laid. Then along came a marginally-attractive Aussie who couldn’t really act or carry a show, and OMG panty cream city.
Religion is a good guess. If the religion is $cientology. Because they were more like a cult. They even had a Jim Jones type ring leader — “Leeser.” Since like most herds, they were unable to think for themselves, they needed to get verification from “Leeser” first to find out if the sky was blue or the grass was green. They were asking “Leeser” for confirmation on whether the “rumors” were true that “Moonlight” was cancelled… a WEEK after the upfronts. The saddest part? “Leeser” solicited donations from them to “save” the show. They sent “Leeser” lots of money. “Leeser” ran off with it, never to be heard from again.
Did I say sad? I meant hilarious.
this is probably the end of the “Sarah Chronicles” but it could turn into the “John Connor” stories about the war in the future. movies cant have everything
Compared to TSCC, Fringe has the advantage of being led in by American Idol and a much larger ad campaign by Fox. Fringe is being treated like a king, I’m guessing because of the success of Lost and JJ Abrams recent successes.
I’ve been lurking here for awhile and enjoy the logical, rational assessments by some of the more informed contributors. My question is this – at a network, say FOX, what is the actual process for picking shows to live or die? 1 person makes the call, a big meeting in a boardroom, cutthroat hallway politics, extortion sex in the parking garage, feed the numbers into the old Atari Schedulemaster and whatever pops out is gospel? Can anyone comment on who or how will the decision on TSCC and Dollhouse actually get made?
Terminator series finale airs tonight
Dollhouse series finale airs May 8
Prison Break series finale airs May 15
King of the Hill ends TBA
Everything else is safe…..
And Fox is now standing behind Lie to Me, thinking it’s a series that needs a slow build (which it does). I personally think it needs a better time slot–Like 9 PM on Wednesdays instead of 8. Doesn’t it make more sense to put on the family-friendly show like American Idol at 8 and the more adult show on at 9? It worked for House, as I recall.
wheres Osbournes: Reloaded?
If fox decides to terminate the terminator series without at least one more season then I believe that the reputation of fox will be reuined. It will illustrate that fox cares less for its fans and more about a movie promotion. It would be very easy to increase the ratingd just durring the break put the episodes online and on the telivison to give new people a chance to catch up to the new season.
Also this is the first show in a while that has an indepth story that has an exstensive amount of possiblities which has not been screwed up.
The cancelation of dollhouse would be a big mistake. I know the show isn’t for everyone but it does have a good story line and depth to it. Its exciting to see Eliza back on screen and Im still not over the cancelation of Tru Calling. Seems like people dont like Eliza or something cause so far she has had no luck in tv shows.
As for terminator im 50/50 on that show, was great the first season but second season was getting very boring and I think some feel the same way. But i still love to watch it and will keep watching it till it ends.
If you want to save certain shows maybe start a chain email with the viewing dates n times to everyone you know including grandparents to watch them and try to get the ratings up before the season ends. Maybe then that will bring enough viewers not to cancel that show. Just a thought
You’ve got Dollhouse showing 13 episodes, but I’m sure I remember reading that one of the 13 they ordered was the pilot reshoot and that they were only airing 12? Perhaps I misunderstood.
Anyway, I love TSCC and I hope it has a miracle, but lets be honest… that was an awesome finale cos it was so out there, but I can’t see them holding a show together on the plot line I see laid out for it. So perhaps cancellation will be a blessing in (really heavy) disguise.
Curious of all the shows I DVR and actually watch, TSCC and Dollhouse, they are the ones that look to be canceled. The other shows I DVR, 24, I watch, but it’s ludicrous. And house I used to DVR but ended up deleting it before I watched it.
The other shows I actually watched on TV are long gone. Firefly, Dresden Files and Deadwood. Not to worry though. I’m switching all my entertainment gear to get everything over the net. Ill watch what I want when I want and will purge reality TV from my life FOREVER.
Interesting, on Friday FOX Studios released the DVD info for DOLLHOUSE, and it says “The Complete First Season,” vs. “The Complete Series.”
Now sure they could edit it by the time it goes into production, but the current artwork says it’s Season One. The point is FOX is still considering it enough to release that with that heading. I hear now the future of DOLLHOUSE is tied to the future of REPLAY TV. Which is likely why Joss is doubtful of the return of the show.
er REMOTE FREE TV not replay, my brain is overworked.
I’d be surprised if Remote Free stuck around, too. While I wish there was a way FOX could continue the experiment somehow, I suspect it won’t make a comeback until the broader advertising sales market has made a comeback.
The Sarah Connor Chronicles might be getting a raw deal because of its popularity on modern mediums like Torrent sites and Hulu, and not with traditional Nielsen audiences.
The last two episodes were fantastic and while I feel the finale was a satisfying end to the series, I am left wanting more.
Robert I still like the idea that Fox was throwing around of linking Remote Free to event television, I think that’s probably the best way forward for the concept if they want to keep it. But even then it probably wouldn’t be a big success or anything.
Jay is huffing on the Hulu crackpipe. Here’s the problem with that: TSCC doesn’t get even 250,000 additional viewers with Hulu/FOX.com, and FOX makes MUCH LESS money on the online eyeballs than the TV eyeballs. FOX definitely sees those numbers and knows what they are, and if a couple million were watching TSCC that way, it would probably make a big difference. But at less than 250K/episode, there’s not a chance of it making any difference to the renewal decision. It’s not fair to think FOX doesn’t factor those numbers, which it definitely sees even if we don’t, into its thinking.
TSCC’s popularity in terms of Torrent downloads is meaningless to FOX renewing it. While there are those who ascribe to the theory that Torrent downloads indicate DVD popularity (I don’t have any opinion on that), since Warner Brothers already knows how the season one DVD performed, its DVD sales (which apparently were not great — not awful, but not great enough for Warner Bros to give the show away to FOX) are probably a better indicator of future DVD sales for WB than torrent downloads.
Come on! They can’t cancel TSCC without John getting some Metal love.