One of the current delights of the American TV output has been the continuing evolution and improvement of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, the spin-off TV show from The Terminator which – as our reviews have been discussing – has become one of our must-watch shows.

And yet there now seems to be a sporting chance that, after the first season was truncated by the writers’ strike at the end of 2007, that the second season may be cut short for other reasons. That’s because, in the light of disappointing ratings, it’s now believed that Fox bosses are shortly to make a call as to the future of the show. Or more specifically, the lack of it.

While ratings for The Sarah Connor Chronicles haven’t been great, it’s believed that the key driver behind any potential decision is one of Fox’s most lucrative ongoing shows, Prison Break. Ratings for the fourth season of the show have too been disappointing, and some of the blame for that has been put at the door of Sarah Connor. That’s because Fox’s Monday night schedule in the States starts with Sarah Connor, and then leads into Prison Break. The theory is thus that there’s not much holdover audience from the previous hour once the adventures of the perennial escapees kick in.

We’d argue, however, that Prison Break has done well to spin four seasons out of a single season premise, and that perhaps it’s time is up anyway. Our bigger concern though is that Sarah Connor is about to get added to the list of shows that died long before their time. Here’s hoping someone has the bottle to keep it going.