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 runnerup with 25 percent (#savechuck), followed by Dollhouse with 10 percent, Life with eight percent and Privileged with four 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 showrunner and executive producer Josh Friedman with the good news and he told 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 fanbase 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, the exclusive word from Josh about the future of the show...
COMPLETE RESULTS
SAVE ONE SHOW: FINAL ROUND
Chuck: 25%
Dollhouse: 10%
Life: 8%
Privileged: 4%
Terminator: 53%
SAVE ONE SHOW: FIRST ROUND
Chuck: 24%
Cold Case: 1%
Dollhouse: 8%
Everybody Hates Chris: 0%
The Game: 1%
Kings: 2%
Lie to Me: 1%
Life: 6%
Privileged: 4%
Reaper: 2%
Terminator: 50%
The Unit: 2%
Without a Trace: 1%
Worst Week: 0%
LOST CAUSES WE LOVE
Dirty Sexy Money: 6%
Eli Stone: 8%
ER: 4%
Guiding Light: 4%
Knight Rider: 4%
Kyle XY: 34%
Life on Mars: 5%
Lipstick Jungle: 6%
Prison Break: 7%
Pushing Daisies: 21%
TERMINATOR TALKS EXCLUSIVELY TO E!
The Word from On High: So, what's the latest word from Fox on the future of the show? 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: Do 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: So, 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 at the Fox upfront, so check back at E! Online 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. Josh likens the experience of being a show runner with an endangered series who finds himself constantly reading reports about his own future and fate in the press, as being somewhat similiar 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."
The Future You're Fighting For: If and when season three does get a green light, Fox already has a sense of what they're 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 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 that the finale speaks for itself. I think it's very clear what season three is from watching the finale," says Josh. (He's kidding. I think.)
Still, it's going to be 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 fanfiction going forward."
Will you guys be satisfied with fanfiction, or do you want the real thing? Post in the comments, Terminator fans!