Any Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles fans will know that last week SyFy Portal (yes the ones that fisrt released all those spoilers about the Torchwood final months early that came true) announced that 'Fox Close To Terminating 'Sarah Connor' then another report later in the week saying 'It's Been Terminated' but then on the other hand there's comments that Nothing is Official.

Of course Fox are known for cancelling perfectly good shows, and while it's no lie that T:SCC ratings have dropped this season - quite a lot from the first episode - it has to be considered that Fox aren't taking everything into consideration.

I hate to admit it, but this post may actually sound smart. I also need to point out that due to not being in the US and knowing nothing about the workings of television outside of my own country I may also be a little off the mark on some of my opinions - though I'm going to be looking at the scheduling and ratings of British television so I'm not totally clueless.

(Keep in mind I've written this with no planning, only a few resources and...well by cheating and using some quotes from an essay I did over a year ago on convergence', so I'm saying sorry now if I don't make any sense at all.)



Apparently (I can only go off what I've read online) T: SCC is up against a pretty mad schedule on a Monday night - I've even read that it's like a blood bath with shows fighting it out for the top ratings spot. What is there on a Monday? Chuck, Heroes - football? The latter has even been pointed out as a tough thing to beat by the cast - I've never understood how sport can be such a ratings winner. It's like Doctor who being up against an England match on ITV here in the UK (though, please note this is a differnt kind of football - sport though). I can't say what else its up against but I can say that the first thing that you'd think Fox would do would move the slot.

Here in the UK I've noticed on a Saturday night (the big night for important things like 'Doctor Who', 'X Factor', 'Merlin', 'Strictly Come Dancin'g and 'Britain's Got Talent' - though obviously not all at the same time) certain programmes aren't up against each other on BBC 1 and ITV. 'Strictly Come Dancing' and 'X Factor' are never on at the same time, they're scheduled after one another with maybe the end of one crossing with the start of the other. Clever really isn't it? Who would want to pit the crow on BBC's talent shows against ITV's? Fans of one are more often than not fans of the other.

The main demographic that Fox are aiming for with T:SCC is the 18-24's (I don't get why they're so importnat in most things, but never mind). It's been suggested that most of these people are watching Monday night football - wouldn't a schedule shift help that? I know schedule shifting can be annoying, but only gets annoying if it's ever changing. Part of the reason I stopped watching 'Angel' on terestrial television was because when Channel 5 got their hands on it they moved it around like mad! I lost interest at jumpping from different days with it. A schedule change is a good idea - providing it's handeled well, advertised correctly and not put on a stupid day - and against another show of a similar genere. There's competative scheduling and then there's just stupid.

It's similar with 'Doctor Who' and 'Primevil' isn't it? People who like one show are going to have the potential to like the other. A friend of mine for example, her family like both 'Doctor Who' and 'Primevil' and on the nights when they're watching one they set their Virgin Digital box to record the other. Which leads me into where I'm actually going with this and the significance of the change in attitudes to television.

We're entering an age of convergence, where we're slowly moving towards ‘Black Box Fallacy’ where sooner or later all media content is going to flow through a single black box in our living rooms or in a mobile black box we carry around with us (Jenkins, 2005). Doesn't that sound familiar? When you look at Sky+ and Virgin Digital recievers it seems all that closer doesn't it? Though we're a little far off throwing away the DVD and video players - we've got HD DVD to get through before we can truely move towards a single Black Box.

On demand is proabably one of the most important things that can be taken into consideration in regard to modern audiences. Lives are too hectic and busy for people to watch things to a set schedule - I think those days are long gone. Grade describes on-demand as a word of "infinite global choice, of unlimited access to the archives: whatever you want, whenever and wherever you want it, delivered via broadband to whichever device or platform you choose”. So many television channels here in the UK (once again I can't really speak for the US) are taking into account the number of people who logon and watch online after the original broadcast. Those numbers are pretty important.

When you look at the DVR ratings (recorded and watched at a later date) for T:SCC they're pretty impressive - so add that to the 2-5 million viewers it gets on it's broadcast...see where I'm going with this? You've got to hope that Fox are taking into consideration 'on-demand' numbers.If not I can't help but think that at some point Fox are going to get left behind when 'on-demand' numbers are taken even more seriously. Though Fox are rather well know for axing perfectly good shows (Firefly anybody? That really went through the ringing - mixing up the episode order couldn't help for one). They're also going to be more inclinde to cancel something that they think is bringing down the ratings for other shows ('Prison Break' apparently - though I don't watch it myself). I honestly don't understand why broadcasters think that important shows need a lead-in show...audiences obviosuly can't flick through channels without needing two different shows to do it.

So...will Fox take this into consideration? Move the slot, consider more than just the boradcast numbers or outright cancel it? time will tell I suppose.