The 2009 TV schedule… who’s coming back – and who’s gone for good

Chuck has been renewed.

With that one bit of news, my faith was restored in the executive decisions of NBC. While I don’t think this had anything to do with the Subway fan campaign whatsoever, I do at least feel that that particular activity brought the show more attention with the general public than it may have had before.

I’m pleased. Chuck is a fantastic series that combines the best of drama and comedy and has left me with a smile on my face week after week for the past 2 seasons.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has been officially canceled.

“Sarah Connor has completed its run,” Fox entertainment president Kevin Reilly confirmed at a press conference this morning. “I think it had a nice little run. It was a good show. It was not an either or [with Dollhouse]. We did see it tailing off a bit [in the ratings]. It had a nice creative core, but, ultimately, we made the bet on Dollhouse, so that’s it for [Sarah Connor]… We make no apologies. We gave it a lot of support and some consistent scheduling. We tried and thought it was time to move on.”

Let’s see here… Fox decided to cancel a show that has been nominated for 10 awards and won 1. Fox decided to cancel a show that had higher weekly ratings than a show that they decided to renew (I’m referring to Dollhouse here). Fox chose to axe a show tied to one of the biggest film and multimedia franchises of all time (I’m a huge Terminator universe geek, so my thoughts here might be biased). Goodbye, they said, to a show with a strong and talented cast, fantastic special effects, a deep and engrossing storyline.

I’m very gutted, although I was not surprised that this happened. It’s been far from a secret that the show was on the rocks for some time now.

Speaking of Dollhouse, how many awards has that show been nominated for (or won)? None. How were the ratings? In the tank. In fact, the ratings were so bad that the season finale garnered the worst the series had ever received.

While I was a faithful viewer of Dollhouse, and remain a huge fan of Joss Whedon, I was mostly unimpressed with the first season. The 2nd episode, “The Target”, actually put me to sleep, and there were more than a few episodes where I felt that they were forgetting the direction that the show was supposed to be going in.

I am glad that it was renewed, because there is a lot of potential with that show. Whedon is a master and has proved such time and time again – but I’m not entirely certain that I will be on board for Season 2.