Summer Glau Central

Terminator is moving to a new night starting beginning February 13. It’s moving to Fridays and will be paired with Joss Whedon’s new series Dollhouse which stars Eliza Dushku. I know many T:SCC fans are looking forward to the new Whedon show, and Summer has worked with Joss in the past but I fear this is a bad decision moving to Fridays! I guess only time will tell and I hope T:SCC will still fare well ratings wise. It’s good we were renewed for 22 episodes, but the show is too damn good to be canceled ‘prematurely’ after only two seasons. I know both Terminator and Whedon series survive a lot of their cult fanbases so I hope it will be enough if other audiences don’t catch on – but here’s to hoping they do!

Here is a report from IGN.

Originally, Dollhouse was going to have a much-desired spot on the schedule, paired with 24 on Monday nights. As for Terminator, it was going to go on a temporary hiatus, along with Prison Break.

Now though, Fox has decided to keep Terminator on the air, and in fact, they’re going to pair it with Dollhouse. The catch? The shows will be on Friday nights, often referred to as the “death slot,” due to the low number of overall viewers for television on Fridays. Certainly, no show the network thinks could be a big smash hit is put on Fridays these days.

However, it’s not really a shock that Fox doesn’t see either of these series in that light. Terminator struggles in the ratings, and its pick up for a full season was actually somewhat of a surprise. And Dollhouse has suffered some problems on its way to TV, including jettisoning the entire original pilot and a shut down in production.

So does putting these two shows on Friday mean they’re doomed? Well, it means they’re not exactly in a great place, but on the other hand, it could also help them. With no big hit paired with them, on top of airing on a low-viewership night, it means the expectations are down for the shows – which means they don’t have to perform as well as they might in other circumstances to be considered a success and if they can pull in decent ratings, they might have a nice chance at coming back.

If Dollhouse had been paired with 24, as originally intended, but failed to hold on to a sizeable portion of the 24 audience, it could have been in jeopardy very quickly. Now, it only needs to stay afloat with the relatively low Terminator ratings – though it’s hard not to worry that the move to Fridays will initially cause a drop in Terminator’s ratings.

However, this is certainly a line-up with a lot of appeal to a cult audience and it can’t hurt to have Whedon alum Summer Glau appearing in Terminator as the lead-in to Whedon’s own new show, starring another previous collaborator, Eliza Dushku. When you factor in the returning Battlestar Galactica also airing on Friday nights on SCI FI Channel, you have one geek-friendly night of TV. Not to mention, Friday nights weren’t always so gloomy on TV, and it’s of course where Fox’s own X-Files first became a cult success – though cynics will also note it’s where Fox aired Whedon’s doomed Firefly too. Hopefully the fate of Terminator and Dollhouse can follow Mulder and Scully’s TV route and not Captain Malcolm Reynold’s.