This year more than ever, however, there has been a lot of chatter over which shows should and should not be renewed with below average ratings.  TVbyTheNumbers has a whole calculation for predicting which shows are in-danger of being canceled based off of ratings, and I usually tend to go with that.  While these numbers point to a very specific group of shows likely to be canceled things just don’t seem so clear cut this year.

Three shows in particular, NBC’s Chuck, and Fox’s Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Dollhouse, all have below average ratings, but have fans up in arms begging for them to be renewed.  While TTSCC has the lowest ratings (.1 below Dollhouse), it’s season finale left off with a major plot twist that have bloggers across the internet claiming what a mistake Fox would make if they didn’t renew Terminator.  Of course this doesn’t stop rumors, as EW reported an inside source said the show was already canceled here.  Interestingly enough these rumors cause more clamor and other “inside” information a day later found here.

While I personally would love to see TTSCC renewed its hard to argue with the numbers and while we would all like to think TV shows are more than just numbers it’s hard to really do so.  Pilot TV shows are expensive and risky, which is probably why CBS has 3 different versions of CSI and announced plans to release an NCIS spin-off next year.  Take what works, rinse, and repeat.  Fox is apparently known for being hard on its shows and I’m not sure about NBC but I would put more money on Chuck being renewed then Terminator or Dollhouse.  I think more than that, however, we can definitely say one of the two, Terminator or Dollhouse, will be canceled.

Even more interesting is this article that makes a case for abandoning television viewing altogether and watching shows only online so that the networks know exactly how many people are watching.  While this probably sounds like a good idea in theory, I doubt it will ever work simply because TV networks can’t make as much money off online viewership, again boiling down to the numbers game.  Terminator and Dollhouse’s actual viewership is quite high counting in their DVR viewers (Terminator is something like #2 or #3 overall), but networks don’t make enough money, if any, off DVR viewers.

Regardless of all the talk circulating around, there is still a plethora of time left before any formal announcements are made as NBC’s official 2009-2010 schedule is set to be announced May 5^th, Fox on May 18^th, ABC on May 19^th, and CBS on May 20^th.  In the meantime, however, I guess we can all continue to troll the internet defending our favorite show.  Even vote in E!Online’s Save one Show poll.  Currently, from what I’ve heard, Terminator is up at 47% and ahead of the pack.  Good news for fans, and if you’re like me, you’ll continue voting for your favorite as well.  Till next time…

TTSCC Season (Series) Finale: I don’t know how many of you watch Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles but I do, mainly because I just like the Terminator franchise. Anyway, the season 2 finale aired last night and suffice to say it was probably also the series finale. Terminator’s ratings haven’t been doing so great since the start of season 2 and finally leveled out when Fox moved it to Fridays after a 3 week break. You can head over to TVbyNumbers for a full breakdown of ratings if you’re interested. While I won’t go spoil the finale in case anyone is planning on seeing it, I will say I’m kind of disappointed to see the show go. Yeah, it could possibly get renewed next season, but based on the ratings, the experts and I doubt it will. Luckily, Terminator Salvation (with Christian Bale as John Connor) is scheduled to hit theaters next month and it looks sick, so there is at least some Terminator in our future.

Congress to Investigate Bandwidth Capping: Finally, someone is starting to make some noise concerning bandwidth capping by ISPs which may include congress sniffing around. Wired.com has the story here.  Bandwidth capping is one of those things your ISP started to implement because their customer base kept growing and growing and instead of spending money upgrading their network infrastructure, they decided to cap bandwidth on clients, saving them a ton of money. I have Comcast when I’m home and not in school and I know we have some insanely low cap per month for having 3 college students and my parents home during the summer. I mean come on, it’s not like if Comcast spends a few thousand dollars upgrading their infrastructure they will go bankrupt….

Sprint Commercial: Something about this new Sprint commercial seems really cool. I can’t really put my finger on it, but I like the commercial so here it is: