Summer Glau

EXCLUSIVE: Terminator gets, yes, terminated.

A source on “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” has told End Of Show that no new episode scripts have been ordered by FOX, beyond the 13 already written. This will force the show to shut down production shortly. ”To say we’re on the brink of cancelation is polite”, our source says.

Normally, when a show shuts production it is not announced to the media — an example is 2007’s FOX series “Drive”, which closed production 2 days after the first episode aired but was not announced in Variety for a further 9 days as cancelled. This is because a network doesn’t want an audience to turn off whilst the remaining episodes are aired. In the end, Fox opted not to air several produced episodes of “Drive”, replacing it with House repeats. (Which rated higher). The episodes eventually aired online via FOX’s Myspace portal.

Our source tells us the cast contracts expire in short order, which means producing a 13 episode series this year and then returning next Fall is not an option due to the cost of renewing the cast and not producing episodes. Additionally, it does not make finance sense to return when a series is averaging just over 5 million viewers.

T:SCC premiered January of this year with 18.6 million viewers — which set a record for FOX at the time — and promptly fell to an average of 11.4 million for the series. Monday’s episode clocked just 5.53 million viewers, putting the show in absolute freefall, with just 5% of the 18-49 demographic. “Audiences just aren’t responding to the show,” a Fox source tells SyFy Portal. “Our biggest surprise are the 18-to-49s [a key advertising demographic], those numbers are in the toilet.”

Ratings to date (seasons one plus two)

The ratings now fall in line with FOX’s “Drive”, which as mentioned ceased production almost immediately and stopped airing shortly after. T:SCC is a fairly expensive show to produce, and additionally wasn’t produced with sister studio 20th Century Fox. The show had significant marketing weight thrown behind it in January, using the budget allocated for “24″ (which was pushed back a year) for a widespread marketing campaign.

Taking over the timeslot from January, FOX have penciled in Joss Whedon’s upcoming drama “Dollhouse“.

Update: Tuesday, October 7th. The show fell to a Nielsen rating of 3.7/6 in the overnights. It has now left the air for baseball, currently scheduled to return on Tuesday 20th October.