10 TV Shows That Lost MILLIONS Of Viewers (And Why)

Back when the Terminator trilogy was a thing, The Sarah Connor Chronicles became the first T2 sequel to disregard the third entry in the franchise (before that was the cool thing to do), and it brought the iconic film series to the small screen - where it was met by the 18 million people that watched its pilot episode. By the time the show was cancelled, however (following the conclusion of its second season), there were only 3 million people watching it.

It's hard to say exactly what caused Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles' rapid decline. Though it lost almost half its viewership between the first and second episodes, the remainder of the first season still found an impressive groove somewhere between 8 - 10 million. It was the space between it and the second season that ultimately undercut its success, because for some reason, they just never returned for Season 2.

You might suggest that the loss of 15 million viewers throughout its run had something to do with franchise fatigue, but the big pilot numbers refute that. For some reason, it just couldn't maintain all those eyeballs, and given that it's actually one of the more consistent post-T2 stories, that's a damn shame.