Today in Screen Rant’s weekly TV Wrap Up, we have some great casting news for 24, we’ll be talking about David Carradine’s appearance in Fox’s new show Mental and we also have some Heroes casting news, the possibility that My Name Is Earl may be getting new legs, some news on Ghost Whisperer, The Sarah Connor Chronicles coming to DVD and a bit about Futurama’s, err, future.

We’ll wrap it up with ratings from last week.  This week in the ratings section, I thought I’d try something new and toss in some cable viewer numbers.

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Yesterday (Monday, the 19th) Fox announced it’s upcoming Fall lineup today and we will be seeing some of Screen Rant’s favorites like House, Lie To Me, Bones, Fringe & Dollhouse return this fall.  These are the shows we here at Screen Rant are more focused on.

The news in and about the industry this last weekend was swirling in a dance on what was being renewed and canceled.  Specifically, some were focused on the fates of Dollhouse and The Sarah Connor Chronicles and why one show was given the axe, and the other given a reprieve.

Though the networks are making official statements in the coming week, news is coming out slowly but surely on what is going to happen with shows like Dollhouse, Chuck, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Scrubs among others.

Here’s the news that’s come out of this weekend about some of our favorite shows…  after the break.

This is the weekly TV update coming at you yet again.  Today I chat about how Numbers has survived on Friday nights, I share my suspicions on what will happen with Chuck on NBC and I celebrate a bit about Fringe on Fox.

I’ll also touch on how the new Wolverine movie has already had its TV rights secured while I tell you about a couple of upcoming Sci-Fi Channel marathons, and then I’ll close with some depressing inclinations about Dollhouse and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.  At the very bottom, past my ratings chart, I actually make a suggestion about an episode of Criminal Minds that I suggest hunting down to watch.  (Yes, I make a recommendation.)

Let’s get on with it, shall we?

After its season (series?) finale, The Sarah Connor Chronicles seems to be in a gray area. The ratings for the April 10th finale brought in only 3.6 million viewers. That’s a far cry from its premiere episode that attracted almost 19 million sets of eyeballs. After a lot of conjecture, mostly from watching the ratings drop over the last two years, most feel that the show is looking at its demise.

For reasons that are beyond our own logic, even though TSCC was bringing in an average of over 11 million viewers on Mondays, Fox pretty much set the fate of the show when they moved it to Friday nights. There, in its 2nd season it received an average of 4.7 million viewers.

The above numbers seem to reference all viewers and are from ABC Medianet.  When I look at specific numbers from overnight reports through last season, I saw the following interesting trend:

AVERAGE VIEWERS - When TSCC was on

• Monday nights: 5.4 million
• Friday nights: 3.5 million

In January, we found out officially that there was going to be a reboot of the classic horror series, A Nightmare on Elm Street. Since then, we’ve heard some updates regarding the plot of the film and in recent weeks, we’ve been seeing steady news about casting decisions.

The major casting news came just over a week ago when it was confirmed that Watchmen star Jackie Earle Haley will be playing the infamous Freddy Krueger in the remake. Adding to the cast, Thomas Dekker who plays John Connor in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, is reportedly in final negotiations to play the role of Jesse in A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Brian Austin Green, who plays Derek Reese in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, wants to play Hal Jordan in the upcoming DC superhero movie and he wants you thoughts on the matter.

Green is most famous for his role on Beverly Hills 90210 but more recently made a splash with his kick-ass role in the Terminator television series. With the second season of the show finishing up this week and no third season announced, the actor is trying to push his way into the movie business with a major role in the next potential DC franchise, The Green Lantern.

So… what, exactly, is the deal with Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse?

Thursday and Friday, the Internet went nuts with worry that the number of episodes the Fox Television Network is said to be airing for Dollhouse was being short changed. The info distilled into a hyperbole of rumors saying Dollhouse was canceled because the season was being cut short. The truth of the matter is that Fox paid for 13 episodes, but only planned on airing 12.

Which makes us wonder: What’s up with that?

Due to technical difficulties beyond my control, the digital dog ate my homework. Or, I had to write this article twice! The digital dog just sounds more light-hearted than what the second line implies. Enough about my woes with technological gremlins.

There wasn’t a ton of news to report or snark on this week, so I had to dig up enough to make this yet another interesting read. Well, at least I think it is! I do have a few snippets that might be spoilers for The Office (Guest appearance) and Lost (Possible finale shoot notes).

