Exclusive

The Fans Have Spoken: Save Terminator!

Congratulations to our 2009 Save One Show winner, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles!

By Jennifer Godwin May 01, 2009 3:50 PMTags
E! Placeholder Image

Congratulations to our 2009 Save One Show winner, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles!

In case you don't know, Save One Show is E!'s annual opportunity for fans to determine which TV series in danger of cancellation most needs to be saved. Past winners have included Angel, One Tree Hill and Veronica Mars. This year, in true killer-cyborg fashion, Terminator kicked ass, with 53 percent of the final-round vote. Chuck was the runner-up with 25 percent (#savechuck), followed by Dollhouse with 10 percent, Life with 8 percent and Privileged with 4 percent.

What about Lost Causes We Love? With 34 percent of the vote, Kyle XY was the winner of our first-ever Lost Causes We Love competition to determine which totally canceled show should be rescued from oblivion. Our dearly departed Pushing Daisies was runner-up with 21 percent.

When the results of your 300,000 votes came in, we called up Terminator show runner and executive producer Josh Friedman with the good news, and he told us exclusively, "I think I speak for everybody who works on the show when I say thank you to the fans for their tireless work to save our show. I think it really goes to show that there's a really hard-core, emotional, passionate fan base for Terminator that is larger and more widespread than people give us credit for."

Read on for the full SOS and Lost Cause results. Plus, find out how being a Terminator boss is like being Brangelina and, most importantly, get the exclusive word from Josh about the show's future...

COMPLETE RESULTS

SAVE ONE SHOW: FINAL ROUND

Chuck: 25 percent
Dollhouse: 10 percent
Life: 8 percent
Privileged: 4 percent
Terminator: 53 percent

SAVE ONE SHOW: FIRST ROUND

Chuck: 24 percent
Cold Case: 1 percent
Dollhouse: 8 percent
Everybody Hates Chris: 0 percent
The Game: 1 percent
Kings: 2 percent
Lie to Me: 1 percent
Life: 6 percent
Privileged: 4 percent
Reaper: 2 percent
Terminator: 50 percent
The Unit: 2 percent
Without a Trace: 1 percent
Worst Week: 0 percent

LOST CAUSES WE LOVE

Dirty Sexy Money: 6 percent
Eli Stone: 8 percent
ER: 4 percent
Guiding Light: 4 percent
Knight Rider: 4 percent
Kyle XY: 34 percent
Life on Mars: 5 percent
Lipstick Jungle: 6 percent
Prison Break: 7 percent
Pushing Daisies: 21 percent

Michael Desmond/FOX

TERMINATOR TALKS EXCLUSIVELY TO E!

The Word From on High: So what's the latest word from Fox on the show's future? Josh Friedman, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles' show runner and executive producer, tell us that the latest news from the network is this: "They have given me no signs in either direction. I actually haven't spoken with Fox in weeks. They said they're going to make all their decisions when they get the pilots in, and I don't think they have any of their pilots in yet. Things are just starting to come in from the other shows."

Never Give Up, Never Give In: Definitely hang in there, fans, because Josh believes there is every hope that the show will get picked up. As he tells us about Fox's executives and programming bosses (aka the powers that be), "They're all people, too, and they hear what goes on [with stuff like Save One Show]. I don't think it's a futile effort at all for people to continue to fight for the show."

The Drop-Dead Date: When will we know for sure? Says Josh, "My experience with them in the past is they make their decision on the day that they have to make their decision and not a day before that." And that day? That's May 18, the day of the Fox upfront, so mark your calendars, Terminator fans! We'll be in New York that day to get the word live, so check back early and often for the latest updates on Terminator's fate!

As the Man Said: "Fame. Ain't It a Bitch?" In the meantime, don't get bogged down in the to-and-fro reports in the media about Terminator's fate. As a show runner with an endangered series, Josh likens the experience of constantly reading reports about his own future and fate in the press as being somewhat similar to living life as a Brangelina, Zanessa or Robsten (who are real people, believe it or not): "I think it must be what it's like if you were a celebrity couple. You read stuff. Some of it may be true; some of it is definitely false, and you could spend time chasing down every jackass opinion and lie, but it would really take a lot of time."

Chris Wolf/Getty Images

The Future You're Fighting For: If and when season three does get a green light, Fox already has a sense of what it's getting. Josh says, "I haven't pitched a season three yet, but near the end of season two, I had a conversation with the network about season three just because they needed to understand the radical change in direction we had gone through in the finale. So they've know for a while some of my ideas for season three."

Other Venues? And what if season three doesn't happen? Could it go to another network? Says Josh, "It's not an expensive show. It's very average in terms of its costs, but it's more expensive than all cable shows. There are limited places for a show like this, I think." What about a comic? Josh says, "Everyone wants to plan for success and hope that it works out that way, and then if it doesn't, we'll see what happens."

Shhh...It's a Secret: Either way, there will be no spilling of secrets about Terminator's third season...yet. "I think the finale speaks for itself. It's very clear what season three is from watching the finale," says Josh. (He's kidding. I think.)

Still, there'll be nothing but radio silence on storylines from team Terminator for the foreseeable future. Says Josh, "I just sent an email out to all the other writers, and I said that, probably, in the weeks ahead, many people will ask you either online or in interviews to talk about season three or 'Can you explain certain things from the season two finale?' I asked all the writers to just cordially not. I kind of feel like if we have a season three, people will see it, and if we don't have a season three, I like people using their own imagination to see where it goes. And if we don't have it, for me to kind of put my foot down—this is what this is and this is what that is—shuts down everyone else's imagination. I think in a situation like this, it's nice to let people kind of create their own fan fiction going forward."

Will you guys be satisfied with fan fiction, or do you want the real thing? Post in the comments, Terminator fans!