Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles got off to an amazing start. They took out their competition easily when they premiered on the 13th. But by the second half of the pilot, they’d lost half their audience. io9 says that trend continues:
Its first episode scored an amazing 18 million viewers, after a high-rated football game. The second episode dropped by nearly half, and last night’s outing dropped another 18 percent.
So the question is: were the premiere’s ratings unnaturally high because of their lead in and lack of real competition? Or was the show so unsatisfactory to so many people that they didn’t bother to watch after the first hour?
I suspected that the premiere’s ratings were high as people tuned in to affirm their fears that the show was going to be terrible. There’s always a large contingent of people looking for a franchise property like this to fail. They show up early on, point, shake their head, and disappear. Could that be the problem?
I actually have been watching the show on the Fox website, because I have a previous commitment on Monday nights. I’m curious if the number of people watching there is calculated and kept track of.
With it being the only real scripted show putting out new episodes right now, I don’t see the network dropping it any time soon. But Fox isn’t exactly known for their rational decisions in the face of low ratings.
Comments
I’m a huge fan of the movies (yes, even part 3), so even though I was extremely skeptical I thought I’d give the season a try. The first few eps have been meh at best. I’m going to stick it out for the season because there are definitely some cool possibilities for the show. I think they need to immediately ditch any and all ideas of sending John to high school - just a dumb idea that feels like filler because they need excuses for John to show up on “the grid.” That being said, I can easily see why people are giving up on it. Just not even close to par with any of the movies.
I agree with Doug, the high school thing is not working. I’m a dire fan of the Terminator series, and while T3 is, IMO, weak in some areas, it was entertaining, and it was interesting to see some things, especially John Conner starting to become the potential leader he supposedly has within him.
I really want to see the John Conner we’ve all heard about but rarely seen in the films for only seconds at a time. I feel like the show is more like a cash-in of the series, if not just only the second film, and that it doesn’t really progress the franchise.
I guess I should go into more detail with what I’m saying. I’m not saying the new tv show will not progress with it’s story, but right now, it’s not really doing anything for the franchise, but showing us stuff we’ve already seen, Terminators going after the Conners who are defended by futuristic guardians (whether they be soldiers or machines) as they set off to destroy the seeds that cause Skynet to grow.
In short, I feel like it’s more of an ode then progress.