Prospects look good for a second season of the Sarah Connor Chronicles. On Friday, March 7, Kristin Dos Santos reported that "barring any apocalyptic shifts at the Fox network, Terminator is very likely to return in the fall."

At the time, I tried to take that with a grain of salt, as it was based on a conversation with star Thomas Dekker at an American Idol party. But that grain gained some momentum, as Yahoo.news posted a more general article on the probable fate of shows on the bubble.

The article posted the following,
"'Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Fans need not worry: Sources say that "Terminator" will be back. Fox executives like the creative product and thought the finale's performance last week was solid. The network also spent a considerable amount marketing the show, giving Season 2 some cost benefit. Also: The fourth "Terminator" movie comes out in 2009, and as "The Simpsons Movie" proved, there are promotional advantages to film-TV synergy."

Various pundits watching the show’s middle of the road performance over its truncated nine episode season have pointed out the show's success on DVR and iTunes. Presumably good iTunes sales herald hot DVD sales down the road. While Sarah Connor is produced by Warner Bros, and therefore Warner, not Fox will benefit from DVD sales, this may mean that Warner execs will be more willing to negotiate a reduced price on a 2nd season with the expectation of DVD gold down the road.

However, since Fox doesn't generally announce those show renewal until their upfronts in May, that may mean a long wait for fans.

In the meantime, just to give the timeshifting/DVR numbers some relevance, and because charts are fun, here's what the +7 day DVR lift looks like in a chart based on numbers from tvbythenumbers.com. Figures up to 1.6 (Dungeons and Dragons).


Episode's relative rank in time shift increase
1.1 (Pilot): 6
1.2 (Gnothi Seauton): 4
1.3 (Turk): 5
1.4 (Heavy Metal): 6
1.5 (Queens Gambit): 5
1.6 (Dungeons & Dragons): 7

Sources
http://www.eonline.com/gossip/kristin/detail/index.jsp?uuid=69f7cad7-f180-4b6d-ba1e-c0999930a41b
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080313/tv_nm/series_dc_1
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/03/10/top-timeshifted-broadcast-shows-february-18-24/2888
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/03/03/top-timeshifted-broadcast-shows-february-11-17/2820
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/02/25/top-timeshifted-broadcast-shows-february-4-10/2753
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/02/11/top-timeshifted-broadcast-shows-january-21-27/2632
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/02/04/top-timeshifted-broadcast-shows-january-14-20/2556
http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/01/28/top-timeshifted-broadcast-shows-january-7-13/2482