Shall we get on with it?

So what’s happening this week with some of our favorite television shows? I’ll fill you in on the vaporizing ratings for Dollhouse, The Sarah Connor Chronicles and others. I touch on some Supernatural & NCIS casting news and a season ending story development. I then sprinkle some CSI:NY bits and round it out with some Lily cast updates.

Let’s check it out.

When we all heard that FOX was going to put The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Dollhouse on Friday nights, we all went ballistic. We know that Friday nights are a death knoll for a show. It’s hard to ignore the fact that when your favorite gets to replace reality skeins Cops, or My Dad Is Better Than Your Dad, it just ain’t good news. Just start saving up for that single season DVD pack. Right?

Well hold your horses on this one folks. There may be a glint of light at the end of the usually very short Friday night tunnel, or is there?

The Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles panel had Josh Friedman, Summer Glau and Shirley Manson in attendance.

The panel started with a preview of upcoming scenes from the rest of the season.  First, we watched Catherine Weavers daughter skipping down a typical hall in her mom’s big company.  She accidentally finds John Henry.  John Henry asks her if she wants to play hide and seek.  The door shuts behind the little girl, but John Henry is across the room and it seemed obvious the little girl didn’t shut it.  Creepy imagery.

Early Ratings For Dollhouse On Fox:
So as Vic said in his review of the premiere, the premise of Dollhouse is a bit creepy, but I thought the story line involving the clients wasn’t too bad.  Oh great, a he said - he said article!

At first glance, the ratings for the show are just not that impressive and if the networks are consistent in their responses to the antiquated ratings system, both Dollhouse and The Sarah Connor Chronicles seem lacking, though some call Dollhouse’s ratings a success.

This week, we chat about Caprica, Supernatural, the NCIS spin-off, a new vampire pilot from The CW, Criminal Minds, Ghost Whisperer, Bones, Grey’s Anatomy and some bits about ABC renewing some shows. Also, since we reported that Dave Letterman was announcing the 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover model last week, it’s only right that we finish what we started with a little something at the bottom of this post. Shall we get on with it? I knew you’d say that.

But before I say anything else, I would be remiss to not remind you that Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles are coming to your TV this Friday night!

How do you spell butt-kicking, bombshell babes?  D-O-L-L-H-O-U-S-E.  I’ve been excited by this show for a while.  I’ve always found Eliza Dushku to be endlessly attractive and am a big fan of Joss Whedon, but until now, I wasn’t sure if the general pace and personality of the show would be directed towards me.

Especially considering the fact that Dollhouse is set to air Friday nights after Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronocles…  A time slot that is usually the slow death of a show.  This, combined with Dollhouse’s general lack of solid television promos, had me fearing the worst: A swift death at the hand of lofty viewers.

Well, we survived the Super Bowl and the travesty of a 3D commercial and now we, what?  Wait for the 2009 football season to start back up?  Well, so be it.  In the mean time, let’s check out what happened during the last week.

This week, we chat a little about the latest Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, NBC’s Chuck, some wedding news about Fringe, upcoming episodes of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Prison Break’s final episodes, Nip/Tuck going away, Supernatural feuds, and some sad or stupid news about Kyle XY, Reaper and the Digital TV transition delay.

Let’s get to it gang!

Kevin Reilly, the president of Fox Entertainment, was having a group chit chat with reporters about a few things that are on all our sci-fi-loving minds.

Even though we as a collective tentatively look at Fox with apprehension, they do have the largest collection of sci-fi genre shows out there (barring the Sci-Fi Channel, of course). They’ve got The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Fringe on the air; they’ve got Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse around the corner and they’re developing Ronald D. Moore’s Virtuality (I’m going to use the word “develop” lightly here).

The mid season finale of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (TSCC) threw me something to chew on Monday night that I was surprised to see. Was TSCC yet one more project that was bitten by the writers strike? When the heck are we gonna stop seeing ramifications from that event? Cripes!

Confused? Good… Keep reading my Tarantino-ish outline of this event.

In Monday night’s episode, Sarah is chasing her “three dots” clue and ends up going to a UFO convention. There, she meets a “woman” who has pictures plastered all over “her” home’s walls. The interesting thing about that is that I recognized those pictures and said, “Hey! I know those pictures! Those are the California Drones that Raji posted in 2007!” Yes, I’m a bit of a UFO non-disbeliever with a freaky memory!

We’re at the mid-season point for most TV shows and we have a long wait for the next half of the season to start again… Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles won’t return until mid-February.

A lot of folks have been of the opinion that SCC has lost its direction this season and has suffered from “Heroes Syndrome,” jumping around story-wise with odd non-sequiter episodes instead of continuing to move the story forward in a coherent manner.

Is Fox “Foxing Up” again?

The Joss Whedon fans who were thinking of starting a “Save Dollhouse” website/campaign might have been on to something long before the rest of us.

Despite the previous report that Dollhouse will be airing on Mondays in 2009, Fox has distributed a press release last week announcing that the series will now premiere in February, on Friday the 13th.

WHAT are they thinking? Is this a demonstration of some massive amount of faith in the realm of Whedon fans to overcome the statistical fact that Friday nights are the worst time ever to air a show?

I swear that one day I’ll get this out on a Wednesday.

This week:

Dick Donner talks The Goonies 2; the film version of The Road may be delayed until 2009; Ron Shelton and Tim Robbins talk Bull Durham 2; Sam Raimi’s Sleeper gets a writer and Kight Rider and The Sarah Connor Chronicles get more scripts.

My quick take on the second season premiere of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is that it looks like it hasn’t missed a beat from season one’s storyline. It also adds some interesting new facets to the story that should give our pursued protagonists quite the challenge and new goals to keep them busy.

It is probably going to be on par, and if done right, better than season one, now that the show has it’s feet under it.

The new 2008 Fall TV season is almost upon us, with the first new show of the season premiering on September 1st. Screen Rant has put together an extensive list of new and returning programs along with their premiere dates, along with descriptions and recommendations.

So what’s up this fall? What are we anticipating, what are we, well… not anticipating?

Over the the last twenty-five years The Terminator franchise has set the standard for science fiction films - smart, action packed and filled with ground breaking special effects. The (first two) films are iconic and idolized by millions around the world. So when it was announced that the franchise would have a television spin-off many fans were unhappy, (myself included,) as it would not star Arnold Schwarzenegger (for obvious political reasons.) We feared that a TV series, sans Schwarzenegger, would cheapen the previous entries that had gone before it.

However, there is no need to fear Ye Terminator faithful: although the series does not equal the greatness of T1 and T2, it does expand on the characters, adding new twists, as well as some key references to the films.

Today I’m chatting about Supernatural, Virtuality, Heroes, Knight Rider, and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Kind of like a grab bag!

The creator and executive producer of The CW’s show Supernatural, Eric Kripke, just signed an exclusive two year deal with Warner Brothers Television. In that deal, he will continue to run Supernatural and will be developing other projects under the contract for them.

The premiere episode of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles opens in the year 1999 with a big action scene which is glaringly obvious is a dream sequence about 2/3 of the way in. Sarah wakes up from the nightmare and my first thought was: Lame cop out.

The FBI is after Sarah Connor for her escape from the looney bin in Terminator 2 and because they believe she is responsible for the death of Miles Dyson, also from that film. Dyson was the guy who was responsible for Skynet, the computer system that brought nuclear armageddon upon humanity. It seems that his death only delayed the inevitable.

Regarding the timeline of this series: It seems to take place between T2 & T3.

Ok, before I rip into this thing, maybe I should list some positives about the episode so you don’t think I’m being a jerk just for fun. Was there anything good about the show?

Yes.

Entertainment Weekly premiered four new posters for the upcoming Fox TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. We haven’t given much coverage to this new series on the site beyond a story this past summer describing what it would be about.

As far as I know, it takes place between the second and third Terminator films, and from what little I’ve read it seems that it disregard the events of the third film. According to executive producer Josh Friedman:

“Terminator 3 for our timeline doesn’t exist, now let’s go forward.”

There’s a new series in town (OK, there are a bunch of new series really) on FOX, but this one touches on the Terminator franchise, called The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

The premise of the show picks up the time line between the second and third movies, with Sarah and John on the run as fugitives from the law and hiding from any Terminator that may happen about, and of course, they do! I mean face it, it’s a terminator franchise, and not having a termi-bot or two running about would be ridiculous.